Country Tapestry: New Cross Stitch Start ..... House-Mouse Designs

So one of my facebook groups is doing a SAL concerning the four elements and I picked water and this little guy. He's in the spring section of Four Seasons of Cross-Stitch by House-Mouse Designs. They call him Maxwell and he's going to be trouble because I'm addicted to him already. Sooooo cute! I don't usually as a rule back stitch along as I go but for him I may do that. All that cute sticking out fur is back stitch work and of course you want to see his super cute face. I will have some pin stitching to do in this one also in the rain. Haven't done that in so long I can't remember the last time I did, if I ever have, so that may require some practice. He's quick enough to be something enjoyable but has enough challenge in him not to be boring, plus just look at that face. He's definitely going to have a place in the house.... I'm thinking he'll hang in the bathroom or laundry room. Probably the laundry room as I'm in there so much I'll get to enjoy him a lot and that way there's no fighting over which bathroom he gets to live in.

And so it begins..... had this 28 count white linen gridded up to do a Heaven and Earth pattern but decided to go with a 25 count for it so Maxwell had no delays in getting started as I already had the grid work done. He probably would have been just fine without gridding but I did already catch an opps on counting last night thanks to it. I would have caught it a couple rows down but who wants to frog out two rows when all you have to take out is one stitch. Definitely like to have my fabric gridded. I grid using Sulky Sliver and here I used gold. Advantages.... you don't have to worry about it leaving anything behind when you pull it out, it's easy to push to one side when you are working, and you can't pierce it with your needle so no thread residue or acrobatics when you do remove it at the end. A spool goes a long way and even on smaller count linens there's no stretching of the holes of the material. Very clean when you take it out and it really does pull out fast even if you do stitch over it in a spot or two.

Progress 10/21/2015