For My Mom...

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I'm not big into super crafty things. However, I do have a crafty streak from time to time. I've been know to make cloth books for my nieces as well as the occasional counted cross-stitch. From time to time I am also known to make a dress, skirt or other sort of simple clothing piece. Throughout my grade and high school years my mother and I were known for making then-popular plastic canvas items. Gag me..now anyway. Looking back on it, none of that stuff ever did look quite right. Except for this adorable Halloween haunted house my mom made one time. I'll have to post a pic of that some time...

Another thing, I don't tend to keep my crafty items. I enjoy giving them more as gifts and tend to reserve giving these gifts to those that I know will truly appreciate them. For example, cross-stitch can take an extremely long time to sew and I want to give it someone you understands how long it takes (hours and hours and hours) and won't look at me with a wince and say, "Gee...thanks."

Nevertheless, this crafty urge does occur and when I felt it not too long ago I began searching the local craft stores to find a new cross-stitch (this was where my compulsion was leaning). You would not believe the LACK of selection. At Hobby Lobby, Michael's or Jo-Ann's, nothing. Pillowcases with roses and teddy bears or ducks with umbrellas are not what I had in mind. If I'm going to be working on something like this for any length of time I want it to be something I enjoy looking at. None of the patterns I found met this bar I had set. So, my mother and I decided to check out eBay. The good thing about eBay is they have a superfluous amount of STUFF. However, the problem is you kinda need to know exactly what you're looking for. You can't just put in "needlepoint" or "cross-stitch" and come up with something. If you did, you would come up with a search result of 4,394,303,874. I'm exaggerating a bit, but you get the idea. So, my mother and I started to brainstorm and I told her that since I couldn't think of anyone to sew for currently, I would make one for her. Therefore, she would be able to take part in the final decision-making. Finally, after a couple hours of browsing, we both agreed on a pattern. A gorgeous pattern.

I'm not going to tell you exactly what this piece is. I would like for it to progress and materialize in your eyes. A hint though...the theme of this cross-stitch bases from a book my mother and I have both read, that she owns. This pattern is by no means based upon that book, but this pattern does emulate this type of character. Enough said, I don't want to give it away.

This picture isn't very good, I intend to purchase a cross-stitch ring as I progress since I can't find my old one (I told you this happens infrequently, so stuff gets lost). That will make the mesh less wrinkled and therefore easier to photograph the as-completed work. Overall, I think it's progressing nicely, though you can't really see the white cross-stick to the left. It'll all make sense to you eventually.