Introduction and a first time start

Hello!

I'm Adrienne and am finally joining in on the Stitching Bandits Chatelaine Challenge. I've just started my very first Chatelaine - Evening in the Park. I love, love, love this design.

I've had this project kitted up for over a year now but life kept getting in the way and I just didn't get around to starting it. I've been having a serious stitching mojo problem lately, so a dear friend suggested stating my Chatelaine might just be what I need to get my mojo back in full swing.

So far, it seems to be working. :) Here's my start:

It took a while but I found the perfect fabric for it from Under the Sea Fabrics. I'm stitching on Ice Princess 32 ct opalescent lugana. There's a lot of metallics in this part (which I don't love stitching so much), but the silks have been lovely to work with. (FYI - I am a silk addict. I adore silks!)

For the first time I'm using a magnifier while I stitch, because the hand-dyed fabric has tiny holes and the opalescent nature of the fabric splits the threads and makes it doubly difficult to see the proper holes. The stitches look pretty big under the magnifier, but when I look at it without, I can't believe how tiny the stitches are!

This piece is going to take a very long time. Yay!