Ain't it purty??! I finished it two days ago. The backstitching wasn't nearly as much as I thought it was; the pattern relies a lot on areas of different color for its detail, instead of a lot of backstitching. I've done some projects where the backstitching took me almost as long as the cross-stitching, and when I was completely done with the cross-stitch, you still had no idea what it would look like when it was done because the backstitching was so important. I kind of like doing a lot of backstitching; it's easy and quick, and it's fun to watch the design emerge from shapeless blobs of stitching.

What I really liked about this project was the number of French knots. All of the "leaves" on the two trees in the pattern are done with French knots; I probably did over 100 of them. I used to hate doing French knots because I didn't know how. Then somewhere when I was about 15, the summer we lived at my grandparents' home, I figured it out in a flash of inspiration. Ever since then I love to do them. This time as I was doing them my floss kept getting knotted, and that was annoying as hell, but it turned out well.

Now I just have to get it professionally framed. It's a really odd shape, so I don't want to attempt it on my own. I'll wait till I have a Michael's or Joann's coupon, though. No sense in paying full price for it.

So now it's off to another project (click on the image to see a larger version). As you can see, I do a lot of kits. It's just easiest for me because I can run into the garage, grab another kit, and start a new project on the spur of the moment. Otherwise I'm running to Michael's to get more fabric and floss and the whole nine yards. I do have a large floss collection, though -- two whole floss organizers full. This kit uses DMC floss, the highest quality of mass-market floss you can buy. You can get hand-dyed stuff that's better quality, but that's not readily available.

This one should be fun; it's a LOT of black, though. I have 50 lengths of black in this kit, and all the black stitches take 3 strands of floss per stitch, as opposed to all the other stitches which take only 2 strands. Art asked me yesterday how long this one will take me; I'm guessing I should have it done by Thanksgiving, although I'm hoping for Halloween. Janlynn, the company that made this kit, has some really awesome seasonal sampler kits that I'm dying to get and stitch. They're somewhat Victorian in nature because the design is so busy. I love that there are four of them for each season. I'll have to wait till I have a 40% coupon at Michael's before I get them... I hate paying full price for my kits!