Click now to see the latest addition to my Needlework Gallery. I got the pattern for this farmyard family from a chart leaflet entitled ‘Little Things Count™…’, Day After Day, 3rd Collectors Series, LTC 11. I discovered it at a little shop that was having a clearance sale. The designs were cute and looked simple and quick to do. Plus it was going really cheap so I thought, ‘Why not?’
Published by Designs by Gloria & Pat, Inc. with permission from DMC®, the leaflet is a collection of single motifs which you can stitch singularly or you can arrange various ones to create a larger picture or collage.
This is what I had in mind when I began stitching ‘Feeding Time’. More than likely, I got distracted by something shiny and put the project aside to finish another time.
Thinking back on it now, I had planned to make the chicken family the centrepiece of the design. Smaller flocks of chickens were to be stitched in a vertical line made up a border. Or something along those lines.
It has always been a dream of mine to one day have a big, spacious country kitchen with a large cooker and an island in the middle of the room. I would decorate the kitchen with cross-stitched and embroidered farmyard and countryside scenes. To date I still don’t have my country kitchen but I can still stitch the original design I had in mind.
In this cross-stitch, I used a 14 ct white aida. While it does make the colours of Poppa Rooster stand out, poor Momma Hen almost disappears into the background. I’ll start over again but this time I think a 28 or 32 ct, tea-with-milk, sort of, coloured linen fabric from Zweigart will help Momma stand out more and give the finished product a cosy, homey feel.
