March isn't even here yet but...

I've already assembled my floss toss. I found the list of flosses called for on ABC Stitch Therapy where I'm getting the auto ship of the cottages. March is on it's way and I can't wait to start on it, with a few changes. Here is the original floss toss...

The prescribed colors are okay, for some reason I had it my head that the greens were a bit greener in the sample photo. The pink I thought was more peach, which after February I was actually liking the peach color. So I made a few substitutions that I think I will stick with when I start stitching. Here is my alternative floss toss...

I've swapped out 3347 for Weeks Dye Works Envy, as well as swapping 3348 the lighter green for DMC 704. I thought they were a bit brighter. For the pink DMC 947 I switched to DMC 352 which is much more peachy than pink which I like. The DMC 744 is now swapped out for DMC Variations 4100 which still has some yellow but also some of the same peach colors as the DMC 352. I kept the WDW Pecan and the white and dark DMC 3031. These may change if I start stitching and it seems off but hopefully they'll come together the way I'm hoping.

I also made a start on my Ink Circles Love Letters Art Nouveau. I participate on their SAL Blog and had fallen off a couple of months stitching Cottages. When March gets here I'll just rotate.

February Cottage Finish!

February is all done, at least in the stitching department. I need to actually start framing some of these soon. I'm a serial stitch finisher but then leave it to sit in a ziplock till it gets framed for way too long. Hopefully before I get March finished I'll have January and February in their final finishes. I must say I'm loving the DMC Variations I used for this. I've used lots of different vareigated thread in the past but these were just as good as the more expensive hand dyed fibers I'm used to using. I hear there are new colors coming out that I'll have to get. Anyway March should be here in the next week and I hope to get it underway soon.

February Progress part 2

February Cottage progress

Here is my progress so far with February. I am considering using a rhodes heart stitch on the border..

January Cottage of the Month Finish!

Just a few more stitches and it's all done! I still have to mount it to a board and finish it to hang. I have a wood perpetual calendar that needs to be painted but till then I'll keep these to make into hanging boards. I love this series and I can't wait to get March. I'll start February today I think.

 Details of the snowflakes. The second one is a bit blurry but it shows the sparkles.

The snowman has a bit of shine as well as I used a bit of DMC 5727 white pearlescent thread. I don't recommend it for this only in that it was super hard to work with. It was far stiffer than the Glissen Gloss Rainbow blending thread in #000. That was easy to use as most blending threads are.

Home stretch!

I think I'll get this finished up today.I also found a photo app called ZoomFX to use on my smartphone that doesn't pixelate the evenweave in pics.

More progress and some sparkle

Cannot seem to put down January Cottage yet. I wanted to add some sparkle to the snowflakes so I'm adding Rainbow blending thread in #000 (pearlescent white).


*edited to add I've been uploading photos from my camera phone and for some reason it really pixelates the fabric. I'll take more pics with my actual camera and upload, they look much better sorry!

Let the crazy begin!

I have started exactly ONE project, terrible I know but the new year has been a busy one so far. I started small too with the Country Cottage Needleworks January Cottage of the Month. I joined that SAL and am really loving the monthly charts. I received February's chart just yesterday along with fabric and specialty threads. Here is my progress for one day...