My Dahlia Headband

A softly shaded portrait: a girl's face framed by dark hair and a headband of vivid dahlias. The skin tones and the petals call for frequent colour changes and combine cross stitch, half cross stitch and back stitch outlines, so this is a project for stitchers who already have some counted thread experience.

The cotton and modal evenweave is worked over the counted threads; one strand of stranded cotton in the half cross stitch areas gives the most delicate shading. A frame or hoop and good lighting are needed but are not part of the kit, and neither is the picture frame shown in the photo. Once finished, the piece works well framed as a small picture.