Wednesday 9 May 2012

Deciding on a new start

I will shortly need another big project to work on.  I've now finished three Chatelaine designs and with another finish imminent I needed to select another Chatelaine to start.

I'll not beat around the bush.  Chatelaine's can be bank-breakingly expensive. The most expensive full kit listed on European Cross Stitch's site is $370 (£230).  This is way beyond my meagre allowance. I should add that I have a wish list as long as my arm, starting with Venice and Cuba but they shall have to wait until I can afford the charts!

I have 6 Chatelaine designs in my stash I have not stitched yet:
Watergarden
Alhambra
Persian Iris Garden
Hawaiian
Pompeii
Desert

So, how to decide between these 6 projects. I decided against Watergarden because I'm not that in love with it at the moment. That left 5.

I then printed off the materials for those 5 and checked the conversions for each as this would have to be all DMC plus braids and beads. That took out  Persian Iris, Hawaii and Pompeii on the grounds that the conversions were incomplete, I needed to buy vast amounts of braid at £3.56 ($5.73) per card or how much the bead pack was going to cost me to buy from the US.  We pay a ransom of £8 and 20% VAT on anything over £18 ($28) and suffer at least a weeks posting delay!

This took it down to two.  Alhambra and Desert. After hunting though the actual materials, I only need 3 skeins of Black Marlitt and 10 DMC for Desert plus 2 cards of PTB.   The Bead pack is affordable too at $25.

So Desert Mandala it shall be.  I have a piece of blue-grey fabric that is just big enough as the blues in the border vanished on the piece of Amsterdam blue linen I have. Let's see how long this one takes me!

I should ad that I have a wish list as long as my arm, starting with Venice and Cuba but they shall have to wait until I can afford the charts!

3 comments:

  1. Stunning stitching. I absolutely adore Chatelaine designs although I have never got past the idea of thinking about doing one. I very nearly bought Deep Blue Sea but chickened out in the end. They really do look stunning.

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  2. I agree with Sheba - those designs are amazing and I am really impressed with those of you who stitch them!

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  3. It's great to read about your decision making process. It sounds very logical. I'll be looking forward to seeing your new project commence.

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