Christmas 2008 Timeline

I found this in a rubbermaid container in my closet last month. I started this in the past millenium, it sounds funny to say that but I believe it to be true. It was probably sometime in the late 1990's, somewhere around 97 or 98. When I found it, the top portion running parallel from the quilt in the top right corner over and the blue quilt hanging off the trouseau in the left lower corner were the only thing finished. It's been just over a month, perhaps two, who's counting in months when this project is approaching a decade or more?

The project is crossstitch. It is a stamped cross stitch. The trick with working cross stitches is to always work the thread in the same direction, so for instance, I always work my crosses from the lower left hand side to the upper right hand side first and then finish the cross off with a stitch moving from the lower left hand side to the upper right hand side. This allows the pixel effect of cross stitch to look clean.

After all of the cross stitches are complete, you then go through a process of detailing the work. This is what I am currently doing. I have completed 3/4 of the detail work. I started in the top right hand side and worked across the top to the left, down the left hand side and I got to the point of the sewing machine and now I have probably 5 or 6 more hours left before I can wash, dry, press and mount the work into a frame.

I am giving this piece to my mother for Christmas this year. I originally purchased the piece to make for her, but the year I started it, I had already made my mother a crewel stitch piece. The piece was large and I still really love that work that I did; it was of a window looking out. An old fashioned style window with four panes and wood framed. There was a hanging flowering plant, and a bunch of knickknacks along the frames. I will post it as one of my completed projects if I can remember to take a photo of it the next time I am at my mother's. Anyways, I then decided that since I had just made the crewel piece for my mom, that I may perhaps make this project for one of two aunts who also love to sew (my mother is an amazing seamstress). But now that a decade has gone by, I feel pretty good about giving my mother another project so it is back where it was originally meant to go.

I hope to finish it this week at our community meeting and have it ready for framing by the end of October. I still haven't decided whether I will attempt to frame it or not. Either way, I will post a photo of the finished product when it is complete.