Here Be Dragons

I've always loved those prints of old maps with intricate calligraphy and drawings of sea monsters and the warnings of "beyond this point, there be dragons."  So this lovely little chart was made to order for me.  I am stitching it on 36ct Meditation Blue linen with one strand of the recommended DMC flosses.  I did sub out a different gold for the Kreinik metallic at the corners of the border.  It seemed silly to order a new spool of that particular gold when I had several partial spools of various other golds on hand.  The one I chose to use is a blend of very pale gold with a darker gold, though in the photo it looks more silvery than golden.  After all, there are only 48 stitches in the Kreinik in the entire piece: definitely not worth the expenditure when I have so many options in my stash.   I was making grand progress till I noticed that I miscounted the point at which to start the left side dragon's wing.  The result: I had to frog about 40 minutes' worth of stitching.  My own fault, of course, but still aggravating.  Anyway, I caught up during my lunch break and then got a bit further ahead this evening

I intend to finish the piece as a little decorative pin pillow.  I'll just have to stop at the pet store and buy a small bag of lizard litter, aka ground walnut shells.  That's my favorite pin cushion filler and much less expensive than emery.   I save my emery for those strawberry shaped needle minders that actually see serious service on my stitching table.

I neglected to mention yesterday that the companion  piece, the Compass Rose Dragon, will be finished as a miniature bell pull.  It is just the right shape for such a finish.  And I do have some small brass bell pull hardware in stash that I believe will suit it perfectly.  And, yes, I will be frogging the horns out and moving them to the right a stitch or two.  Apparently it's not just me who finds the placement of the horns oddly out of perspective.  Several readers commented that they looked "wonky".