Blossoming Spring Is Not a Cherry Blossom - Opps

Hey everyone, hope you are all having a good, craft filled week so far. As the title suggests this is an update on Blossoming Spring. I was looking through the book/magazine that this chart is from the other night and noticed that this isn't actually a cherry blossom tree, it's a Japanese crab apple tree. This doesn't at all change how I feel about this project. Both cherry blossom and Japanese crab apples are stunning and this is a gorgeous chart.

Blossoming Spring - Japanese Crab Apple - Sheila Hudson

I managed some progress on the top right set of blossoms and frogged some of the grass that was incorrect, just to get it done. I actually stitched another section on this but had to frog it as it was in the wrong position. I am beginning to think that little frog has taken a permanent liking to me, either that or I need to pay more attention while stitching.

I am hoping to get the cluster I had to rip re-stitched today. Thankfully this is all full cross stitch, no partials or back stitching. I'm working on this in a hoop, which is a little small for the entire design, therefore I am leaving some of the stitching from the left hand side until the rest of the pattern is done. This is to avoid having the hoop over the existing stitches, I may even stitch those sections in hand when the time comes.

Elegance of the Orient has also grown a little, I will be posting on her later this week so keep an eye out for that. Until then, have a great week all.

YOTA Sept 2015 - My Cheat Post

Well first of all this post is late, and secondly the piece I have been stitching on is not my chosen YOTA piece, though it is a UFO so I don't feel so bad about not making progress on Elegance of the Orient.

For anyone who has missed my Elegance of the Orient progress you can see my last post on it here: HAP SAL and YOTA Update - HAED Bridge of Wings & Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient 

Over the last couple of weeks I have managed to make some good progress on Blossoming Spring. Last week I posted my progress on this project for the first time in almost a year *cringe* This is where I had gotten to in my last post.

Blossoming Spring - Sheila Hudson from The Ultimate Forest Friends Cross Stitch Collection

I found that I was having so much fun stitching this that I continued on with it during the week and am delighted to say that it has grown.

Blossoming Spring - Sheila Hudson from The Ultimate Forest Friends Cross Stitch Collection

Now that I have figured out a system for working on the blossoms I find myself  rather enjoying the colour changes and wandering stitching. I have always loved blossom trees and when I saw this chart I just knew I had to stitch it.

Blossoming Spring - Sheila Hudson from The Ultimate Forest Friends Cross Stitch Collection

Have you ever seem a chart of something you have always loved and knew you just HAD to stitch it?  Please do let me know in the comments below.

Blossoming Tree - Has finally grown

Over the weekend something wonderful happened, I was sitting at home trying to think about what I might do for the day, watch TV, read a book, play a game? Then an oh so wonderful feeling came over me, the urge to cross stitch. I was so happy to see my desire to stitch those little crosses that I let it guide me in the choice of project. Thanksfully it didn't lead to a new start but instead suggested a WIP which had received no attention in a long while; Blossoming Tree by Sheila Hudson.

Blossoming Tree - Sheila Hudson from The Ultimate Forest Friends Cross Stitch Collection

Now I would be misleading you all if I were to say that I managed all the additional stitching this weekend. I had put a small number of stitches into this piece between now and my last post.
Check out my last post on this to see the difference: ISHW Late Report.

I decided to start this project because I thought it would be a nice change from my large cross stitch pieces. While it is a small-medium sized piece, it never gave me the break I had been looking for, as the stitches are very scattered. The tree trunk and grass is the closest to block stitching in this chart.

Blossoming Tree - Sheila Hudson from The Ultimate Forest Friends Cross Stitch Collection

The stitches that make up the blossom effect wander all over the chart making it more time consuming and needing large amounts of concentration. This technique gives the tree a beautiful effect which I absolutely love but it just didn't satisfy my need for something easy and relaxing, which would deliver a relatively swift finish, between the larger projects. This resulted in it being put to the side for the best part of a year.

So when it popped into my mind as the project I wanted to work on this weekend I was delighted to make some progress on it. Even though it's a concentration heavy cross stitch, I have found myself really enjoying working on it and creating that wonderful soft blossom effect.

I am stitching Blossoming Tree on 28ct Brittney Evenweave in Snowy Skies from Sparklies Hand Dyed Fabric. I decided to use this fabric for this project as it was lighter than I had expected and I thought it would work well as the background for this project. I'm using DMC thread, though the completed stitch in the bookzine is Anchor, 2 over 2.

Let me know how you would tackle such a project, would you have used a different fabric or the Anchor threads? Use the comment section below to give your thoughts.

Update: The title of this chart is actually Blossoming Spring not Blossoming Tree as I have accidentally referred to it in this post.

SFS August

It's SFS time again. This month I actually had a very easy time of avoiding spending any money on stash as I had all my cards cancelled due to the theft of my bag!

Amount Spent: $0.00

New Starts from Stash: Blossoming Spring - The Ultimate Forest Friends Collection - Sheila Hudson

WIPs or UFOs worked on: Somebunny to Love - The World of Cross Stitching Issue 179 & Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient.

Piccies:

Blossoming Spring - The Ultimate Forest Friends Collection - Sheila Hudson

Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient.

Somebunny to Love - The World of Cross Stitching Issue 179

My stitching has been a bit slow of late so not a huge amount of progress this month but not too bad :) Hope everyone had a great SFS.