Stitching Pride

Today, there is a blogging party going on among cross stitchers.  I chose not to participate but I decided to steal their blog prompt for the day.  You were supposed to pick some pieces that you were most proud of stitching.

1. Amazing Grace

The first piece I am most proud of stitching is "Amazing Grace," a kit by Jan Lynn.  It was the second piece I ever stitched, the third ever finished and my first actual counted cross stitch (the first piece I did was stamped).  I was only 16 at the time and it was a very ambitious second piece.  The kit came with evenweave too, so I wasn't cutting my teeth on something simple to stitch on like Aida either.  I started it just after Thanksgiving with the intention of finishing it by Christmas--what an unrealistic expectation!  It ended up taking 7 months or so to complete.

The challenge with this piece (apart from me being new to cross stitch) was the extensive backstitching.

2. God is Love

The second piece I am most proud of is "God is Love," a piece I stitched out of Happy Holidays in Cross Stitch, a book I picked up a Dollar General for like 10 cents (yes, that was an insane price).  The piece is stitched on 28 count waterlily linen using Kreinik Silk Mori Milkpaint, DMC Perle Cotton and Kreink #4 metallic braid.  There are a variety of specialty stitches in this small piece as well as some beading.  The biggest challenge was the words, which are stitched in petite stitches, and since I was stitching on linen, I could not always get them to behave.  The shade of green is very close to the color of the fabric and thus, makes it hard on the eyes.  I also framed this piece myself when I was finished.

What makes me most proud of this piece is that I entered it into the North Texas Fair and received a blue ribbon.  I had never entered any of my work into a contest before.

3. Fairy Tale Sampler

The third piece I am most proud of is "Fairy Tale Sampler" by Jennifer Aiken-Smith of Dragon Dreams.  It sadly sat unframed for a long time before I finally found a frame that would work.  This piece looks rather simple but it was the first time that I had worked with any kind of specialty threads.  It has a few shades of variegated silk, both seed and bugle beads and a number of specialty stitches.

4. Winter's Twilight Stocking

For my last piece, allow me to showcase the first (and probably last) counted cross stitched stocking I ever did, "Winter's Twilight Stocking," a Gold Collection kit by Dimensions.  The piece is almost entirely solidly stitched with lots of backstitching and tweeding.  While stitching it, it became "the piece that would never end!"  Now that it is finished, it looks great but I think I'll stick to needlepoint stockings from now on.