“There is nothing like the silence and loneliness of night to bring dark shadows over the brightest mind.”
― Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories
Christmas is hands-down-without-a-doubt my favorite holiday ever, but Halloween is a close second. The crisp air, the fallen leaves, the spooky effects.....I love it.
When I saw the Cricket Collection piece, Sleepy Hollow, I knew I had to stitch it. Now, the graph calls for it to be stitched in three panels so it's a 3-D piece when you're done. No thanks. That takes too much effort.
So I took it and stitched it all as one giant piece.
Like so.
I. Love. This.
The trees. The fallen leaves.
The fountain. The Headless Horseman. Ichabod Crane. I can't.
I'm in love with these pumpkins, and THAT TREE. I want that in front of my house. Stat.
Now. The roof of that house is obsenely large. The thread used is a WDW color...which escapes me at the moment.....but know this: the designer doesn't tell you how many skeins you need - plan on getting AT LEAST 6 skeins. You need them all from the same dye lot to have the right effect. I got lucky, and when I went back to get more, the dye lots were pretty close. I can see where I started with a skein from a different dye lot, but hopefully I'm the only one who notices. Same goes for the church - that is stitched in WDW Pewter, and you need AT LEAST 5 skeins. It's not quite as large as the roof of the house, but again, you need them from the same dye lot.
Another thing: I stitched this on Blue Moon Java, which is what the pattern calls for. Rumor on the street is that this is tough to get these days, if you can get it at all. I would suggest using something wicked cool from Picture this Plus fabrics like Cauldron, Dusk, Echo, Haunted (which is what I used for Skeleton Crew), Nocturne, or whatever floats your boat.
(Please note that I do not get anything from PTP for suggesting their fabrics. I'm a huge fan of their product, and am simply making suggestions for alternatives in the absence of Blue Moon Java.)
I absolutely loved stitching this, and the framing turned out beautifully, as usual. Lise at my LNS does absolutely phenomenal work. Thank you, Lise!!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
