Window dressing

I've been ticking off all the little details on my "to-do" list for the Baltimore row/alley house, and I'm almost finished.

To recap, let's start with the lamp post. This was stitched with Kreinik #16 medium braid #005 and #5520. Why medium braid, when I generally use #12 tapestry braid? I find the finer weight in dark colors, particularly black, to be a little too thin in certain applications.

With all of the lighted areas of the windows completed with DMC floss #745 in a satin stitch, I started in on the window shades. I wanted to emphasize that each of the three sections on this block is an individual housing unit, so I treated the shades for each differently. On the left, I used two plies of DMC #842 floss in a horizontal interlocking gobelin stitch. For the center unit, I worked alternating vertical rows of tent and stem stitch with three plies of DMC floss ecru, with a horizontal row of stem stitches at the bottom.

Two plies of brown Burmilana formed the doors, with the transoms worked in tent stitch and the doors in slanted gobelin stitch. For the tree trunk, I used three plies of another shade of brown Burmilana, again in slanted gobelin stitch, to be sure it would stand out sufficiently from the bricks behind it.

One more window shade, the leaves of the tree, and the tiny bit of ground at the base of the trunk remain to be stitched, and this project will be a wrap!