First my little finish. This is only about 1" x 2", so it's fairly small. I started it ages ago (doesn't that refrain sound familiar), and decided it was time to finish it. It's called "A Giving Heart" and the designer is Drawn Thread. It's actually a pin, but as I don't wear pins I will leave this in a little basket where I have lots of little finished needlework accessories on display. The nice thing about small projects is the instant gratification that comes with finishing them quickly.
Here's progress on current project #1. It's called "Toccata" and is also by Drawn Thread. Toccata is a musical term and has something to do with a free style compositions--much like this design, which is a showcase of various needlework stitches--some quite challenging. The one above is called "couching" which uses a gold thread (not fun to work with) and Soie Perlee (also not fun to work with) to hold down the gold thread neatly. I had a lot of trouble working with these materials, so this project has been sitting untouched for a while. Next stitch? The same thing, only the gold thread is horizontally laid down! Maybe I'll just jump ahead to the next motifs and come back to it later. Do you like my scissors? They're French and one of my most favorite pairs!
And progress on project #2. This is by "Goode Huswife" and is called "The Sampler Farm". I'm enjoying working on it, but if you see the tiny sunflower? That's stitched over one thread of linen. Very tiny. I'm not a very adept over-one stitcher and find the work a little bit tedious. In the end it will look really good, if I don't mess up the over one stitching. I'm hoping to intersperse the smaller stitches with the rest (which are easy--plain cross stitch). And I'm hoping to stay focused because if I get too frustrated it will end up in a bin under my bed not to be seen for years!
And here's my newest project. It's a freebie from Piecework Magazine, a simple Quaker heart. I'm not big on Valentine's Day as holiday's go, but I do like a lot of the cross stitch designs that are out there for it. Something else small that seems like it will stitch up quickly--hopefully more instant gratification. I was going to get creative and choose a really colorful floss to work with but in the end I decided on plain red, though this has a bit of variegation to it. Nothing else seemed quite as nice against the linen I chose. The back has more little Quaker motifs. Maybe if it really does stitch up fast I will make another with different floss to give away!