"Birds of a Feather"

"Birds of a Feather" is complete! I was beginning to think it was going to drag on forever (I checked and the first stitches were put in in July!).

So here it is, a design by Yvonne Horn of Papillon Creations, puclished in "The Gift of Stitching", Issue 57, October, 2010! And with the exception of some fudging for miscounting and switching out beads from my stash for the ones called for, this is stitched as instructed... Stitched on Wichelt's Permin of Copenhagen 32 count linen ("French Lace"), which might have been a mistake since I think some of the colors would have shown better on a pure white or even an antique white, but I didn't have any 32 count large enough in those colors; bad enough that I didn't have Q-snaps long enough either! ... Finished stitched area is 16 1/3" by 9 2/3 ". 

It was the specialty stitching and the beading that really slowed me down... Here's a close-up of one of the border corners so you can see what that entailed:

I don't know if you can see the gold and peacock blue beads easily - I know the light yellow star stitches and the gold braid couching doesn't show up at all... But there are nine specialty stitches in the border: Rhodes Squares, Ray stitches, Diamond Eyelets, Lazy Daisies, Rhodes Diamonds, Herringbone stitch, Fan stitches, Couching and backstitch in addition to the beading. In the center, there are large Queen stitched (if you consider over six threads large!), Tied Windmill stitches, Diagonal Fly stitches, and Star stitches as well as straight stitches on the birds' heads and backstitching on the feathers and paisley motifs.  A sampler more than a picture, I think.