Cross Stitching!

I thought I would share a hobby of mine I've re-visited this past year. I did my first cross-stitching project sometime before I had kids so it was 8-10 years ago. I only did one project and sort of forgot about it. That was the time of my life when I quilted, crocheted, paper scrapped and had a lot more time on my hands. Then I had kids, have not quilted since, barely touched crochet, switched to digital scrapbooking and have a lot LESS time on my hands!

Then, around my birthday of last year (April 2010) I just had this sudden urge to go to the craft store and look at some cross-stitching kits. Since I had recently become interested in 'backyard birding' I immediately fell in love with this pattern kit from Dimensions called Bird Seasons.

I brought it home and immediately started working on it. H and R had never seen such a craft and watched me intently as I began each tiny stitch. I think they thought it was something I would finish in an afternoon, lol! I told them my hope was to get in done in under a year(in my heart I was just hoping I would just finish it, period) . It was 3 times larger than the first project I did so I knew it would be a challenge. I'm the queen of unfinished projects!

Here are some close-up shots of each set of birds.

Some details of the flowers
And I'm happy to say I finished it on December 23, 2010...8 months after I started it :)

Then I had it framed.


I chose a reverse bevel on the matting but in hindsight I wish I had chosen a regular bevel. But I'm proud of how it turned out AND of the fact that I finished it!

My cross-stitching passion didn't end with the finish of that project. As a matter of fact, I put several more bird kits on my Christmas list this past Christmas. Then, as a totally sweet surprise from my dear friend Christie aka The Digital Daisy, I received these two adorable Christmas Ornament stitch kits that I hope to have finished by Christmas 2011!

My dear son, H gave me this kit for Christmas. More super colorful birds that I can't wait to work on!
And finally, this adorable kit was given to me by my other son, R. More adorable birds!
I decided to work on this one first because it is a stamped project and I had never done a stamped cross-stitch before. Turns out, I did NOT like the fabric it was stamped on. I had the hardest time pulling the needle through and my hand was getting very fatigued. I finally made the decision to start the project over on 28 ct. Eavenweave. It was like stitching through butter. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the new one compare to the original one. (The new one is smaller due to tighter weave fabric)

Here is my progress so far on this one. I have slowed down a bit since my Photography Workshop has started but I hope I will pick up on it again soon after.

Oh, and I haven't done any scrapbooking layouts since last November-ish but I hope to get back to that again sometime, too.