Life has been fairly slow around here - I've been knitting mittens as an extra present and have put only a few stitches in Egypt. I have done 2 small penguin motifs to go on a christmas card but can't show them yet! So - as a teaser - I'll let you in on my first time! (And it will serve as a teaser for what might come soon in that new tab above when I begin to post my older finishes).
All of my life I had worked full-time. When we got married in 1975 and moved to Colchester from London, I continued to work in the school I had been librarian in. Even when I'd been spending an hour each way on the train commuting to and from work I'd never found enjoyment from doing anything other than reading. (Mind you that could have been due to the over-crowding on the trains!)
Suddenly there I was at home with a TINY person who was dependent on me for everything!! She was a baby who didn't sleep (guess that's where Jessica gets it from?); her father was driving for a job, so when she cried every night about 8 or 9 times I was the one who had to get up to her. Luckily for me, the neighbour opposite had her baby two weeks later, so we got to know and support each other. One day we sat down in a rare moment of quiet and decided that we'd both like to take up a craft. If we did the same thing, we could share our highs (and lows), so we opted to try cross stitch! I was 28, she was 27, and for a while it felt like we were the only "young" people who were interested in it. I found a magazine which had a few baby motifs in it, and decided to make a birth sampler. Nothing unusual there you might think?
But I had to get the threads and fabric myself as what I wanted to do wasn't in a kit. In fact I don't think I'd ever seen a cross stitch kit then! So I went out and bought a few colours of threads and a piece of fabric. I made up a design, added a few necessary words - like name, date etc and started to sew it. It didn't dawn on me what I'd done until I started investigating cross stitch further after I'd finished. I had stitched the entire thing in 2 strands - not a problem; but I'd used linen and stitched it over one thread! Not really a massive mistake - it still looks fine - but it kind of gave me a headache which I didn't need with a small baby. Anyway it didn't manage to put me off - now (at age 61) I have an enormous stash of kits, threads, fabric, patterns and magazines. If I live to be 200 I'll never stitch all of the things I love (and that's not including the ones I merely like). Still it keeps me off the streets and my fingers from the biscuit tin!
Oh - I'd better post a pic of Erika's birth sampler - sorry about the quality of it, but it was XX years ago!
Better go now - Egypt or Christmas cards call - lots to do and so little time to do it all!
Why don't you let us know how you started?
Until next time
Sandie
3 comments:
That was a wonderful story of your first time!
Wow what a talent right from the beginning! Designing your first experience is awesome! It's beautiful! Thanks for sharing, this has been so much fun reading everyone's first time story.
You asked if I remembered what chart my angel was and I am sorry to say I haven't got a clue. I returned the chart to Diane after I was done with it. Maybe someone out there in blogland will see it and be able to help.
You jumped right in from the beginning... linen, wow! Kudos to you. I was just a kiddo when I did mine and had no clue there was aida, evenweave, or linen for that matter, LOL.
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