You Are My Gift: First Post

This is a Christmas present for my sister.  When I saw it, the mother dragon with the stocking and her newly hatched offspring, I thought of my sister and nephew.  I originally came up with the idea since my nephew was born on Christmas Eve 2010.  So, that year, he was my sister's biggest gift.  It's also the type of gift that my sister can then easily pass down to him.  And now with the second on its way I, of course, have to make another.

I haven't really been enjoying stitching this.  It has nothing to do with the pattern, it's the fabric.  I'm using 40ct. Newcastle from Picture this Plus.  While I love their other fabrics, this one is not working as well as I hoped.  I'm stitching this 2 over 2 and I thought it would stitch up similarly to Transcendence which is 20ct.  But the weave just seems a little too tight and the needle doesn't go through without some muscle.  Luckily it's small, but I'm making two, but I can soldier though it.

Here's the first progress picture:

I changed the color of the stocking, mostly because I couldn't find the recommended color in my stash.

The little one has been stitched:

And everything except backstitching and the stocking rim.

Ready for the final pic?

I used Rainbow Gallery's Fuzzy Stuff for the top of the stocking.  It was a little too thick for the 40 ct, so I ended up not doing full crosses on the top of the stocking, but I think it turned out well enough.  I did have to trim it a little bit since the threads were so long for such a small piece.  I also gave the little guy a little bit of a smile.  He just seemed like he needed one.

So one down and one to go.  At least one down with the stitching part.  I'm going to have to wait until the Christmas trims come in at Michaels before I'll be able to finish this.  I'm not sure if I should put this on the completed page or not.  It is completely stitched, but the project is not done.  I'll figure it out eventually.

Project Stats:
Pattern: You Are My Gift, Ornament #1
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams
Started Stitching: June 2, 2013
Finished Stitching: June 13, 2013
Fabric: 40ct. Legacy Newcastle Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2; Kreinik 1 over 2; Fuzzy Stuff 1 strand
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 740 out of 740 complete