Nan's Garden - Finish

Sooo. I'm still about two weeks behind on my blog reading and commenting...and I just realized I got about six posts lined up to write as well! Good thing we have a long weekend coming up, because I'm hoping to get a lot of catching up done (and also a lot of stitching, I hope!) So to get started, here is Nan's garden, a WIP I started as a SAL with dear Jo, uh, *years* ago, and dug out again in April, when I was still trying to get my stitchy bug back on track. It fit a prompt on one of my challenges for 200 stitches, and once those were done I realized there really was only one and a half bands and a couple beads left to do. What a shame I put it away this close to a finish! 

This time, though, I pulled through, adding the cute little hedgehogs in the penultimate band, and then those pretty white shells in the last one. I really enjoyed this with all the adorable critters and soft colours, and as usual with Just Nans, there where plenty of fun specialty stitches to enjoy! I got a bunch more of her couples in stash, so might start an other one soon. Not right now, though, as my number of WIPs is dwindling, and I'm really enjoying it!

Speaking of stash and Just Nan, this chart was originally meant to have a little frog charm in the center of the fifth band, but as I got the chart used, I didn't have that. I did, however, buy a collection of mixed charms last year, and went through that to find the right one for this design. And I found this little tortoise - isn't he adorable, sitting between his stitched buddies?

 

Beads and threads also came from my stash. While the threads are mostly DMC as charted, for the beads I just picked the best matches I could find - this design isn't heavily beaded, so no use buying tons of new colours. I like the outcome, at any rate!