- Pattern by Maria Diaz in Cross Stitcher October 2019, also on designer's website
- Materials: Ale opalescent Cashel by Picture this Plus, DMC, RG Petite Treasure Braid, Kreinik, DMC Diamante
- Size: 8.5 x 12.5 inches
- Time to stitch: 7 days since November 2023
Presenting my first sizable finish of the year! I am thrilled to have it done so early in the year; I made it a focus for the first quarter, doing 4,000 stitches in January, and ~3,600 in February was enough to finish.
The pattern is really well done, the verse is cute, the font is fun, and all the elements are lovely. I think a few more fractional stitches should have been charted though, "messy" backstitch is my pet peeve. I added some quarter stitches as I went along. As for backstitching, there's over a thousand between the words and elements. But the backstitching on the pictorial elements is limited and used to great effect. The project is rather quick stitch, 42 hours it claims in the magazine and I think it took me a little less, with the equivalent of 7 stitchy days to finish (I generally stitch less than 6 hours in a day). In any case, my total stitch count was 9,320 (backstitch counted for half). I typically get around 300 stitches in an hour, so that would be 31 hours.
As for materials, I chose to use opalescent Ale Cashel, a medium brown. All the colors popped, and I think it's prettier than the "Dirty" aida that was used in the model. The fabric was considerably shrunken, and it was a little difficult to see the threads at times with all the sparkle. The chart called for DMC light effects, which aren't my cup of tea. I substituted black Kreinik #4 for the text, white Kreinik for the eyes, white Petite Treasure braid and black Diamanté for the backstitching. About 20 colors of DMC used, including 2 colors of Etoile. Actually I only used 1, the 725 (orange). Black Etoile is also on the key but I didn't see it on the chart. My magazine was a digital copy from Zino, and the picture quality could have been higher. The chart was in color and it was difficult to discern some of the dark symbols, they all looked very similar. No big loss, I think my project is plenty sparkly between the metallics threads and the opalescent fabric.
My favorite element is probably the haunted house with the door slightly ajar; how ominous. There's quite a collection of avians, between the vulture, the bat, the raven, and the massive owl. And I adore the black cats with their glowing eyes, some stretching sinuously, ready to pounce, with others looking out. The poison apples are colorful, the apples would be delicious but for that dangerous poison spilling all over! The smiling jack o lanterns are welcoming and the witch hat is an artful nod to the supernatural; the spiders are suitably creepy. The overall effect is clever and cute, rather than scary.
Overall, it was a really fun stitch, nothing too fussy, a lovely color palette and many engaging details. I love the aesthetic, and need to stitch more designs by Maria Diaz.
What a fabulous finish! Will you be framing it? Plenty of time before Halloween to fully finish.
Posted by: Astrid | April 04, 2024 at 11:08 PM