October D.E.S.I.G.N. SAL

The idea of this Blog Hop is to choose a different designer each month and do a post focusing on a piece of their work you have stitched on during the month.  The hosts of D.E.S.I.G.N ask us to answer a few questions on our chosen designer.

1. What designer are you talking about this month?

The one that everyone seems to be talking about - Plum Street Samplers!  Paulette is the master of the SAL which makes everyone drop their needles and start her design instead.  Two years ago it was Mary's Sampler and this year it is the 12 Days of Christmas.

First Day

2. Have you stitched a project by this designer before?

Yes, back in 2013 Anna the Stitch Bitch had a competition and I entered a mash-up of a Plum Street freebie and a modern tattoo style design to show both sides of my personality:

3. Would you buy/stitch a design by this designer again?  Why/Why not?

Well, there's another 8 in the 12 Days to go!  I would really like to complete these by the end of this year, which is perfectly possible if I don't get distracted by something else.

Second Day

4. What made you choose this particular design/designer?

I do love a series and 12 Days is one of my favourite themes.  I liked the First Day when I saw it in JCS way back when and was disappointed she had only done the first two days.  When she said she was releasing the whole set I knew I had to keep up or they would never get done.

Third and Fourth Day

5. Did you notice anything that distinguished this designer from others?

Plum Street are a very traditional design company.  They used traditional motifs, often including an alphabet, a motto or a quote.  There is sometimes gentle humour, the little sausage dogs which appear in several designs are Halloweenies!  The colours tend to be muted, no neons here!  The fabrics are traditional linens, often on higher counts such as 36 which seems to be a favourite.  Paulette often uses Gentle Arts or Classic Colorworks threads although she always give a DMC conversion.

The 12 Days are charted using one red, one green and a dash of black and gold.  I decided to use a red Splendor silk for the main part of each design and a different accent colour for each Day.  Third Day has DMC 434 brown for the hens and tree branch.  Fourth Day will be black for the colly birds.

Finally, we have a pie chart for October, you can see what has taken up most of the month!