…mighty oaks do grow

I’ve developed a bit of a bad habit over the last twelve months of finishing a piece of needlework and then not doing anything with it, my pile of things waiting to ‘finished’ is growing. Though I think any bad habits picked up in 2020 (like home made jam tarts!!) are completely acceptable! Anyway, I decided to complete this little piece as soon as I had stitched it…

This is another facebook destash buy, from the same lady I bought the strawberry pot from, I think I bought about four different charts and kits from her! This one is called Acorn Sampler, it’s by Elizabeth Designs circa 2001. It included all the charms too.

I started this when I was self isolating before I went into hospital the first time, I used a mixture of recommended threads (DMC ones) and substituted Weeks Dye works ones for variegated ones I had in my stash. I stitched it on a light green linen. The chart was simple to follow, I like the variety of stitches – the tall tree on the right is rice stitch, the oak leaves and the acorns are satin stitch. It was fairly quick to work but I ran out of the DMC thread with about twenty half cross-stitches of the dark green borders to go!! Very frustrating!

With a new skein in my possession I finally got round to finishing it yesterday, adding all the charms and beads too. I like it, it’s simple but pretty.

I hunted through my quilting fabrics for a fabric I remembered having, it was large oak leaves on a blue background. I couldn’t find it anywhere, I even hunted through my scrap boxes! In the end I settled on my second choice, the bumble bee fabric which I’ve used quite a lot for cross-stitch smalls, the colours just seem to work, it picked out the greens and the blue of the writing. I rummaged in my trimmings drawer and the only one that worked was a variegated grey ric-rac.

Having tried to machine sew the ric-rac round so I would just have a border of ‘humps’ I realised it was not going to be as easy as it looked to get a neat finish. Out came the seam ripper! At this point I was thinking of making a twisted cord from DMC threads. I stitched the basic cushion on the machine, turned and stuffed it. Whilst I was slip-stitching the turning gap closed I noticed a bobbin of what I would call chenille thread sitting under my sewing machine. It was the perfect colours, greens, brown, grey, a real woodland mix.

I couched it round to give a sort of scalloped edge and added a bead at each couching point. I fashioned a little bow at the join with a line of beads over the middle.

I really like it, for a cross-stitch small it’s probably as big as I would want to go as it’s just over 5″ square, it would have looked lovely framed too but I’m rapidly running out of available wall space! At the moment it is on display in my sewing room.