Week six of WIPGO leads me to one of my truly Big Ass Pieces (BAPs), The Fruits of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery. Aside from my Chatelaine, which is coming up later this month, Fruits is the most intense piece I currently have going. As far as stitching skill goes? It’s honestly an easy piece. But it’s nearly 50,000 stitches in total. And it’s incredibly dense.
It’s also incredibly stunning.
The photo above is the two-toned version. There is also the option to stitch it in monochrome, in which you’d stitch the heavy blue band in reverse – just the flower scrollwork. I am doing the two toned version in DMC 800 and 840. There were multiple options given in August 2021 for the house you see in the center. I will be doing the windmill option instead of the house above. I may honestly do some of the other options as ornaments at some point because they’re all very pretty!
I realized just as I uploaded this photo that I don’t have one of everything to date for this month. I’ll make sure to do that when I do my end of month progress on it. I will be doing much more than the simple two-night WIPGO allotment on Fruits. My goal is to get the entire February portion, framed in this photo, done.
Fruits was offered as a non-mystery Stitch-a-Long in 2021. The piece was divided into monthly release sections, but the entire design was known up-front. I fell in love with it at first glance. It’s just so complex and elegant. Intense? Yes. But there’s no backstitching or quarter stitches. The entire piece is straight cross stitch. I knew I wanted to do it in a light blue/brown combination, inspired by a thread called Blue Bunny produced several years ago by a European dyer called Nina’s Threads. (I think she has since switched exclusively to yarn). The chart indicates two colors, but I have seen some versions of it on Instagram that have more than two that absolutely work.
Two of my fellow Stitching Sisters of New England members, Amy (Gables Stitcher on FlossTube) and Sharon, completed theirs within or just after the 2021 calendar year. Obviously… I did not. I fully expect this piece to be a long-term commitment for me. This year’s goal is to finish three months. I’m in good shape to complete February soon. I should be able to also get March and April done comfortably. I think keeping it in three month block goals is a comfortable pace for me – and maybe I’ll have it done before Max goes to high school. (hee!)