Due to the Coronavirus, I've been out of school for the past week and a half. I've been using this time to bounce between hobbies: reading, scrapbooking, cross stitching, etc. Since I have all this time off, I also decided this would be a wonderful time to work on some of the larger projects that I've wanted to do for a while, but just haven't had the time for. Of course, one of my biggest projects right now is my Disney World Scrapbook, but I'll save that for another post. I also decided to embark on my largest cross stitching project to date as well.
Before getting into my project, I should not that I started a large, full coverage project in the past, but it just wasn't clicking with me. I hope to go back to it one day. The project I started is a stained glass version of Minnie Mouse (keeping with that all important Disney theme that seems to consume my life right now). I bought the pattern on Etsy a long time ago, and I even bought all the supplies to make it, but I never actually got around to starting it. From the fact that I had all the supplies and I had all this time at home, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
What I like about this pattern is the fact that it's a little more complicated with many different colors, but, at the same time, the colors are all group together, which means I don't have to switch colors all the time to blend colors together (I hope that makes sense). In short, it's a way to grow my cross stitching skills without doing something I'm totally not prepared to do yet.
So, where exactly am I in the cross stitching process? I've only been working on this for about a week, and I feel like I've made a decent amount of progress. While some cross stitchers may be horrified, I don't limit myself to the page I'm working on for the pattern. What I mean but that is, Minnie's head, for example, was printed on multiple pages of the pattern (the pattern is 3 pages total). Rather than stop and pick up again for just a few more stitches that happened to be on the next page, I kept going, thereby completing all of Minnie's head. I know, I'm making it more complicated for myself, but, I actually don't think I am. There are parts of the pattern that only have three or four stitches on a page, so I save those until I see the rest of the stitches in that color in that area, and I do them all at the same time. It works in my mind.
When I first started this project, I struggled a lot with counting stitches and making it all work. Now that I've been working on it for a week, it's definitely become easier, and I haven't been messing up nearly as much (although now I'm afraid that I've jinxed myself).
I know with the exception of Minnie's head, it's hard to see what it's supposed to be. Trust me, I feel the same way; I keep having to check back with a picture of what the final product looks like to make sure I'm doing everything correctly. I am. I know that as long as I follow the pattern, everything will work out.
Like I said before, this project is quite big, at least for me. It's going to be about 10 inches wide and 13 inches tall. While that may not seem big, it's a full coverage project, which means all of that is going to be covered with stitches, you won't be able to see any of the aida fabric underneath. It's a lot. I've included a picture of what the project looks like on the full piece of aida fabric so you can see what I've done and how much work I have left to do. It's a lot. My goal is to finish this sometime this summer, get it framed and enter it in the county fair. I've never entered anything in the fair before, and I know I haven't been cross stitching for very long, but I'm excited to see if it gets anything. Even if I don't, it will be fun to know that something I worked incredibly hard on is on display at the county fair for everyone to see.
This project is definitely a labor of love, but I'm loving ever minute of it! The person who made this pattern made a whole bunch of other stained glass style cross stitch patterns (some Disney, some not), and I really can't wait to start another one, once I get through this one.
Check back next week to hear a little bit more about my progress and see how much I've gotten done over the course of the week!
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