This is the Celtic Autumn cross stitch picture by Lavender and Lace that I am working on, after twenty hours of stitching.
This is what it looked like after ten hours.
It’s quite obvious that the denser the area of stitching the longer it will take, but even so, I think it’s ‘growing’ quite fast. I really wanted to get the head and shoulders stitched, so that the picture had some meaning to it.
The colours are lovely and rich – 35 shades, altogether. So far, I’ve hardly used the green shades, as they mostly will feature in the skirt, but there are almost twenty shades of terracotta/tan/rust, etc., so the shading is very subtle at times.
I remembered, once I got as far as stitching the pale-coloured shawl, that I don’t really like stitching very pale colours on pale fabric, especially in artificial light! This close-up shows that the shades of white, cream, ecru and two shades of pale stone look great when finished…..but they were a pain to do. There are still some ‘gaps’ in the shawl, which will be filled with gold beads later.
It has made me think that, when I get to stitching the Celtic Winter design, I will definitely use the alternative colourway where the dress is in a cornflower blue, and not the pale off-white shades of the original chart. I think that all those pale colours would either drive me crazy, or I’d give up on it 🙂
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Janet Granger's Blog 
Wow! You’ve done heaps.
Autumn is looking lovely!
Mmmm…that adaptation of Winter looks like the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio!
Very intensive stitching; it’s looking lovely! =D
I agree with you, pale threads are a pain on a pale background. I am really bad about changing the colors of cross stitch. It just makes it more personal and much easier to work. Love how fine your work is.
This is just so pretty! I noticed an advertisement in a stitching magazine I recently bought for a contest to win one of your tiny purses and was so excited to see a name I “know.” Too late to enter the contest, though!