L*K 'Cherish All Living Things', another show piece

Those of you who follow me on Instagram will have no trouble recognising what my second entry into this year's Sheffield Horticulture Show was as I posted quite a few WIP shots there last month as it progressed.  I've saved the 'main camera' photos up until I was ready to post them all in one go on blog.

Fans of Lizzie*Kate designs will probably know this one, although it's a few years old now.

As you can see from the first photo, I had my tray of over-dyed threads to hand much of the time as I was constantly changing the colours for shades I thought looked better!!

 Here we have all the cross stitching complete.  Just needed to add the charms before finishing up.  With all the other L*Ks I've worked, I didn't use the trims provided as I wasn't that keen on them, but this time I like the ones in the chart pack, so decided to include them.  What I had in my stash just didn't work out with this design, most of them being too big.

Rather than spending £30-40 on framing, I decided to make this one up into a bellpull.  That way, I could use up one of the bellpull ends I had in stock and also present something a little different in the Show.

When I was stitching this piece, Sir asked me if I really thought it stood any chance of winning something and I said I did as it was very different from the entries I saw last year, which were mostly detailed, picture type pieces (very British taste) and I'd noticed that the judges seemed to lean towards the less classic, more whimsical pieces.

When we went to the Show after judging, he saw what I meant and agreed that this was a departure from 'same old same old'!!

I'd wanted to enter something in the 'Cross Stitch - Own Design' category, but thanks to computer use problems (the headache saga continues.....ad infinitum), I wasn't able to even complete my design.  However, I plan on doing one, or even two, for next year's competition.

There were four entries in this category (embroidery, on the whole, was poorly supported this year), but winning second place out of four was a lot better than first of one as with the butterflies!!!  Don't you agree?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2015