I looked at these little houses and thought they would make a great school holiday project. I would whip one up as an example and then set the girls to it – you can see how much of my example I finished (school starts again tomorrow!).
I’m using a plastic canvas I found at Spotlight. There was no count on it, but I am using 6 strands of DMC embroidery floss. I strip the floss and then put it back together – Mary Corbet writes about it here.
I anchor my thread with a waste knot (more Mary Corbet) and secure the thread with my first few stitches. Once I have been going a while I just use the existing stitches to anchor my new thread.
This is counted cross stitch, so requires a bit of concentration at first, but once you get going you can use your existing stitches as reference points. When I get to that point I listen to pod casts – BBC World Book Club. Dan Snow’s History Hit are two of my current favourites.
If you want to make your own Little Houses you can download the pattern here – you will have to provide an email address, but you can always unsubscribe later.