Oriental Butterfly Finish and First HAED

I finally finished all the backstitching and the cords for Oriental Butterfly. This project took much longer than I anticipated, but I didn't expect to catch the knitting bug either. :o) I am very pleased with how this turned out and think that it will look stunning framed. Michaels has a 12" x 12" floating frame with a black border that I'd love to try with this. It will be a while before this get frames, however, since I spent all my hobby money gathering supplies to start my first HAED, mentioned below.

Close up of the butterfly detail:

Overall view of the finished piece:

I chose Blossoming Love by Selina Fenech as my first HAED chart to stitch. All the pinks/peaches and browns are gorgeous and will look lovely in my craft room/office someday. This will be stitched on white 25 count lugana fabric. I just ordered the fabric online yesterday so I will not know if I will stitch one strand of floss or two strands of floss over one thread of fabric until I can do some test stitches when the fabric arrives. Until then, I am going to work on hubby's afghan. I have 34 rows left to finish and, at 30 minutes per row, it may get finished in time for next winter! LOL! The overall size will be approximately 4' x 6'.

I decided to make floss cards for Blossoming Love so that finding the right color will not be so tedious. The idea came from the Dimension's Oriental Butterfly kit as it came with a strip of cardstock with pre-punched holes to organize floss. I'm hoping that this method helps me stay organized with my first HAED since it contains 90 colors (Oriental Butterfly only had around 30 colors). I used 5" x 8" blank index cards and made places for 20 colors per card. I'll let you know how well this works after I'm able to get started.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!