Crossstitchforum - A FREE forum for Cross Stitchers

Well - I started! Most of the tree trunk. I'm using the blue selection, and the trunk is a kind of silvery-beige-ish colour, and the linen is Zweigart cream evenweave, very soft.



You can see this one better, but the colour is not right.



This one is kinda foggy, but the colour is closer to true.

I had to frog one part of the roots, but happily the fabric is soft and very forgiving! I don't think you can see where it was frogged!

I shall use the tree trunk colour for the owl, and for the backstitching of the rabbit - which I intend to do white - stealing the bi-colour idea from another person's Tree (I have to check who's it was, then I can give her the credit properly!)

Edit: Just checked at The stitch Specialists, and it's Carol Lynn's Tree with the bi-colout rabbit. I love it!

so pretty, and such a lovely start. i'm happy for you that you decided to do this. i look forward to your updates. and you're right, can't see the frogged area...

good start. I really like your choice of fabric and can't wait to see your updates.

Carole

Yay! Fantastic start- I love the fabric you've chosen it looks really pretty

great start and I love the look of your fabric. Looking forward to your next update

Lovely start! I think it will be gorgeous with the blues!

Your colour selections are lovely, the blue is gorgeous but I think my favourite is the one with creams greens and burgundies. Looking forward to your variety of trees!

Thanks for your nice comments, everyone!

And thanks, Mabel! I'm looking forward to that one, too! It will be next after this one - always supposing this one is successful, of course - but even if it isn't - the next effort will be better, yes?

Anyway:



Smyrna stitch done in two shades of green - the under stitch darker than the upper; I feel quite extraordinarily proud of myself!

However... I then went on to attempt the french knots and totally messed up with the placement, so I stopped in mid-flow! Trying to decide whether to take them out and start over, or whether I can 'rescue' the effect by modifying the catkins to a more graceful appearance. Either way, I'm going to set the eyelets before I do anything with them cos having them there will help me to locate the rest more accurately, at least!



What I do like about them, however - even though it is overambitious for a total novice at this sort of thing and is probably why I messed up the placements - is the effect of using 4 different colours in the catkins - plain blue, blue/white, blue/grey-blue, and white/grey-blue.

The colours all appear darker than in reality, except the fabric, which looks dull!

It looks great to me, and those colors are fantastic! I messed up placement on mine too and just modified the rest to suit what I had already done.

I think it looks great--love your colors a lot and I definitely can't wait to see your next update

LadyS wrote:It looks great to me, and those colors are fantastic! I messed up placement on mine too and just modified the rest to suit what I had already done.

me too. And a few of my french knots were really bad, but mostly because of placement issues which got me flustered. I figure they can be fixed later on. I love what you did with the smyrna crosses.

Carole

You are all so encouraging! Thank you! I really don't fancy removing french knots!

Love the marbled effect that the double colors are giving it is fantastic!!!! Since it is a tree is the placement really that crucial?????? Other then geting a balanced stitch area.

Wow! Lovely!

I love your colour scheme. Its gorgeous

very pretty!!!

Great start. Your Smyrna stitch is beautiful. You're tempting me to have a go at this myself and I have way too many projects on the go as it is...

Beautiful colours, it is looking beautiful already

pretty!!

The effect on the Smyrna stitch is inspired And in the French knot catkins I don't really think placement is that vital, as long as they have a nice flow, which they do!