Starting All The Things

Maybe that title should be "finishing" all the things. In a curious turn of events (which I will wait to share because of a certain surprise later this summer), I went looking for a very old counted cross stitch UFO - like from circa 1990. It took some digging, but I found it, and (incredibly) I also found the pattern. After a trip to Hobby Lobby for DMC floss I am stitching. This is something I am doing while we watch sports - the Tour de France, baseball, and coming up, the Olympics. Counting stitches is not an easy feat for this math-challenged gal and sometimes I watch more French countryside and cycling breakaways than I stitch, but I am getting a tiny bit done.

I have absolutely zero memory of working on this project 30 years ago. I do not recall deciding to start it; prepping for it, stitching the bit shown, or why I stopped. Puzzling...

I do know that I have moved it around, stored it in various spots; always thinking that one day I would go back and finish it.

A couple days ago, I unrolled it from the frame it has lived on for 30 years, and you see the issue now before me - discolored Aida cloth. It could just be dust and dirt; I hope cleaning will be possible.

Instead of discoloration, I'd hoped to discover that I had a whole bunch of stitching under that roller bar. Nope. No such luck. I began in the center of the design and worked to the right. Nothing on the left finished. I have some work ahead of me.

In the little bit I have done this week, I can tell you that it is not easy starting back up on a project that is so old. I have worked on those shoes at the foot of the cradle, and that is some precision counting going on there! I rather look forward to a big ol' section of brown teddy bear to jump-start my mojo.

Don't worry about my becoming completely engrossed in cross stitch. Quilting is still my #1 interest. I tell you what - I can start more projects than can ever be finished. I can't help myself! Why, just a few nights ago, I was upstairs cutting out 2.5" squares for another quilt. I love it! You'll get to see soon enough.

Starting? Finishing?

Maybe 'Starting All The Things' was the correct title for this post, after all. Finishing a few UFOs will be nice, too. *wink*

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

Old Ornaments

As we wind down our Christmas and begin the process of putting it all away for another year, I find myself feeling nostalgic for the earlier Christmases in my life. I put out only a fraction of the decorations I normally do, so not much of the old stuff made its way to our tree this year. Two ornaments that did are perhaps the simplest ones.

Back when we were young newlyweds and had little money for holiday decorations, I used my crafting skills to cross stitch some ornaments that could easily be popped into simple plastic frames and hung with ribbon on the tree. I suppose I made at least a dozen, but to my knowledge, only these two remain.

Aren't they sweet? I love their simplicity. Before everything goes back to storage, we plan to sort through all the boxes and tubs to weed out things we no longer want or need. It is possible that I will come across a couple more, and they will definitely go into the "keep" boxes.

Tomorrow, I will share some golden oldies from when I was a child. Now talk about nostalgia!

I am enjoying a couple of days of R&R before Christmas gets packed away. We drove home from my father-in-law's house earlier today, and even though it is December 27th, we still played Christmas carols while on the road. It's nice to let Christmas linger, wouldn't you agree?

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Counted Cross Stitch

Mostly - almost exclusively - this blog is about quilting. However, a few of the quilting friends do other projects besides quilting.

The Frankfort girls met Friday morning at Sharon O.'s house for our regularly scheduled event. Almost all of us were working on things we've been working on for awhile, so there was only one show and tell. Sharon had finished a counted cross stitch project.

Ah-mazing, isn't it? Such intricate work and detail. It is going to be framed, Sharon says. Won't that be a lovely addition to her home?

I'm still at work on Kissing Fishes. Pictures forthcoming. Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday!

Happy Quilting, Friends!