Teaching An Old Stitcher New Tricks

Today is August 11, 2017.  Do you know what day it is?  It's World Cross Stitch Day!!  Does anyone plan on celebrating today?  I know I certainly do!  What is everyone working on to celebrate our hobby?

For those of you who don't know it, I'm a huge Star Wars fan.  I came to love the franchise in my late teens because I wasn't allowed to see the films when they first came out.  I'm not sure why that was, but the first film I saw in the movie theater was The Return of the Jedi.  Since I hadn't seen the first two movies, parts of the plot were pretty much lost on me, but I have since made up for that.  I'm not a big Etsy person, but every now and then I peruse it to see what they have.  I found Star Wars sugar skulls!!  Wow!!  I bought them, then wondered what I was going to do with them.  All I kept thinking was I needed to put one on a tee shirt.  You know what that requires?  Waste canvas.

First of all, it's hard to find.  The big chain craft stores don't carry a lot of cross stitch supplies anymore, which means they don't have waste canvas.  I finally found it.  Then I needed to figure out how to use it.  I've been a stitcher for more than half my life, and waste canvas is something I have never used. 



It's harder to work with than I had anticipated, but fellow stitchers have assured me that the further I go, the easier it gets.   My plan was to work on this so that I can finish it before summer ends and be able to wear it.  Then another project came along.

Please say hello to Hot Chocolate by Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks.  I'm not a coffee or tea drinker, but I love a good cup of hot chocolate, so I was really excited when I found this design.  I had started it a long time ago, and got about half way through it when I noticed something was wrong. The design wasn't going to fit on the fabric.  What the heck??  I knew I bought a piece that was big enough.  Then I looked and realized I had my fabric turned in the wrong direction.  Ugh!!  There was far too much stitching to rip out, so with a heavy heart I tossed it, and I put the design in my basket, where it got buried and I promptly forgot about it.

Before we left for our trip to Chicago I pulled the basket out to see what I had in there, because it had been a while since I had gone through it, and I found the chart again.  Knowing there was a chance I was going to visit the needlework shop in Crystal Lake I made a mental note to look for fabric if I was able to get there.





It's a 30 count linen, and it's a soft!!  And it was calling my name to begin it again.

So here we are on World Cross Stitch Day, with what I'm working on.  I hope everyone finds some time to celebrate our day today.  Happy Cross Stitch Day!



Comments

Robin in Virginia said…
Your Hot Chocolate restart looks good. I like the start of your Star Wars sugarskull.
August 16, 2017 at 2:22 PM
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