WIP Wednesday – A Year of Celebrations, Febuary Motif

So Sunday evening I switched to a new project in my rotation, A Year of Celebrations, published by Cross Stitch & Needlework Magazine and designed by Cathy Habermas, starting with the February/March pattern.

This piece is actually stitching up very nicely and fairly quickly so I’m thinking I might actually get it finished, if not this week, fingers crossed, at least by the end of February. Here are some progress pics:

Right now I’ve finished the larger portion in the center of the heart, on the February motif, and have started the postage stamp section. So far I’m really glad that I chose to use the variegated floss. The shading is very interesting, especially because I chose to continue to use the loop method for starting my floss. I know you’re not “suppose to” use the loop method with variegated floss because the shading will not line up once you loop the strand. But I’m actually enjoying the fact that some of the crosses have different color combinations while other sections have more of a solid color. We will see if I continue to feel that way once it is complete. Who knows, I might do the entire series in variegated threads!
Thanks for reading and happy stitching!