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I gave in and started my HAED, QS Oliana Otter. I'm stitching this design on 20 count Lugana using DMC floss. I had originally Fray-Checked the edges, but then got paranoid and loosely basted the sides. I tried double stranded tent stitching and cross stitching, but the first provided weak coverage and the later was too bulky. Hence, I'm stitching this piece 1x1 cross stitch.

Here's a picture of the design and the link for from the HAED website:



http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/index. ... ts_id=4964" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

I'll post pictures of my progress as I go along.

Oh she is very cute!!!!!

Beautiful design I love Hannah Lynn's art and have Butterfly Keeper on my wish list

The otter in this is beautiful, I love how he's waving a paw!

Louise

i love hannahs works look forward to progress pics!

I can't wait to see your progress

This is so cute! Looking forward to your progress.

Awww an otter!! I love it!
Faith

Well, here are the first pictures for my HAED. This chart calls for 90 colours, so there is a god awful amount of colour switching happening here. I wanted to do tent stitches, but that looks hideous on 20 count fabric, so I ended up doing 1x1 cross stitches, which gives a very pleasing coverage.



This is the picture of the HAED design, taken from the website.



In this picture, you can see my my floss, sorted and cut into 18" lengths. I need multiple skeins of black and peach floss, which is why you see those two laid in uncut bundles. I used orange cotton sewing thread to grid my fabric. The edges of the canvas are finished with FrayChek, but because I was feeling paranoid, I went ahead and hemmed the edges.



In this picture you can see my overall progress. I like to work in colour blocks, and then fill in the confetti by anchoring onto existing stitches. I tried the parking method, but it drove me nuts and was promptly abandoned. (In the bottom right of the photo, you can see my big toe. )



In this picture, you can see a close up of my most worked area. It is the tree trunk and bushes in the top corner of the HAED.



In this picture, you will see that I have started to work on Oliana's face. Right now she looks like a toddler with liquorish on her few existing teeth. Hopefully she'll look better once I've filled in the confetti stitches.



In this picture, you can see a close up of the trees on the top left corner. Again, I have a lot of work to do on this part.



Lastly, in this picture you will see that I have started working on the otter. Right now it just looks like a brown blob.

Well, there you have it! My progress thus far on my first HAED! I'm off to do some more stitching...

Fantastic work!!!!!!!

I really enjoyed your in depth coverage of the project. I think it's looking great!
Faith

Super progress! Well done

Wonderful beginning! Looking forward to seeing it progress!

Great start!

You're doing great! Lovely start!

Nachstenliebe wrote:I really enjoyed your in depth coverage of the project. I think it's looking great!
Faith

bert wrote:Wow! It's looking great Loved how you explained what everything was and how you were working through it

Thanks for the support everyone! I'm glad you enjoyed my explanations. The HAED is really starting to take shape.

Its a lovely design capricious but I can't see your photos?

nettie wrote:Its a lovely design capricious but I can't see your photos?

That's odd. Maybe you could try a different browser? The images are showing just fine on all three browsers that I typically use: Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.

Great start, I love this design!!!

Cute design & your making great progress