October 31 by Blackbird Designs | Cross Stitch

October 31

Winds of Autumn 

Designed by Barb Adams

Stitched and Finished by Brandi Fitzpatrick

Fabric - 32 ct Natural linen by Zweigart

Threads - WDW Grape Vine

My Notes

I am so in love with this piece. It's my first finish as a drum. I've always been intimidated by the process but for this one I decided that Barb's finishing instructions sounded doable so I decided to give it a try. 

The linen that was called for was 32ct. Tombstone by R&R Reproductions. My local LNS (Cecelia's Samplers) was out so I just went with a basic Natural linen by Zweigart. The called for thread was Onyx by Gentle Arts. I used Grape Vine by Weeks Dye Works. I thought it went better with the linen and I had it in my stash.

For the finishing fabric I would have loved to use the same as Barb did, but it was a Blackbird Designs fabric that was no longer available. So I just took myself to Hobby Lobby with my stitched piece and found a piece of grey fabric that I thought went nicely. 

I pretty much followed the assembly instructions as they were written. I sewed it by hand using a ton of pins to keep everything in place. My advice is to just take your time and it will all come together. At about the halfway point I wasn't sure it would, but it did! I didn't have sawdust to stuff it with so I just used crushed walnut shells.

After everything was sewn together and stuffed I finished it off with the decorative Herringbone stitch along the top seam. I used a strand of  WDW Grape Vine. Let me just say that my Herringbone stitch skills could use some work but I'm happy with how it turned out. By the way I watched several YouTube videos on the stitch to remind myself how it is done. That was helpful but to me it is still an awkward stitch. But it's pretty when it's finished!

I hope this encourages you to give this one a try. If I can finish it you can finish it!

Happy Stitching!