Almost Done

This is the second new project that I started at the beginning of the year. It's a lovely kit from The Cross Stitch Guild by Jane Greenhoff called Blue Genetian. Now I know a lot of you are not fans of kits but this really is a quality one. It has a really nice linen and the thread, while I'm not sure of the brand, is very nice to work with. And there's plenty of it. So I can highly recommend it to anyone. I did make some minor changes to the chart. The trees next to the house are supposed to be worked in algerian eyelets but they are not my favorite stitches, either to do or to look at, so I changed them to smyrna crosses. I much prefer that stitch so out went the eyelets, in went the crosses. I also had to adjust the size of the letters of my monogram in the heart. There was just not enough room for the "W" so I made it a little skinnier. I'm also going to put french knots in the center of the flowers on the border instead of regular cross stitches. I think it will just add a little more interesting texture. When this is all done and framed, I'm going to use it as an introductory class in stitching on linen at the shop.