Never Enough Cross Stitch

I wanted him done earlier but here he is da boy

Progress on a gift for a coworker. Outline is now done.

Temperature Tree: August

Finished this floral Mickey design tonight. It took me a couple weeks to finish.

These are all from the same pattern, “Ecology Wildlife Band”, torn many years ago from a Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine of unknown date.  The original design had the four critters in a band across a reusable bag, with green text above and below saying “recycle, conserve, save / reuse, preserve, renew”.  I stitched them on some mystery 16ct aida scraps which feel just a bit more plasticky than usual, and I have no idea if that’s fitting or ironic.  The final size for each is 3.5in square from fabric edge to edge, and they’ll almost certainly go onto greeting cards at some point as is my wont.

All four critters were stitched mostly as given, though I did combine with other colors any single-stitch colors I happened to notice while prepping each piece just for my own convenience.  That said, this was something of a study in how not to design a pattern!  I’ll explain that a bit below the cut.