Pekinese stitch or .......

more excitingly, Forbidden stitch. Well that is apparently another name for this weeks TAST stitch. This immediately brought to mind the Forbidden city, so I called up Wikipedia what an amzing place it is. This Ming Dynasty painting was just what I need for inspiration for my TAST example(I was dertermined not to fall behind again).

and here is my own little palace.


Can you tell I'm am quite proud of myself. Incidentally this is the first time I have used counted thread material in the TAST challenge but decided it was they only way I was going to get the stitch even, as you can see I didn't quite succeed. Should have worked it on a frame as well. Heigh ho, one of these days I'll learn.