I Had Planned On Stitching Snowdrops

At the beginning of the month I had no idea what to stitch for the CCC, then Bob suggested a trip to Oxburgh Hall to see the snowdrops. As I walked round, I was once again entranced by these brave blossoms, sparkling white against the cold brown earth. A good subject for stitching. I have done a number of 'floral' pieces down the years - after all this is a traditional theme for a sampler. But when I got home and looked through my photos I started to reconsider. What about a cartoon style group of Red Hat Ladies in their purple outfits and scarlet millinery instead? Looking at the Maryan embroideries again, I wondered about interpreting some of her animal stitchings. But I decided in the end it was the house itself, with its lovely new roof, back in 'working order' which deserved to be recorded.

I set out to translate this photo into a cross stitch chart, and found this free programme. But setting the chart for 60 squares by 20, to match my grid space gave a rather coarse pattern

Try again. A grid of 140 squares looks much better, but obviously is way too big for any section on the canvas

In the end I found a happy compromise. Using some graph paper, I used the top chart to get the correct number of squares for the outline, and then I modified, and added details using the second chart as a guide for positioning windows, roof edges etc. 

And I pinched Kirsten's idea about multicoloured threads for the embroidery. I used a brown shaded silk for the brickwork, and a shades of pastel blue for the sky. It saved so much time, and I love the way the brickwork looks textured and the sky has variations of blue. The roof I did in charcoal grey, windows in black, and outlining in dark brown. I am very happy with the result - perhaps I can market this to the NT as a kit for their gift shop?

My March CCC stitching is going to be much less ambitious!