My Green & Purple Project

One of the best things about reading stitching blogs is: you can get inspired to stitch something you would have never otherwise attempted, just because you see someone stitching it on their blog. Such is the case with my current "fun" project.

I became absolutely smitten with the "Strawberry Basket" pattern the SPINSTER STITCHER was working on recently, and followed her growing progress with great anticipation. I just loved seeing the little lazy daisy leaves, the blushing red berries, the randomly placed alphabet grow on her fabric. AND I WANTED TO STITCH THAT PATTERN TOO!

You see, reading Coni's blog got me all excited about Blackberry Designs, a design company I had never really LOOKED AT very closely. But once I read Coni's enthusiasm for her project, it got ME excited too. And so I did some exploring on the internet to see what other designs were available from Blackberry Designs -- and along the way, I found lots of other stitchers working on more of those designs.

Well, by then I figured a trip to the stitchery store was needed.... So I went to my local stitchery store to peruse their cross-stitch pattern section. There were several patterns from Blackbird Designs, and the one I found (instead of the strawberry one) was a lovely faded purple and goldish green sampler called "Happy Birthday." Oooooh, that was lovely too - and it perfectly fit my green & purple mood....


Well, of course I've changed a few things..... First, I'm stitching it on 24 ct. cream Congress Cloth. I love cross stitch, but don't have the time/patience to do all those little xxxx's. So I substitute half-xxx's instead (which I figure saves me half the stitching time!) Here's what I've stitched thus far:


I'm using some Overdyed Floss in a suitably faded taupey grey/green and thistle purple. I've also got a bit of Waterlilies, "Hyacinth" for accent (I've stitched the bird - and the ric rac border around the verse with Hyacinth straight stitches to give it a bit more border color), plus a very subdued Sparkle Rays metallic for the little stars sprinkled thruout the design.

And I'm NOT including the big initials or the Happy Birthday script at the bottom of the verse. Instead, I've slightly altered the verse to fit in the space, which makes the box shorter and the birthday verse becomes a more universal blessing that will fit nicely with my other samplers.

I'm ready to fit the rest of the thistles on the side, plus add the cute little houses on the bottom. And then I'll be done with my new little old-looking green & purple project! How fun is that?!?

[Aside to SPINSTER STITCHER Coni: Many Thanks, Coni, for stitching that Strawberry Basket so beautifully in the first place, and getting me jazzed about a new project. I'll be sure to look for more Blackbird Designs in the future, thanks to you!]