Merrrrrry Christmas, 13mesh

This year I was looking at some of Needle Nicely's "old" designs and thinking about how they  could be modernized.  The first one to come to mind was this design that Trubey did years and years ago on 10mesh canvas and for cross stitch fabric.  I envisioned it as a larger pillow-sized canvas on 13 mesh.

I started stitching it with green Balger metallic for the outer border in slanted gobelin.  I usually don't do the entire border, but this time I realized I had only one spool of the fiber and worried that I had no more of the same dye lot at the shop so I stitched the entire outer border.  I thought that dye lot wasn't so important for the letters of merry christmas. (Dye lot isn't obvious from one letter to the other.)

Outside the green border, I stitched two rows of slanted gobelin over two threads using silk 'n ivory.  I didn't finish this, since I can work on it while I stitch the interior of the design and I know I have plenty of the fiber in the same dye lot.

I next did the white inner border row in continental stitch using silk 'n ivory.  Then I did the fretwork green border (Balger metallic) in slanted gobelin and continental stitch depending on the design

Now it was time for the white background.  That I decided to do in nobuko stitch in silk 'n ivory.

I'm not doing the snowflakes or lettering until I have completed the background around that area.  You can see where I have stitched the largest snowflake in red Balger metallic #16. 

The 10mesh version is just whizzing along.  This one is taking longer and that background looms large!