Janet Granger Willow pattern bellpull in progress

Months ago I ordered two kits from dolls' house needlepoint artist Janet Granger:  a cushion kit on 18 ct canvas and a blue and white bellpull on 32 ct silk gauze.

That bellpull kit has sat in my workroom for months, waiting for me to get up the courage to try stitching on silk.  Well, I started it a few nights ago, thanks to the encouraging effect of hanging out with the Petitpointers group on Yahoo and looking at their amazing work on silk gauze.

It's inspiring, I tell you!

So here I am, a couple of days later, with the design all stitched and a new obsession -- stitching very small things on gauze.  This is about half an inch wide, by the way.

This looks very messy -- I'm sure I'll get better at it -- and I totally botched the whole "find the centre of both the gauze and the chart and match them together" thing, because I was running out of room at the bottom of the piece and had to excise about 5 stitches from the pattern :)  You can see how close it's getting at the bottom!

But it's a very pretty pattern and surprisingly easy to do.  Actually, I found it easier to stitch on 32 ct gauze than on 32 ct evenweave fabric or canvas -- because the warp and woof threads of the gauze are so fine, the spaces are bigger, and easier to see.  And it's VERY satisfying because the whole thing is so dainty.

Close up of the top of the pattern.

I'm starting a resource list for petit point links and shops, largely to organize my own collection of links, but also in case it's of use to other people.