I have fallen in love with this - GOT IT!!!

[Mabel Figworthy]

What a lovely surprise! I bet you'll enjoy kitting up for it almost as much as actually stitching it

[lucyloo34]

Yippee What an awesome friend

[rcperryls]

I am so glad that you got the chart and can't wait to see you stitching it. It is so lovely. What a wonderful friend you have to surprise you with this.

Carole

[chalicedhearts]

Vanessa, congrats on getting your chart and having such a wonderful friend. That is a really beautiful picture and will look really awesome when complete. I cant wait to see the progress pics so hurry and get it kitted up. lol.

[Carole]

How fantastic
Now you have another lovely design to stitch. Can't wait to see it started!

[tiffstitch]

That's wonderful!! What a great friend.

[JennsD]

What a wonderful friend and exciting suprise! I can't wait to see the progress once it starts.

[Evedeve]

Lucky Lucky lucky - it is gorgeous - can't wait to see your progress on it for lovely friends who spoil us

[LadyS]

What a wonderful kit! And we get to see you do your magic with it!

[Lessa54]

Oh wow! Your friend is a What a lovely surprise and we can't wait to see you start

[Cecilia]

This will certainly be a challenge to stitch.

What a great friend you have.

[vanessanjf]

This will certainly be a challenge to stitch.

What a great friend you have.

I do like a challenge!!!

[Nachstenliebe]

Dreams do come true!
Faith

[OctoberLace]

Vanessa,

I'm so glad you were gifted with this lovely chart. I plan to start my first Golden Kite piece, Sophie Anderson's The Turtle Dove, as soon as I finish Gigi R's Belles-Lettres D. I recently bought that and two other charts, Madame Rimsky-Korsakov and Miranda, taking advantage of their 30% off discount for ordering three or more. The discount was equal to the price of one chart, so I essentially got one for free.

Theresa

[vanessanjf]

They are lovely charts you have picked. I will look forward to watching you start them

[CayenneCat]

Vanessa and OctoberLace - I'd love to hear from both of you once you start your Golden Kite designs how the blending of floss goes. I've never done a design with blended thread, and it sounds a little intimidating.

[Lessa54]

Vanessa and OctoberLace - I'd love to hear from both of you once you start your Golden Kite designs how the blending of floss goes. I've never done a design with blended thread, and it sounds a little intimidating.

Cayenne, I'm doing a Scarlet Quince which is similarly notorious to Golden Kite for using large numbers of blended threads - I've got about 8-10 solid colours and everything else is blended (between about 130 different floss colours ). It really isn't too bad to work with though. I have all my individual floss colours on project cards with their numbers. The chart is symbols like any other chart and it might say "& 372-3680" which means that the symbol & is to be stitched with one strand of 372 and one of 3680. You just put one strand of each colour together and stitch as normal. If I have any floss left over, I have another set of project cards marked with the symbols by each hole, plus the floss numbers for the symbol and I put the remainder of the blend on there so I'm not constantly preparing new blends.

The main issues are that it's good to railroad your stitches as a twisted blend can look quite obvious, especially if they're two very different colours together. Also, if you're fond of the loop start, you can't use that with blended threads. The stitches are just the same though, lots of little crosses.

[OctoberLace]

Vanessa and OctoberLace - I'd love to hear from both of you once you start your Golden Kite designs how the blending of floss goes. I've never done a design with blended thread, and it sounds a little intimidating.

I've recently worked out stitching 2-handed while using a trolley needle to lay my threads. I'm using that for the sampler I'm stitching with 2 threads, so I should be able to do the same with the blended threads. The GK design I've chosen for my first project is actually a smaller one, with The Turtle Dove being just 210x247 stitches. I'm going to use 36 ct fabric stitched 2x2, so the design area will be 11 5/8" x 13 3/4". Madame Rimsky-Korsakov is of similar size at 200x260 stitches, with Miranda somewhat larger at 299x356.

Theresa

[Juel]

Wow, that design is just amazing!!!
I love looking at Golden Kites and when I grow up (being 21 doesn't means that I stopped growing forever, don't say that, it has to be a lie) I will hopefully be able to stitch a Golden Kite, too.
You really have an amazing friend and I am so looking forward to see your work on this wonderful design =)

200 colors... I think I own about 200 colors.. for all my (to be) started projects together...