Stitchers are the best!

Every year about this time a wish list is started on the 123Stitch MB, in which people post any stitching wish and grant wishes, either from their stash, by ordering items or sending a gift certificate. It's really a mood-booster to see the generosity of stitchers, as some pretty hard-to-find charts/items are gifted.

My wish this year was a long-shot, as I wanted to borrow someone's Witches Hollow by The Primitive Needle. This chart is hard to come by, and sells in the $150 range on eBay, which I just couldn't bring myself to pay. I'm not even a big fan of primitive designs, but something about this one really struck my fancy; the motifs and colors used just called to me. :)

Amazingly enough, a fellow stitcher offered to lend the chart to me (thanks Teresa!!), and it arrived last week. Here is my start on it:

With a close-up of the owl:

I think part of the reason I don't usually care for primitive designs is that so many of them are stitched on brown/tan fabrics; I barely have any of that color range in my stash. For this one, I pulled out a piece of my favorite Halloween-stitching fabric, PTP's Haunted on Edinburgh. I'm looking forward to seeing how different the design will look on this fabric; I think the colors will pop nicely.

Speaking of colors, this chart calls for a lot of over-dyed flosses. Luckily, I had about half of them in my stash, and I ordered and received the rest last week. However, last night as I was finishing the owl, I was thinking that it had used a lot of floss, so I looked at the instructions and, sure enough, I was supposed to be using one strand of floss instead of two! That's probably another reason I don't like prims; even on 36ct fabric, I'd rather use two strands of floss, because I don't like to see fabric through the design.

So, I am going to continue to use two strands, and just raid my stash for more floss in colors that I like. This will definitely be a one-of-a-kind finish!

As far as my previous WIP, Lightning McQueen & Friends, it has now been put away until this one is finished. I was able to finish Mater before I put it away, and he is just adorable:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!