Friday Finishes #32: Families Are Forever

Today’s Friday Finish is a photo album cover I made for Christmas several years ago now. With this project I attempted to do something unique with the finishing for the first time. I can be very generic and prefer to keep projects in hoops or frame them, but this piece I carefully measured and stitched to fit in the hole where a cover photo would normally go!

Name of Piece: Families Are Forever

Designed by: DailyCrossStitch.com

You can find this chart for yourself here: Families Are Forever Cross Stitch Chart

Finished Size:  5 inches x 5 inches (71 x 72 stitches)

The Story: My grandmother was an avid amateur photographer, and when she passed away in 2012 from cancer she left behind a lot of old photo albums whose bindings started to fall apart. I bought this photo album for my grandfather to use to put some of the pictures in. Instead of trying to find the perfect picture for the front cover, I decided to stitch something for it instead. I carefully measured, found the only chart that would fit, and started to stitch away. The only problem? I found myself on a time crunch to get it done and while I measured the picture window correctly, I got the wrong size fabric to stitch it on!

You can follow the progress on this piece here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Time To Complete: Roughly 6 hours of stitching time, but about two months to complete since I kept picking it up and putting it down.

Review: The Families Are Forever chart is designed for 14 ct aida. But 5 inches square was too big for the photo window. I measured and used a fabric calculator and debated between 18 ct and 16 ct aida. It worked out that 16 ct aida fit better because I thought the 18 ct made the piece too small… I was wrong! It turns out I needed to go with the 18 ct aida. By the time I got the fabric and started on it I ran out of time and couldn’t restart on the 18 ct I had. I made some adjustments on the fly, which is why the finished piece doesn’t look as good as it could… but, I figured, I made the piece in honor of my grandmother. In the end the thought counts more than the look!

As for the piece itself, the chart was very easy to follow and the stitching was quick and easy with no back-stitch to speak of. I wasn’t a huge fan of the colors – if I made this piece again I would more than likely adjust them – but they happened to fit all right with the photo album and I didn’t bother with changing them. After washing, framing, and several attempts to successfully center the piece in the photo window, this is the final result:

Final Verdict: It wasn’t a perfect finish, but it was a great gift that was well received and well loved. Would I do it again? Probably not! I’ll stick to my hoops and framed finishes until I get better at the finishing process!

Have you done this chart before? How did it go for you? Did you do anything unique with the finished product? 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.