A to Z Challenge: V is for Vermillion Stitchery

Today is Day 22 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. This also means it is the last Saturday post for the challenge, and also tomorrow will be the last break in posting for Sundays during the challenge. If you are new to the blog and haven't heard of this challenge before, the basic idea is to blog (almost) every day in April, taking one day for each letter of the alphabet. Since I have a cross stitch blog, I am blogging about cross stitch patterns in my stash and on my wish list for this month of April.

V is for Vermillion Stitchery

Now, V is a letter I thought I was going to struggle with.  And I actually had originally had a different topic in mind for today's letter.  But at the last minute I had a brainstorm, which has brought us to this topic.

I first came into contact with Vermillion Stitchery when I saw a blog post about a Violet Tea Cup pattern the blogger (can't remember who it was, sorry!) was stitching for her grandmother (I think).  After a quick search, I found that the pattern was actually a series of Teacup Posies freebie charts, one for each month.  This led me to explore the other designs Vermillion had.

I immediately fell in love with this series called International Bears.  Although I've never been a huge teddy bear pattern fan (they're okay, I just don't love them or anything) I do love "world costume" type patterns.  And these were just screaming at me.  Apparently they were offered as a series of patterns many years ago, but now are still being sold on the website.  It just figures that the US bears are a pair of cowboys.  Is that the only unique fashion style the US has contributed to the world?

There's another companion set called International Bears II, which I also adore, especially the Elizabethan style bears (appropriately named Henry and Elizabeth) that are down for England.  I also had a friend in high school who did Irish Dancing, so I love that the Irish bears are dancers as well.  The only thing I don't really like about the Vermillion patterns is that they do have a LOT of quarter/three quarter stitches.  I will definitely be waiting to stitch these until I get more comfortable working on linen and evenweave.

Sadly, the site doesn't appear to have been updated since February 2014, so although the above patterns were available for purchase as a digital download, it made me a little nervous.  Luckily, I was able to get a print copy from someone on Facebook.  In addition to the International Bears, she also had the set of Fantasy Bears, so I added that pattern to my stash as well.  Some of these bears I really like, and some are just weird (the centaur for one) so I don't think I'll be stitching all 12 of these someday.

If you'd like to get the Teacup Posies freebie charts I mentioned above, they're still available to download from the website.  But I would hurry and grab them if you haven't already since there's no telling when they will disappear. 

One of the other A to Z blogs I've been reading had the excellent idea of adding links to previous posts at the end of a particular day.  So if you'd like to see my previous A to Z entries:

A is for  Alphabet
B is for Britty Kitty
C is for Carousel
D is for Debbie Mumm
E is for Eat
F is for Frogs
G is for Garden Cat
H is for Hats 
I is for Ice
J is for Joan Elliott 
K is for Kokeshi 
L is for Lesley Teare
M is for Margaret Sherry 
N is for Noah's Ark
O is for Owls
P is for Pumpkins
Q is for Quaker
R is for Rules 
S is Sue Hillis
T is for Travel
U is for Ursula Michael