Mommy's New Project

Since the kids are getting a little older and a little more independent, I've been thinking that its about time I start back up on a little hobby of my own.  I mulled over two ideas for quite a while before I finally decided on what to do. 

The first idea was to make a patchwork quilt.  I have made one of these before and its not too hard.  I have a huge collection of clothes (mostly Josh's old work clothes) that have spots so worn out they are unrepairable, but the other areas on the piece where the fabric is just fine.  But the idea of measuring and cutting and piecing and sewing and backing and quilting just seemed like more work at this point in time than fun.  Especially since alot of the fabric is tough denim.

The second idea, and the one I eventually went with after weeks of searching for just the right project, was a cross stitch piece.  I had two options: a stamped piece (which you'll see in a picture below) in which a pattern is stamped in ink on the fabric and the sewer stitches over the pattern with different colors per a coded graph; or a counted cross stitch piece in which the sewer counts every single stitch of every single color in the piece onto a piece of blank fabric, also per a coded graph. 

When looking for projects, the one I REALLY REALLY wanted to do was a beautiful counted cross stitch piece depicting the Last Supper.  It was gorgeous!  However, remember when I said the kids were getting a little more independent?  The key word there was little!  I really couldn't talk myself into believing that I would have enough concentrated time to work on such a detailed piece.  Maybe one day.  Maybe!  So I started searching for stamped pieces. I soon discovered that most pieces were either smaller than I wanted or otherwise most of the larger stamped cross stitch pieces were baby themed.  Um, not for me at this time!  But I kept looking and kept looking and eventually came across the project I settled on and that you'll see in the following pictures. 

Cool story: when I found the piece online, it was so expensive (especially with shipping) that I refused to purchase it.  Then, when we went to the circus in Des Moines, "my" stop was at Hobby Lobby, thinking that maybe they would have a better deal on it.  They had it, sure enough, but no luck with the better deal (minus shipping, of course).  Bummer, Dude.  But I had a couple of friends suggest checking their website for deals!  I can't remember exactly the two who made the suggestion, but a big THANK YOU to you who did!  With the special offer they had on their website, I got the project $20-some less!  I still had to talk myself into purchasing it (its really hard for me to get anything for myself), but I finally did and now I have something ALL TO MYSELF!!!  Pretty exciting!

Here are a few pictures of my current project and some of the projects I've done in the past:

My current project, a quilt that will fit our bed (queen size).

 

This is what the stamp looks like.

 

And this is what the coded chart looks like.  Each symbol stands for a certain color in a certain kind of stitch.

 

The sewer uses a hoop to hold the fabric tight as she stitches along, moving the hoop as needed.  On quilts like this, there are also quilting guides to stitch along to finish it after all the cross stitch is done. This project will take me a long, LONG time to finish! 

 

This is a very simple quilt I made for Caleb when I was pregnant with him.

 

This is the first quilt I ever did.  Its a lap quilt, which is quite a bit smaller than a bed quilt.

 

This is a wall hanging I did several years ago.  Its a counted cross stitch piece, meaning the fabric had pre-punched holes in it and I had to count out where every stitch went in relation to the fabric and/or the other stitches.

 

This is a pillowcase doll I did for Sarah when I was pregnant with her.  There isn't an extreme amount of cross stitch on this one, however I did sew the whole doll together by hand. Other than cross stitch, that's the common theme among my pieces: everything is done completely by hand, even the finishing hems on the quilts.

 

This is my pride and joy!  The picture doesn't do it justice!  Its also a counted cross stitch piece and the detail to make the 3-D effect (that you can't see in the picture)  is fabulous!  All the stitching was done on the dark blue cloth.  This one took quite a long time, but it was worth it!