I’ve just got up to date with both the cross-stitch-a-longs I’m doing (seemed a good idea at the time!!) I’m just in time as the next part for the Zoe SAL is published tomorrow.
The Zoe Box is a stitch-a-long by Faby Reilly, last time I shared it with you I had just done the cross-stitch on the fourth side. Each side represents a different season and this was autumn….

I knew I’d made one mistake as my very first stitch on this section was one square out! I anticipated just doing a little adaptation with the back-stitch at the beginning and end, to make sure the branch would be continuous with winter when it all went together.
Well I don’t know how but nearly every leaf seemed to be in the wrong place!! I had made so many mistakes, but luckily as some of the leaves were falling I could fudge it! I did lots of fudging!!

The squirrel is very cute, luckily he draws the eye away from all the mistakes! I love all the different stitches in Faby’s designs, the ones that look like pine cones are spiders web stitch (I think) Next we will be stitching the inside of the box, two sections in a fortnight, so there can’t be as much stitching. Here’s all four sides together…

My second stitch-a-long is by Tempting Tangles, it’s called Enlightenment and is meant to be all about trees with a zen saying. The colours are beautiful, the pattern calls for four Dinky Dye threads, which are gorgeous, I bought two of them, the designer also gives DMC alternatives so that’s what I’ve mainly used for the other two colours.

I say ‘mainly’ as DMC 3847 seemed awfully dark when I put them together. When I was stitching the first part I didn’t fancy the big ‘tree’ in the dark green, so I found a De Vere thread which is just a shade lighter. It was sort of in between 3847 and 3848. It does look pretty perfect…

I decided to vary between the three threads over the sampler.
This time there was another tree, so I used the darker thread and it does look dark! I’ve stuck with it and so long as I use it in a couple of other places in the sampler it will look fine! I’ve stitched a couple of stitches into next weeks section as I can’t be doing with single stitches when I don’t need to, if it’s wrong then I’ll just have to unpick it!

This is an eighth of the sampler completed. Tempting Tangles is a new designer to me, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. I love the colours, especially in the border. It will be about 8″ square when it’s finished, I’m still not sure if it will be a cushion or framed.
Well I can’t spot any of the mistakes you’re talking about, and I know this pattern really pretty well, haha!! I promise you they don’t show – you’ve done an absolute sterling job, as always 🙂
I love the colours in your Tempting Tangles piece too ♥
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Thanks Faby, you’re too kind! I’ll try and concentrate on the next bit, it looks gorgeous 🙂
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When I do cross stitch I think my mistakes ( which I can’t see on your work) are what makes my effort a unique piece of work. The colours on the second project are amazing. I just want to know how you manage to do so much.
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That’s a good way of looking at ‘variations’ from the pattern! I think I seem to do a fair bit because I rarely just sit and do nothing (maybe I should do more of that!) just this morning I did half an hours cross-stitch at 8am whilst my breakfast tea was cooling. I also don’t do as much housework as perhaps I should 🙂 Others would probably have been loading the dishwasher etc whilst tea was cooling!
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Such beautiful cross stitch!
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Thank you 🙂
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I missed seeing all your sweet stitching while I was on blogging hiatus 🙂
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Glad you’re back again 🙂
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both projects are looking great and that squirrel is very cute!
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I so agree! Just love the leaf colours, too!
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Thanks Del, I love the leaf colours in both projects 🙂
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Thanks Claire, he is a cutie 🙂
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I love the change of seasons across the same branch! Those teals are quite glorious!
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It’s a lovely design, we’ve just got the next sections which are inside the box and they are so cute!!!
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Looking good!
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Hi lovely work – you’re correct about the squirrel drawing the eye – he/she is so cute! Not that I can see any mistakes – anyway it makes your work unique.
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