18. Maria's Wedding Sampler

Stitched on 32 count white evenweave

This is the sampler I stitched for my friend's wedding last weekend.

The motifs come from various places.  

The hearts are from Carton-Marie (I stitched the whole piece for my cousin's wedding last year).  

"Love" is from Happiness is Cross Stitching.  

M and D (their initials) are from iStitch's Mystery SAL 

and the butterfly is from a random download I've had in the file for ages (sadly no originating website on it).

78 - Sajou Letters

Stocking fillers for my female in-laws.  I bought these little diaries with an insert for a photo and stitched each of their initials from the Sajou Alphabet Carol provided us for her iStitch Mystery SAL last year.

Stitched on cream 28 canvas using 4 strands of DMC for good coverage.

59 - iStitch Mystery SAL

The more eagle-eyed of you (and those that have stitched the design) may have noticed the slight difference in my finished piece.  The final block was for a Sajou initial and Carol gave us a whole alphabet to choose from.  Unfortunately the letter "J" is an awkward one.  It is not symmetrical at all and often looks unbalanced to my eyes.  I waited until other J people had stitched the piece but I still wasn't feeling the letter at all.  I tentatively emailed Carol asking for help, would she mind sending me the bonus chart so maybe I could use that?  Bless her, Carol sent me a rose!  I don't know if it comes from one of her other designs (which are all lovely BTW) or she charted it especially for awkward people but it's lovely.

Carol is my New Best Friend and Favourite Designer now, how many other designers would not only not be offended by whinging about their design but also send a replacement chart idea?  If you missed out on the SAL the chart is now available here for a very reasonable price.

The box was a Christmas present last year, it's from RUCraft and came filled with a selection of DMC threads.  It's been quite popular as one of the magazines gave it away with new subscriptions this year.
The fabric is 36 count evenweave and the thread is a blue from De Havilland threads many moons ago.  It is silky and smooth, one strand is fine for 36 count so I have loads left!