Margret Gatis - Day 12 & 13

Continuing on with the cutwork band - the instructions called for a greenish/taupe colored DMC cotton thread but I chose to use Ecru to make it more of a whitework band.  I  wanted it to be part of the other whitework bands above and below it. 
I have always liked various cutwork techniques - this one was fun - I have been away from  needleweaving and or hardanger type techniques for quite a while and it was good to get back to doing a bit. It is quite time consuming on this 40 ct. linen especially because the linen threads varied in thickness - another linen would have been more suitable perhaps. The fillings were done over the past two evenings.
Here are some of the progress pictures :

Margret Gatis - Day 12 & 13 -  Finished band
The Song of my Needle

Margret Gatis - Day 12 -Starting the band
The Song of my Needle

I enjoyed working the variations on both of the flowers.  Just positioning the dove's eyes and satin filling stitches differently on the petals of the left and right flowers brings a different feel to both flowers.  It is good to see that simple solutions like this can be quite effective.

Margret Gatis - Day 13 - left side of band
The Song of my Needle  

Margret Gatis - Right side of band
The Song of my Needle

Margret Gatis - Completed band
The Song of my Needle