Friday, July 8, 2011

Let's Get the Ball Rolling


Here it is. My first official finished cross-stitch. I started this design in Feb when I had a few week holiday from university because of the Christchurch earthquake. The pattern came from one of my mother's craft magazines. I fell in love with it at first sight and knew that it would make a fantastic gift for my uncle to hang in his bach. In the magazine they used a natural, unrefined cloth to create an old world look, however when I went to my local spotlight to get the materials they had nothing even remotely similar. So I purchased an off-white 18 count aida square and coffee/tea/soy sauce stained it overnight to create this taupe colour that I'm pretty happy with.

I learned so many things from doing this cross-stitch, it's not the first time I've ever attempted the craft but it is the first project I've completed. I learned the importance of planning your route so you don't work yourself into a corner. I learned from a lot of mistakes that I would dearly love to avoid in future, such as when working over two squares in your aida, make sure you count them off in twos. Always work from what you've done, don't try and connect pieces later as you WILL have miscounted something. Always make sure your hands are impeccably clean otherwise white cotton will not be your friend.

The only thing I would change about this lighthouse is the backstitching. I had no idea how to backstitch and my crafty friend helped me out, but in hindsight I feel like I should have used just a single thread instead of double. That being said I plan to have it framed in driftwood and give it away for christmas, so maybe before then I'll find the motivation to unpick all the back stitching and redo it. Or maybe not.