Hi everyone,
I've been reading the forums for a while and thought I'd better introduce myself...
My name is Emma, I live in the UK, and I've been cross stitching for about 23 years-ish.
My mother makes historical costume dolls for a living, her mother used to do crewel embroidery until arthritis made it too uncomfortable, and my other grandmother has always knitted, sewn toys and generally crafted. My grandfather has dabbled in pretty much every craft you can possibly think of (he tends to have a craft of the year...), and my father makes and paints models (started with aeroplanes, moved onto soldiers, film figures, and is presently on model ships).
As you can see, it's a pretty craft-y family.
I learnt to cross-stitch from my mother aged about 2, and dabbled with other sewing crafts (toy-making, knitting, crochet, quilting, patchwork, etc) until I settled on cross-stitch aged about 10. One of my GCSEs was in Textiles.
I have stitching stuff spread all over the house, fortunately my darling other half likes to see me stitching (he says it keeps me out of the biscuit tin (cookie jar)) and encourages me (he buys me anything I like for birthdays and Christmas - whoopee!
) Unfortunately, sometimes he makes requests, too - one of the UFOs is the Last Judgement by Michelangelo. If it's ever finished, it'll be about 5 feet by 7 feet!
I also like to tackle smaller things - I have a friend who designs miniature cushions, rugs, etc - and the smallest count of canvas I have tried so far was 72 count (had to get the magnifier out for that one!).
So far, I have a set of chart bookshelves in the office, a great big side (end?) table/chest full of fabric and kits, a filing cabinet in the living room (lounge), a floor workstand with light, chart holder and magnifier that gets moved around the house with me for scroll work, a seat stand (you sit on it and it holds the frame) for smaller projects, and a nifty workbox that sits on the arm of the sofa and holds scissors, charts, threads, etc.
Anyway, I consider myself a pretty experienced stitcher. I have a huge - REALLY huge - stash of UFOs, my parent's house is pretty much exclusively decorated with my cross stitch (mostly Lavender & Lace), and I will tackle pretty much anything.
However, my latest project has me rather despondent and I could do with a bit of encouragement...
It's my mother's parent's 60th wedding anniversary in October this year, so I decided to get a photograph of them charted to stitch for them. Unfortunately, I then decided to stitch it in 1 strand over 2 on 55 count linen with a colour palette of 67 colours - can you see where this is going? I started it in February, and their anniversary is at the beginning of October...it's a 48 page chart. I've already decided to just stitch my grandparents themselves, and not the sofa and curtains of the room they were sitting in, but to date I have almost completed Grandad (who looks great, it's very photorealistic) and haven't even started Nanny yet - she's another 8 pages of chart! I've got to do a page a week!
The chart is also very like a SQ chart - lots of confetti stitches of different colours. I'm lucky if I get a page done in 2 weeks!
Sorry, made myself panic there when I actually worked it out!
I guess I could do with an encouraging word or two...please help!
Apologies for the length, I guess you might have another rifestitch on your hands!
