My newest start "Festive Feathers"!

I love cardinals.  We have over a dozen pair that visit our Bed and Breakfast in the backyard.  I associate them with my brother Rick, who went to heaven in 2014.  When I saw this design stitched up by a poster on Facebook I had to get it.  It is a Bothy Threads kit which come from the UK and are costly.  I do not generally buy kits but it was the only way for me to acquire this design.  I paid $42.00 for it on sale at Stitch! 1-2-3.  It would have been $49.00 at regular price.  That is a lot of my money so I expect QUALITY!!  Which is something I will get to in a moment.

I opted to pick a piece of fabric from my voluminous stash instead of the fabric it came with.  Had the fabric been a lugana or other evenweave fabric I might not have done that.  I chose a Picture This Plus color of Crystal Twilight in 28 count lugana.  It is an opalescent darker blue with a tinge of green in the blue so a deeper peacock blue.  The red fibers are stunning as you can see below. I started it Friday March 3, 2021 and you can see my progress to date. I love it and am savoring every stitch. I have about 1/3rd of the breast complete.

As I said earlier I was expecting quality and I was sorely disappointed with the cheap way this kit was put together.  My best friend Leslie is stitching it with me and we both are disgusted with Bothy Threads.  I know I won't be purchasing anything with their name on it ever again.  

  
Let's start with one stinking needle, ONE NEEDLE is all that came with this kit.  Now I know most kits only come with one but they aren't $50.  How much more would have cost to include 1 or 2 more?  Not much I assure you.  

Then there is the flimsy cardboard stock thread organizer.  I appreciate the fact the floss colors were separated, I detest guessing which color is which  Look at how they punched the holes to hold the threads!  The thread is constantly tangling with other colors and it is a struggle to get another length of floss to load your needle, not to mention how easy it would be to get confused with the floss symbols.  I think this is the cheesiest, cheapskate thing of the whole kit.  It angers me that they don't tell you what brand of floss they are using AND the color number so that if I run out I can easily get more from my stash. I know I can e-mail Bothy Threads to get more floss but who wants that wait, oh my gosh it takes forever for stuff to come from the UK to the US. I did spend about an hour matching the floss with DMC so I can get more if need be.  There is also something wrong with the floss that I did receive in the kit.  It tangles at the drop of a hat and it is fuzzed out like it has been dragged in and out of the fabric several times.  I know how to prevent knots, I have been stitching for 35 years but this stuff is awful!

The chart needs to be enlarged!  I took mine to the copy place and enlarged it to fit a 11x17 sheet of paper.  The one on the left is what came in the kit and the one on the right is what I enlarged to.  My eyes are getting old and charts are getting hard to see.  That is not Bothy Threads fault but I think everyone would like their charts to be larger.  I do appreciate that there is a second chart with the back stitching but if the chart was larger they might not have to do that.

I knew this kit came with aida, but it would have been nice to be able to choose my fabric for my kit.  I would expect a premium priced kit to offer that.  Also I believe that this should be offered as just a chart with no supplies at a cheaper price. I have no doubt they make a grand killing on these kits and at the most would add no more then a couple of dollars to the kit if they truly wanted to be a premium company. These kits are on quality par with what you get from China and that is stinkin' bad quality.  

You may disagree with me and my assessment or you may have more improvements I have not mentioned.  I absolutely love the design, the price point sucks eggs as does the kit quality.  I usually am very satisfied as a customer but in this situation I feel that making a buck is more important then putting together a great kit.  I will continue to enjoy stitching this beautiful design but I won't be purchasing Bothy anything in the future.  In my house we vote with our dollars. 

Thank you for reading and God Bless!