One Chicken Done

Day 113: By request, and because I am really struggling for both material and inspiration. 

Although I'm using the design elements for a sampler, the pattern for the "Mexican Chickens Tea Cozy" appeared in "Buttermilk Biscuits," published in 1981 by The Vanessa-Ann Collection. It is the only pattern I have ever used from the booklet, but I have made it at least half a dozen times on various fabric counts. For this version, I'm working on 18-count oatmeal Aida using two strands of floss for the cross-stitch and one strand for the backstitch in order to get good coverage of the canvas. The second chicken is roughly one-third complete. A border of golden chicken-wire will surround them and the verse, "The goal of Life is living in agreement with Nature," the dictum which frames my existence as quoted from the Greek philosopher Zeno of Citium. I have not yet decided how the piece will be mounted.