When I was growing up, my mom tried to teach me to cross stitch. I didn't like it, and it seemed like something that only people who were hopelessly old-fashioned did. Plus, most of the designs didn't appeal to me: I'm not a cuddly-kittens-in-a-basket, cartoon-pig-whistling-a-song kind of person. And "country" is a style I've never liked, and, to me, cross stitching great works of art just seems ridiculous (we once bought a refrigerator from a lady who had cross stitched a huge copy of the Last Supper - I kid you not. But that's another story).Last summer I somehow came across a cross stitch of an orange crate label that my mom had started making for my uncle more than 20 years ago and never finished. I needed something new to do, so I thought I'd give it a try. I found that I really liked the process, though I still wasn't big on the finished product. But it was really calming, and actually required more discipline than I'd anticipated: I'm infamous for being a "starter" and not a "finisher." I can't tell you how many unfinished projects I have lying around! But since it was for someone else, I was motivated. I finished the orange crate label, and then found another cross stitch that I liked (a historical sampler, nothing cheesy or "precious" about it) and began that.
And then Jeff approached me with a new project. He'd found a program that converts a photo to a cross stitch pattern and wanted me to cross stitch a picture from his wedding to give to Heather for their first anniversary. I was excited because it looked really challenging. It was. Here's the pattern, based on a close-up of the picture above:
And here's a closer look:
Just the pattern itself was amazing! I took it on, almost lost my eyesight completing it :) and wound up having a lot of fun. It's all in shades of black and white: 13,300 stitches' worth. I loved doing it, even though I spent a lot of time sighing over how many times the needle had to be re-threaded, often times for just one or two stitches. And here's the end result:
8 comments:
Wow, wow, wow!!!
Great job...
Isn't that gorgeous? I'm working on a glove and baseball that is a photograph. Who knows when I'll finish it, but that looks amazing! What a sweet person to devote that much time to something like that for someone else. You're awesome!
It turned out BEAUTIFUL!
A.mazing.
So are you taking orders? How much? =)
Ummm.....for the right price I could be persuaded! If you're serious, email me, Clint. You know the address.
Kris-that's awesome. What a gift!! I know how long that takes and it turned out amazing. I know, sometimes I hesitate when I tell someone I like cross stitching but it is so relaxing and good for those of us who can't just sit in front of the television but have to be doing something while we watch.
Riva, you're so right! Only, this one was a little different....I had to sit at a table (couches were bad news this time around) and put on my iPod and tell Nathan not to talk to me! If I tried to do anything else while I was working I screwed it up.
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