Title: Spring In Daigoji Temple
Date Completed: August 2019
Design: Lord Libidan
Count: 32
Canvas: Antique White
Colors: 16
Pop Culture: Japan
 
The idea for this project was a simple one, but as always, with simple projects, it turns out much more complicated than you first had in mind. To go back to the start of this project, we need to talk about my Miniature Pirate Sampler Cross Stitches. I was asked to do a ‘heroes and villains’ themed pattern for the XStitch magazine, and to match the nature of the theme, and the magazine itself, I wanted to do two things. But with a standard sampler, it was going to be too big. So I changed the count to 32.
 
It was the first time I’d ever stitched on anything smaller than 18 count, and whilst it was a great task, I wasn’t convinced to change my standard 16/18 count preference. The mag went out, the patterns were liked, however almost exactly when I got them back I was able to submit something for the National Needlecraft Awards 2019. I submitted them, and I won.

This was a super pleasant surprise and I thought to myself, it was easy enough, how about I make something for next year? So I decided to bring out the 32 count again. But this time, I wanted something a little harder. I’m in a big Japanese print kick at the moment, with my Moon Light in Yasaka Pagoda Cross Stitch and my New Moon on Tokyo Tower Cross Stitch, so I thought it would be good to do something similar. But with this, comes full coverage and changing colors a lot. I knew it wasn’t going to be too easy, so I stitched up a Miniature Pokemon Card Cross Stitch to try it out.
 
I then wanted to do something a little more special, so decided to do the whole piece using cut-offs (meaning I had to delay this project while I got enough of them stored up). But, finally, I was ready to make the pattern. This also caused issues.
Unlike smaller counts, the 32 count requires a fairly simplified pattern to work. This means any Japanese print I could find had details removed from it. So, after a lot of back and forth and false starts, I finally picked Spring at Daigoji Temple by Asano Takeji (the same artist as the previous Moon Light In Yasaka Pagoda cross stitch).