2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #39 - Winter Evergreen by Fireside Originals

I think we've all been cross stitching long enough that we've seen some of these older patterns, the ones that were hand drawn and photocopied? I picked up this one several years ago, possibly over a decade ago, again I think from a LNS that was closing near where I live. Check this out!

Definitely the old style design and the finished design photo is an actual photo with the photo data of 1996 on the back. The copyright on the chart is 1983! 

I had the feeling this one would take me longer that it did, and I'm not sure why. There's not many colours to it, possibly just the hand drawn chart was throwing me off? Anyway, I ended up finishing this in a different way than it's charted, and please let me know your thoughts. 

Winter Evergreen by Fireside Originals

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct scrap fabric

as charted with DMC

If you can tell from the finish photo, there is dark green (DMC 895) in between the white areas of snow. I finished all the white first, then the cardinal and the highlight green, but after that I kind of like how it looks without the dark green stitched into it. So I'm calling it a finish. It somehow makes me think of my Grandma, she had a big blue spruce tree in her yard for many years, and loved cardinals of course. 

Let me know your thoughts! 

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch