Completed the mystery project, Keystone Garden Patch! It was designed by Tony Minieri for the chapter many years ago. It’s nice that is was recycled because many of us were not here then. It’s been fun watching it grow monthly since February.
I decided to mount it on a Rosewood gift box (8″ x 6″ x 2″) that I ordered from woodcrafter.com. An extra finishing edge (binding stitch) was added so that I could cut right up to the needlepoint. I used an acid-free mounting board with a sticky side. And, I finally got out my glue gun to attach it to the box. Glad I practiced because the glue dries fast. It was my gift for our shuffleboard group and Janice ended up with it. And, she sent me a wonderful thank you note. I’m so glad that she appreciated it.
July was clean up month with backstitches to highlight the diamonds. I love the colors.

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This month we had to do a series of Plaited Upright Cross Variations.
I incorrectly stitched the upper right strip – can you see the difference?
Incorrect.
Correct and with the small star stitches at the top and bottom completed.
I’ve been keeping up with the monthly project since we started in February but I just haven’t blogged about it. And, I don’t have the progression captured but most of the multi colored thread went in March (took time to do as a mirror image for the right/left and top/bottom sections), the 4 diamond shaped Rhodes stitch went in for April, and I just added the 4 stars on the left and 4 on the right with a blue (ish) ThreadworX surrounded by purple Splendor in an interrupted Pavillion stitch. And, it’s fun seeing everyone’s colorway come together.

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This year, in addition to the main projects for the year, Trish has started the ANG Keystone Garden Chapter on a monthly mystery project designed to help us select threads to go with an overdyed thread.
Basically, there is Color A and B with a neutral. These are mine: Waterlilies 086 Tahiti, ThreadworX #8 Braid 710161, maybe Kreinik #8 Braid 012HL purple, Kreinik #8 Braid 850 dark green, maybe Kreinik #16 Braid 5982 medium dark green, Kreinik #16 Braid 102C gold, Splendor S1086, Splendor S932, maybe Mill Hill Seed Beads 02009.
They look ok on the Grey scale, a feature on my phone’s camera that makes checking so easy! I see light & dark values. And, the Waterlilies has some medium value to it.
And, this is January’s portion completed except for the beads which I will add last.