Progress on Christmas Present

Well, I've made some progress on my Christmas present for Chris & Annette. Believe it or not, I've accomplished quite a lot. The solidly stitched area in the middle is going quite fast and once that is done, it should be finished very quickly. I've actually had fun stitching on this. I love stitching over one. The Chinese characters are stitched in silk and that is a real joy to stitch with. The rest is DMC except for the gold. That is Petite Treasure Braid from Rainbow Gallery. I actually like it better than Kreinik braid or blending filament. It's much easier to use. I also might try to find an overdyed to stitch 2 long panels of the sides rather than using several different colors of dark red. I haven't decided about that yet. Hopefully this should be done in time to get it framed and sent off to Minneapolis for Christmas. Otherwise it will be a birthday present for Chris in late January.