Friday Finishes #39: Mothers Are Special (Take Two)

Today’s Friday Finish is my second time around with this particular mini kit. I bought the kit a second time to make as a Christmas present for my mom!

Name of Piece: #021-1389 Mothers Are Special

Designed by: Kooler Design Studio

Chart or Kit?: Mini Kit

Distributed as a kit by Janlynn under their “Designs For the Needle” series

Kit Contains: 18-count cotton Aida fabric, 6-strand cotton floss, frame, self-adhesive mounting board, needle, graph, instructions

Finished Size: 2.5 inches round

The Story: So this is actually my second time doing this mini kit. The first time I stitched this mini kit for my mother-in-law as a present, but I didn’t take any pictures of the finish. I originally bought the kit to make for my own mom, so when I had the opportunity to buy the mini kit again, I did so I could stitch it for her! Plus, this time around I could actually track my progress and have a picture of the finish.

You can follow along on the progress on this piece below:

Progress Report: Mothers are Special (Take Two), Start to Finish

Time To Complete: A few hours of actual stitching time, about three days in total time because I did a couple different stitching sessions.

Review: The hardest part of this piece is the amount of back-stitch and the lack of full crosses to use to count. I remember the first time I stitched this piece I made a huge counting error. The vines on the right were one count off, and I didn’t know until I was almost completely done with the piece.

So this time, to keep that from happening again, I made sure to do all the back-stitch and the crosses as I went. Which meant a lot of starting and stopping the thread so I could rethread with a different color. But the piece turned out great! I love the way the cursive lettering looks. And even though I don’t like doing the back-stitch, I like how it all comes together on this piece.

The Finished Piece:

Final Verdict: Now that I’ve stitched this twice, would I stitch it again? Probably not! The back-stitch is just too much for me. I like my pieces to be more cross-stitch than this. But it works as a great gift and is really good practice on back-stitch for beginners. And the one French knot, too!

Have you done this piece before? How did it go for you? How did you like it, or not like it, as the case may be? Leave a comment below or head on over to our Facebook page and tell us how it went!

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Friday Finishes is a segment where I catalog and review all the cross-stitch pieces I have ever completed. Some of the pieces I no longer have information on, or I don’t have pictures because I gave away the piece as a gift and forgot to take a picture, but I’ll do my best to be as informative as possible! Check back on Fridays for more.