A Different Kind of Stitching

6:10 PM cross-stitch , Nattering 2 Comments

Before the days when I knitted and sewed I had a more leisurely pasttime - Cross-stitch.

I have done a variety of different cross-stitches, so many that I have finished ones un-framed and framed ones with no wall space to display them (though that might change with the renovations giving us extra wall space - when it's all finished and my house is back to normal!)

I was only 10 when my parents gave me my first large project.  It was the Summer Carousel Horse from Teresa Wentzler.  This was a big investment for them (this as a kit these days would be worth around $120+).  That was just the start.

I have since completed a Sara Moon, a Nora Corbett, another Nora Corbett, one from the Dimensions Gold Collection, a birth sampler for each of my girls (yet to be framed!), several little quick designs and my favourite, a huge 1m (bit over a yd) long lounging clown which J got framed for my birthday a couple of years ago (I'll have to get a photo when it's back up on the wall).

And then I started knitting.  Which just seemed a lot more practical than doing cross-stitch.  It was a lot quicker and the finished object was more useful than yet another picture to go on the wall (that was out of spare space anyway).

Lately, though, MiddleMiss has been doing a bit of her own cross-stitch and everytime she needed help it made me realize I missed doing it myself.  So, finally last weekend, I dug into my large wooden chest where I keep my cross-stitch stuff (and other craft stuff) and pulled out a partially completed cross-stitch to work on.  (This in itself was an undertaking as the chest is in the shed and has been since we moved to this house - nowhere to fit inside - and was piled high with boxes of stuff-in-storage that I had to move first!)

So, here is what I am working on at the moment:

This is an Anchor kit of Elliot and Buttons called 'A Family Portrait'.  I've made a slight change to the baby elephants so they all have pink dots and stripes (instead of the first and last being blue) to match my girls.  Though it is a little out of date for my family as LittleMiss is definitely not a crawling baby!

This will be my 'weekend' project (or just when I need a break from knitting).  I've finished all the baby elephants and am almost completely finished the mama elephant with bits of the papa elephant done also.  Maybe I'll get it finished by the end of the year?!  (It was started over two years ago and is not a particularly big design.)

But in the meantime, the knitting still continues...