Thursday 14 November 2013

PROJECTS: Cross Stitch Completion Mission

Cross Stitch

Give me any cross stitching project and there's a high chance i'll give up sewing it 3/4 of the way in. Why?! I get too distracted by the next project I intend to do that I begin daydreaming about in my head whilst sewing the cross stitch I'm trying to finish, give up on it shortly after and start the new one.

Sewing in such a manner left me with five, yes five uncompleted projects all lined up in my sewing pile. All from the last year, all nearly completed, all so nearly completed but never done. So the last couple of weeks I made myself finish at least a couple of the projects before my hands wander onto yet another piece of stitching. 

I actually ended up completing three, all sewn, finished, backstitched and framed as new additions to my embroidery hoop wall (although one was a Christmas design for a card which I'll be blogging separately in a couple of weeks). Both the patterns, frames, material and floss were all from estate sales which I find the perfect place for getting supplies really cheap and funds my addiction while saving money.

Cross Stitch Cross Stitch

In fact the 1919 beach scene was an unopened 1979 vintage sewing kit I found at a sale and turned out to be my first cross stitching design sewn upon linen (as someone who has been stitching since I was five it's somewhat hard to admit). Originally it was intended to be rectangular with a simple brown cross stitch border, the backstitching of the place and date to the left of the design which did make it look more dated, I was rather impressed myself how much a simple change of moving stitches and framing it in a hoop actually made. It pays to explore and adapt patterns as you see fit.

Cross Stitch Cross Stitch

Before I began stitching the beach scene I was midway through the flower bouquet - a design actually stitched using only one thread which creates a very blended colour scene to the picture. I don't normally tend to be a fan of flower designs (I say that with two flower designs now on the wall) but they don't tend to be my favorite things to sew but i'm impressed if I do say so myself how this one turned out.

Admittedly there still sits another two unfinished cross stitching projects to complete, seeing the success of this mission they'll be lined up for the next completion challenge. But there's only so much I could do before I got truly tempting into stitching a lighthouse design I picked up at said lighthouse during our Michigan roadtrip last month.

Cross Stitch Wall

What have you been crafting lately?

3 comments:

  1. I am just the same when it comes to finishing off dressmaking projects, I still have a blazer which is just missing one sleeve and then will be finished. I must have started that about two years ago. I have no idea what it is, but I leave things and move onto the next and then often don't finish that either - I'm totally hopeless if I'm just making things for myself and not for a deadline.

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  2. p.s Your wall looks amazing and I love the beach scene.

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  3. These are lovely, the bouquet is beautiful! I love the other floral design and the dragonfly, too.
    I'm exactly the same as you with this, I have so many half-finished projects because I get too distracted by the exciting shiny new one to actually finish anything.. I need to change this! Haha :)

    Jess xo

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