Chicken apron on the go

One of my projects while away this holiday season has been another printed cross stitch apron - the bright and cheery chicken one. I made one of these a couple of years ago and had another in my stash. I thought it time I stitched it.

The best things about the apron are the cheery colours and shape. The worst thing is, in my view, the cross stitch. 

Working cross stitch on printed crosses presents dilemmas. If you cover the printed crosses you have gaps between the rows. If you attempt to avoid that by aligning the crosses it is difficult to keep straight and you get more background showing through between the bars of the cross.

I tried to work the crosses touching each other but wasn't happy with the coverage, so went back later and filled n the white spaces by a combination of extra crosses and straight filling stitch. 

This gave me more solid colour.

I used the simple cross stitch on the grass squares on which the chicken walks.

I have been staying with friends in the Blue Mountains West of Sydney (where the weather has been cold and misty - a welcome break from Adelaide's 35C + heat). Both friends have lovely gardens - great to look out on in the misty weather.

On the lower edge of the apron I worked the border of squares using a random order of all the chicken colours rather than following the suggested pattern. Random squares made it easier to sit and talk and stitch - and was more enjoyable than constantly consulting a chart.

                                                                                                                                        This is very simple stitching - but satisfying in both execution and the result.