Cross Stitch - Peter Rabbit

A while ago I picked up a sweet little cross stitch kit on sale from Spotlight. I think I bought it at the end of last year and didn't think about it after that.

Recently I caught a terrible cold, so had a lot of time to sit around and do something relaxing, like cross stitch!

One thing about this kit is that while it says the thread is pre-sorted, it simply means the floss is cut and tied up in a skein, as opposed to sorted into a labelled card like the Maia kit I picked up a while ago.

This annoyed me because I couldn't match the colours to the standard DMC range, so all they might be good for after I finish is little bits of embroidery (not complaining).

So I had them sorted into a separate compartment in my embroidery case, labelled from 1 to about 16 as the pattern suggested.

Okay, one thing I really liked about this kit is the hoop. It is a rubbery outer ring that snaps into a firm plastic inner ring, so you don't get that gap from the join of traditional hoops.

The first colour I did was the pale green of the book. I think the kit is supplied with just enough to complete that colour - I had to dig through the cut off ends to complete the row!

Fortunately all the other colours were plentiful and I continued on.

I like the slightly different stitches used throughout the piece. Peter Rabbit is made mostly of half stitches, while his jacket and the background elements are full cross stitches.

And finished!

This was my first venture into backstitching, so I was worried about running out of thread due to the long stitches of the piece. I think next time I'll take smaller stitches for the straight lengths to make it a little more durable.

I'm quite happy with the result though, it's really adorable!

I'm not sure how to go about framing it though...I'll leave that for another time.

I'm still trudging through the mammoth "Wren and Magnolia" cross stitch. Distressingly, I've just about run out of one of the browns - I'm not sure if it's worth picking up a whole new skein just for a few stitches, though.

Apologies for the bad photo