Peach Cranes

I was excited to try a few things here – a little bit of beginner embroidery (satin stitches) and using variegated thread.  I wanted to make a house warming gift for my parents that has “auspicious” symbolism to it, and I found this lovely cranes one that ticked both boxes.

I bought the pattern but didn’t want to go through the trouble of ordering the whole kit to ship from overseas. So instead I made the following substitutions:

• “Owlforest 2100 White”- DMC B5200
• “OwlForest 2104 — Salt-and-Pepper” – The Gentle Art Sampler Threads 0391 Witching Hour (very close to DMC 310, could’ve used that instead)
• “OwlForest 2204 — Bog-wood” – Weeks Dye Works 1230 Havana (very little variegation showing, could’ve subbed with a dark brown DMC colour)
• “OwlForest 2304 — Fresh Foliage” – DMC Variegated 92 Avocado
• “OwlForest 2506 — Apple Blossom” – DMC Variegated 4170 Whispering Winds
• “OwlForest 2520 — Peach” – DMC Variegated 4120 Tropical Sunset

I went through a lot of trouble trying to get all variegated threads other than the white, but the two non-DMC threads unfortunately didn’t show much colour change.

I was under time pressure so didn’t complete the whole pattern, just the main cranes image and a top and bottom border. I can’t say I had a lot of fun with this, the scattered motifs were a pain in the neck to track, it was a pattern that I should’ve really gridded beforehand. The variegated thread was also fiddly to use (I tried my darnedest to work the thread so they didn’t come out stripey) so it slowed things way down, plus being unable to use loop starts. I also didn’t have much joy doing the satin stitches.

I bought a frame that was a bit too large and the framing job was a bit crooked (just mounted it on the cardboard it came with and secured it with thread at the back) but hopefully my parents like it!