Praatjes vullen geen gaatjes.....

.....but you can sure do a lot of chatting while filling the little holes on Long Dog's 'Words Alone'.

For anyone who has not stitched a Long Dog Sampler I can highly recommend it. For me there were actually only two boring designs in the entire pattern - the lion and the lamb. That is because you are thoughtlessly stitching back and forth on these. My favorite designs were the church and the cabinet. There was one thing about the cabinet which didn't ring true to me - the vase flanked by two candle holders. I believe the Dutch kaststel is always composed of three vases with the center one covered. Anyway I left that as is as I didn't want to mess with the pattern.

Why orange you say? Well since this is a Dutch sampler I figured it should either be stitched in Delft blue or House of Orange orange. Now I'm really not an orange person but I love the effect on the antique white and never got tired of stitching with DMC 720.

'Words Alone' by Long Dog Samplers
stitched 1/1 on 25 ct antique white lugana with DMC 720
started 11/08/2011 - completed 02/24/2012

I really should be spending more time my HAED and I certainly will in the coming months but when I received Berta's gift I couldn't resist starting it ASAP. Here it is as of this afternoon.


I am stitching the entire pattern 1/1 on 18ct giving a lovely watercolor effect. In the instances where two colors are to be used I stitch half the cross with one color and the other with - you guessed it - the other. You can see this in the pale yellow/green and turquoise combination below.


That's all for the moment. I hope everyone is well and enjoying the smell of spring in the air.