February DESIGN

Some host I am, almost late for my own SAL! So here I am, quickly scribling my post for February, but at least I already spent some time thinking about what I'm going to write ;)

What project are you talking about this month?

This month, the designer of my choice is Kate from Bothy Threads and the design I'm talking about it Cut Thru' Cottage from the Cut Thru' series, artwork by Amanda Loverseed. I'm doing this as a housewarming gift for my boyfriend's sister and her boyfriend, who are building a house at the moment. Below you can see both my progress so far and what it's going to look like eventually.



                                  

Have you stitched a project by this designer before?

I had been eying Bothy Thread's designs for a while after seeing other people stitching them, but this is the first one I actually got :)

Would you buy/stitch a design by this designer again? Why/Why not?

I absolutely would! In fact, my wish list is filled with both more designs of the Cut Thru' series and their other artists as well.

What made you choose this particular design/designer?

I adored the Cut Thru' series before because the designs are so full of little lovely details, and use such happy bright colors without looking like 'too much'. The idea of doing a housewarming gift gave me an excuse to finally get one, and so it had to be the cottage, though I also love Noah's Arc, The Pirate Ship, and many more.

Did you notice anything that distinguished this designer from others?

Several things in fact make bothy threads awesome: They use a lot of backstitching but in a way that really makes things pop. If you look up close, many of their designs look a bit like a kit colored in some lineart - with the crosstitching 'going over' (actually under since you do it first, of course) the lines, thus avoiding partial stitches, and it works really, really great. There also are two charts - one with only the cross stitching, and one with the backstitching, so you don't lose symbols under the backstitching lines, which is really neat.

I got this design as a kit, and I have to say that it was easyly the best quality kit I ever had: The floss isn't DMC, but Medeira, if I recall correctly, which is also very good quality, the fabric is from Zweigart and there's plenty of room all around the design, which is something many kit's fail to provide. The Floss is presorted and labeld with the symbols on the chart, which is printed in black and white, divided in many smaller pages and therefor rather big, for readability. 

Also, Bothy Threads has licences for many really great artists, and is constantly releasing new awesome designs.