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I've got my eye on this http://europeanxs.com/cgi-bin/chat_detail.pl?CDDM-" target="_blank

It would be my first ever Chatelaine and I'm hoping for some guidance from the pros here. So far I've only seen this one on European Cross Stitch's web site - is this best place to order the pattern? For those who have purchased from them, is it more cost effective to buy the supplies in their kits or purchase supplies myself from other sources? Seems like these designs are not only big but a bit of a money investment and I want to make sure I take my time and save myself any hassles, so any advice is more than welcome!

Ooh, I love Desert Mandala, it's so pretty! I think you can only get the pattern from ECC actually. Unless you find someone who has a hard copy chart for sale. It's MUCH better to stitch Chats from PDFs though - you can either stitch right from your tablet or computer or enlarge it and print out sections as you get to them... I bought a hard copy chart one time and ended up ordering the PDF too because the printed chart was so small I couldn't read it.

As far as supplies, I've found it a lot less to order the kits from ECC. I was impatient one time and kitted it myself at my LNS and I think I spent $75 or $100 more than the kit cost. But I was impatient and it was taking awhile to get kits from ECC at the time. Wish I had waited now, lol as I haven't even started that one yet!

Have you joined the Chatelaine Yuku board yet? There are threads of all the current patterns and archives of all the older patterns with WIP photos and tips, etc on each one. Be warned though, once you see them actually stitched, you may become addicted

Can't wait to watch you stitching Desert, it's definitely on my wishlist!

Welcome to the club! I am a huge Chatelaine addict and echo everything Dana said! ECC is Martina's official supplier and so you can only purchase PDF charts from here once they have finished as online classes. PDFs are definitely the way to go with these charts as they are so detailed, sometimes I've had to enlarge them by 500% on screen to see what I am doing and I have pretty good eyesight! As you are in the US, ECC will be the cheapest place to get your supplies all at once, Cindy is a lovely lady to deal with! I always buy my bead packs and sometimes hard to find threads from her (I'm in the UK) - there can be delays on getting some material packs from ECC but that is down to suppliers and dyeing time turnaround. If there is a long wait, on request, Cindy will send on what she has so you can get started with something!

As Dana said you will be able to see WIPs/finishes for Desert Mandala on the Yuku Board. It is a great place to see photos of the actual designs as the computerised images could never do the designs justice!

If you have any more questions just shout - I look forward to seeing another Chat on the forum!

Thanks for that tip about getting the pdf files. I am about to order a kit or two and I was choosing the chart format, I am going to change that now to pdfs. I have so many of these patterns that I want to do I just need to keep restraint and only get what I can afford. Here's another question for all you Chatelaine experts. Any tips on working with the silk threads? So far in my stitching life I have only worked with DMC cottons and metallic a bit. Are they very different? Are they easier than cotton to work with or more difficult?

Thank you.

I'm bias as I love stitching with silks - there are other stitchers that hate them! IMHO silks are a dream to work with and glide through the fabric. The only thing I would say is that you need to have nice smooth soft hands to work with them as they can snag quite easily - but a good hand cream (like udder cream) can sort that out.

I haven't done a Chatelaine (yet ), but I have worked with silk threads numerous times now. I'm like Amanda, I love them! Every once in a while, I get a strand that wants to be finicky and knot itself, but that happens to me with other types of threads, too. Most of the time, they are exquisite to work with. In fact, I just recently kitted up for the Around the World in 80 stitches SAL, and I'm using all silks. It was quite a bit more expensive than if I had used DMC, or even overdyed threads, but I love them.

I wouldn't use silks for everything, but for special projects like a Chatelaine, I think they're perfect.

Thanks to Dana and Amanda for the Chatelaine advice. I've been mulling it over whether I want to go down this road or not. Guess it's time to look at the site again to see if any are calling to me.

I bought my first Chat from there (only a few months ago)! And there was a wait to get everything from her suppliers, but she emailed over the pdf so I could go buy the DMC it asked for before everything else was mailed. I was super pleased with everything!

Also, the silks are very nice! I'm afraid I'm going to totally mess up and have to order more though. It probably won't happen, but I'm extra careful with them.

I just love desert mandala Tracy, it's definitely on my wish list!!
If I could throw a spanner in the works, whilst I LOVE working with silks the cost for me is prohibitive. I've just started my first Chat BAP (Herbularius) and with the exception of two variegated silks for which there is no DMC equivalent I've subbed out everything I can with DMC. I wish, wish, wish I could justify spending so much on silks, but with two little kiddywinks and working part time I'm afraid the resources just aren't there yet. What I'm trying to say is don't be put off doing a Chatelaine if you can't afford the silks or are afraid of using them, as DMC is a really viable alternative

jocellogirl wrote:What I'm trying to say is don't be put off doing a Chatelaine if you can't afford the silks or are afraid of using them, as DMC is a really viable alternative

I wholeheartedly agree - Martina's designs are outstanding, regardless of what materials you choose to use! As someone who has stitched Chat BAPs both ways, I can honestly say you can't tell the difference - the end result is the same, a gorgeous piece of needleart.