Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Just a Little Nuts

I'm a big fan of PRAIRIE SCHOOLER designs. I love just about every single design they've published, and as you might guess, have quite a few of their patterns. (I'm guessing you have a lot of them, too!)

Recently, I needed a small portable project to take in my project bag. I chose the latest fall series from PRAIRIE SCHOOLER, called "Fall Fields".


And per my love of all things miniature, I decided to work them on lt. caramel 24 ct. Congress Cloth so they would fit in the lovely little frames I have with small 2" x 2" openings. Here's the first one I've finished - the squirrel:


As you might have noticed by comparing with the leaflet above, the original pattern is rectangular in size, but my frame opening was square. So I thought I'd slightly enlarge the stitched area by adding more nuts in the lower left corner, to make it more squareish in appearance. I also added a simple backstitched outline around the image, to take up more of the frame space and give it a faux matted look.

Now that I have the squirrel done, I've started on the pheasant. These little designs are so fast and easy to work up, I'll probably do most (if not all) of them this fall. And I was pleasantly surprised to see that it only took two afternoons to finish the squirrel and also start on the pheasant.

And no, I'm not stitching these in full cross stitches. I prefer to use half cross stitches (or Tent or Basketweave Stitches) with 2 ply of DMC floss when I work on the finer 24 ct. Congress Cloth. It works up much faster than regular cross stitch, and I especially enjoy the quick results.

I really can't wait to get more of these little gems stitched... I'm definitely planning on having a turkey for Thanksgiving!

3 comments:

Cyn said...

Hi Laura,

Do I have any Prairie Schooler designs? Do I ever! And I'm not going to admit how many as I think I started buying them the first year they were available. Yes, back in the stone age. LOL!

Love how you stitched the squirrel and squared it up for the frame. Are you done with the pheasant yet? (She asks innocently). :-)

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Carol in Indian Springs Village said...

I have this leaflet and love your decision to do them in frames. Are those frames available to purchase somewhere? Great job and I also like the idea of doing them on congress cloth with the tent stitch. I might actually get them finished that way!

Dot Snow said...

Your squirrel turned out great!! I'm just starting to stitch my set up as a bell pull on linenband, and plan to enlarge the barn owl (extra design found on inside page of pamphlet) to match the size of the other animals. thanks for your post.