Wednesday, March 8, 2017

The Next Cross-Stitch

After finishing the wedding sampler, I went a good three months without cross-stitching. It was about reading and making good on my goal to read through all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. But the itch, so to speak, needed to be scratched. Picking out the next project also gave me a chance to organize the box in my closet.

I dragged out all the crafting books and pamphlets and dumped them on the living room floor.


I decided my next project would be to liven up the bathrooms at work. We have no art in the office, beyond what people have in their personal offices. I have art, my boss has art, but that's as far as it goes. In the women's bathroom, we have some knick knacks representing the beach. I decided I needed to do a beach cross-stitch. Finding something was going to be the adventure. Oh sure, I could have googled "beach cross-stitch" and come up with something, but why do that when I'm sitting on hundreds of patterns? Plus, the box needed to be organized and this was a prime reason to do so.

Viola.


The pattern on top is not the one I chose. It's cute, but I felt it was a bit too detailed for what I can do. My goal was to find a pattern which used full cross-stitches as opposed to one, like this beach scene, which uses half, quarter and three-quarter stitches. I'm not good at those and they frustrate me. If I'm to get this done with any speed, it must be something I'll enjoy doing.

I also discovered I need a bigger box. I still have magazines piled on top of the box in the closet. One of the issues is the floor space where the box is stored. A box which will hold all my cross-stitch or craft magazines probably will take up all of the floor space. I'm not sure that's entirely what I want. I have, however, decided not to renew a couple of the magazines I get. One was expensive, even with a discount and the other was veering into non-cross-stitch crafts more than when I subscribed to it. I think I will continue Just Cross-Stitch because that's all I want. As it's published 6 times a year, I'm not adding to the pile quite so quickly.

After a couple days of looking through everything, organizing and contemplating what I wanted to do, I decided on this pattern.


It's all full cross-stitches. The header, "Home is where the Beach is" will be removed. I might do "Life's a Beach" or I might just redo the cloud lines above the clothes line. There is also the ability to shorten the sides so there's no white space when the wording is removed.

For the guy's bathroom, I found this.


My office mates probably aren't going to care, but I really like our office. I like how we were allowed to personalize our spaces. This simple act makes going to work so much more enjoyable and I see this art as part of that. Plus, if you'll allow me to be a bit selfish, it leaves a bit of me behind. Our lease is for 7 years so we'll be here awhile. I can see this being our office until Mike leaves and that should be after I leave.

The fabric count was for 26-count linen with the cross-stitching done over two threads. I have never, ever been able to master that. I always work in 11-16-count. It's easier to see and I don't have to worry that I'm not stitching over two threads. But I had no idea then, how much cloth to buy. My local cross-stitch shop came to my rescue. When it's 22+ count fabric, halve the stitch size and use whatever fabric amount is closest. It's the same size. In my case, I'm using 14 count. In my head, it doesn't seem to  work, shouldn't it be double the amount listed? So far, it's working out just fine.

Ivory material was suggested, not white. I'll go with that, but I didn't have any ivory material in my stash. The shop said they aren't stocking much in the 11-18 count fabric. Stitchers have gravitated to the higher thread counts for more detailed images. That makes me sad. "You can find all sorts of 11-18 count online," the proprietor said. Well, yeah, but that's not the point. I want to shop local when I can. She had a piece of fabric which she thought I might like.


It's kind of tough to see the pattern on the fabric. It's a white with a faint sandy wave-like pattern. It's perfect for a beach pattern. With fabric in hand, over Labor Day weekend, I jumped in.


You can see the fabric pattern a bit better in the images.


Cross-stitching is the best thing to do on the deck, I tell you. I made great strides in September.


I would come home from work, grab the stitching and go out on the deck. An hour of stitching made the troubles of the day just melt away.


This represents three days in September. I'm much farther along with this than these photos show. I'll be posting more as I get to them. Lots of photos yet to blog about. The green stripey thing is a pair of men's swim trunks, in case you're wondering.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

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