I’ve Been Bit By The Project Bug!

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I saw a retweet from Mr. X-Stitch on my Twitter the other day for a chart on a nerdy take on a “Welcome Home” cross-stitch. It was a design by HappyStitchNet on Etsy and is a CSS style code. When I saw it, I immediately had to have it. Both my boyfriend and I are nerdy people who dabble in code – he has a degree in Computer Science, in fact – and it was one of those unique pieces I wanted to get and stitch for our home. Those who know me know I only very rarely stitch charts, so it must be a rare thing to attract me to something that’s not a kit!

I just had to have this! Purchase this here.

I just had to have this! Home Sweet Home in CSS by HappyStitchNet. Purchase this here.

After I bought it, I found another chart by HappyStitchNet of an HTML mock-up of a website called HTML Welcome Sign. I just had to have that one as well! So I bought them both and printed out the charts and decided to kit them both up.

Then, I stumbled across an old freebie in my Free Charts folder from Birdie Stitching. I’ve followed her blog for years and I’ve saved a lot of her Pokemon charts to eventually stitch, but I haven’t actually stitched any of them. So when I found this Luvdisc Chart in my folder I decided I might as well add it to my pile of charts that I was suddenly accumulating. I printed it off as well.

Last but not least, I found a picture that I wanted to cross-stitch. I saw someone had stitched it and wanted to stitch it myself. It’s the well known “Push Button Receive Bacon” picture:

Push Button, Receive Bacon image.

Push Button, Receive Bacon image.

I think this was converted into a cross-stitch chart at one point? I found a Folksy store and an Etsy store that claimed to have sold the chart at some point, but they were both no longer available. I don’t know whether it’s safe to chart the image myself, but I did! I couldn’t find who owned the image, if anyone; I think it’s just a meme based on the images on a hand dryer. It’s for personal use anyway so I’m covered if there is some sort of copyright on the image.

I hand-charted a pattern based on the image, changed the spacing on the picture and the words at the bottom, and then printed that out as well. I went from having no charts to do to having 4 charts to do in about an hour. I’ve clearly been bit by the Project Bug! I’ve got a whole pile of projects to do already, I really shouldn’t have added more to the pile.

I sat down and looked at all these charts I now owned. What should I do with all these? And then I realized: my boyfriend’s birthday was coming up. The Bacon chart was expressly for him, but the rest I could do for him as well. I have roughly two months before his birthday to stitch all four charts. So I could stitch them for him! It would be motivation to get them done now and not five years from now.

Only problem: I had exactly two of the required colors for all four charts. I had DMC 310 (black), and I had B5200 (White). Out of 15 some colors, I had two. So I had to make an emergency run to Michael’s to get the thread I needed! I also got a package of needles and 18 ct. Aida in both white and off-white… couldn’t decide what I wanted to go with at the time. (I went with off-white.)

I think this is the most projects I’ve kitted up all at the same time, but I’m happy the Project Bug is here!

My projects all kitted up!

My projects all kitted up!

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“Random Corner” is a place for all articles related to all manners of cross-stitchery and the cross-stitch community that don’t fall into the topics covered in the regular segments. There is no set schedule for Random Corner articles, they’re just random!

By the way – to keep up on Little Thread Crafts stitching news and get pictures, updates, and more that don’t appear on the blog until much later, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! I would greatly appreciate it!

Salvaged Stash: My Mother’s UFOs

Welcome to the next Salvaged Stash article!

My mother taught me how to cross-stitch. When she was in her teens up through her early twenties when I was born, she used to stitch quite frequently. She taught me when I was eight years old, but it wasn’t until I was in my late teens that I realized just how many finished pieces adorned the walls of my childhood home. I suddenly realized the pictures I looked at every day for years were actually delicately worked with needle and thread, and I didn’t even notice.

When I was seventeen, I began to really get into cross-stitch on a more serious level. I built up my stash, bought more projects, designated a little craft area in my room… cross-stitch expanded beyond a hobby into a serious passion of mine. I talked to her about her stitching: did she still have anything left from back then? My mother went into her closet and pulled out an old bowling bag she hadn’t touched in years and gave it to me. That brown bowling bag and a flat tan box underneath it were all that remained from her years of stitching.

I expected to find needles, thread, old fabric, maybe a handful of old booklets and magazines that I knew she had. Imagine my surprise to find at least a dozen half-started projects! Some of them were only just started, some of them were half-finished, and one specifically was so close to being finished it must have only had around 50 stitches to go with all the backstitch already finished.

A handful of my mother's UFOs.

A handful of my mother’s UFOs.

Back then I was shocked to see them all, but now I can think on it and laugh. I’ve got a whole box full of projects I started and put down, way more than I found in Mom’s bowling bag. I do plan on finishing them all eventually, and I’m sure she had the same intention. She put the needle down to have kids and raise a family and the projects got lost in the whirlwind of life.

Unlike projects one may find in a thrift store or in a bundle of other things, my mother kept all her work mostly together. I’ve been able to find their charts in booklets or magazines, and have put the projects away in my binder for consideration. Maybe I’ll finish a few of the nearly completed ones and give them to her as gifts. There are a few charts she marked down as ones she would like to do but they were never started. Some projects had stains on the fabric that I could try to get out and clean up and finish for her.

I’ve completed one of those projects so far. The piece “Met My Dad?” was so close to being finished, I sat down one day and finished it for her. I washed it, got out the stains and the wrinkles as best I could, and then framed it for her. This is how it looked before the ironing and the framing:

Here it is, just completed!

Here it is, just completed!

I later wrote a Friday Finishes on it, which explains the piece in more detail: Friday Finishes #21: Met My Dad?

I sometimes wonder what would have happened had my mother not kept any of these things when she decided to give up cross-stitch. The half-started pieces probably would have been thrown away if their charts weren’t paired with them. I’m glad she kept them. These pieces in particular hold more sentimental value for the fact that they are my mother’s projects. Projects that have crossed more than twenty years to come to me to finish and hang them up on the wall. There’s something magical in that. Two generations worked on this project.

Much better than ending up in some landfill somewhere, don’t you think?

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Salvaged Stash is a series focused on rescued finishes and the story of how I received them. A lot of people don’t realize what happens to a lot of the treasured finished pieces once their makers have passed or the gift is given away or forgotten. I want to share my stories of the stash I’ve rescued and how I’ve used them. A companion series to the article Save the Stash from the Trash!

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