Now that the Spring Fling project is complete, I am free to work on the Newport again.  Unfortunately, I've become obsessed with a new needlework project so any building progress suffers.  :D  It's a rug pattern from the book Miniature Needlepoint Carpets by Janet Granger.

I am stitching the rug shown on the front cover.  Definitely more traditional than the last rug project.

Her patterns are made for 18ct canvas, but this rug would measure about 9" x 9" -- too large for my purposes -- and 18ct isn't as fine a finish as I prefer.  I decided to stitch the pattern on 28ct fabric, which will result in a rug just under 6" x 6".  I also decided to cross stitch this pattern to eliminate the tendency for the fabric to show through the usual needlepoint stitch.

I made a color copy of the pattern to attach to my magnetic board and liked the colors better than the original, so I visually matched the thread colors from my stash instead of using the suggested colors in the book.

This is the rug after about 13 hours of work!  Long way to go...

click image to enlarge