Progress Report - La Cucina Stitching - part one

I have an update on my La Cucina stitching project.  You may remember I was satin stitching the lettering with perle cotton floss?

Well, I wasn't really thrilled with the uneven, patchy look of the "C" so when I started on the "u" I used a back stitch for the outline and to fill in the letter.  I am much happier with the even-edged chunky look.  I think the small "c" looks great too so that is the stitch I am going to use for all the lettering:

The satin stitching does look really good on the decorative border, especially in this dark yellow floss.  This is DMC #742:

I love yellow and especially yellow roses!  I wanted to share a picture of these beautiful roses.  These are some blooms from my garden, the yellow and pink/yellow are the Peace tea rose, the red bud is from the Chrysler Imperial tea rose.  They are both really easy to grow.  I see plenty of new buds so more pictures to follow!

100 Stitches - Star Eyelet Stitch

This is the Star Eyelet Stitch, the latest stitch I have learned from 100 Stitches.  Isn't it beautiful?  Notice the open center? 

I stitched this on medium weave linen fabric because the weave is loose enough that I can count the threads.  According to the instructions, this stitch is worked in a square over eight threads horizontally and eight threads vertically.  The floss I chose is this gorgeous color variations perle cotton.  This is DMC #4190:

The first step I did was to count eight threads each way and put a mark on each end.  The  point of this stitch {from the drawn fabric embroidery section} is to do eight straight stitches, with each stitch going through the same hole in the center of the square.  I made a mark in the center and since there are eight stitches, I put a mark half-way between each line.  I made these marks with my water soluble transfer pen.

I first came up through the fabric on the upper left corner.

Then I went back into the fabric at the center hole mark:
 

That is the first stitch.   

Then I came up through the fabric in the upper center mark

Then back into the fabric in the center hole mark.   Pull through and that makes the second stitch.

I just continued making straight stitches from each mark and then through the center hole.  I had to pull pretty firmly to start "drawing" the fabric to make the nice open center hole:

Here it is completed:

Then I washed out the pen marks:

The underside looks really neat and tidy:

This is an easy stitch to do and it is so beautiful! 

This is stitch #89 and is in the Drawn Fabric Embroidery category of 100 Stitches.

A WIP From A New Pattern!

This stitching project is from my new pattern packet, La Cucina Italiana.  I am stitching this with some beautiful perle cotton floss:

I am so pleased with all the motifs in this pattern set!   I can think of so many projects to use them on.    I am definitely going to make kitchen towels and stitch all the days of the week in Italian:

Maybe I should do them in the colors of the Italian flag...

I also really like this color combination:

Here is a picture of the pattern packet.  This is listed in my Etsy shop: