Finished Products Are So Satisfying

You know how it feels when you finish a project you pour hours of work into? A scrapbook, painting, quilt, knitting, etc...well for me it's cross stitching. I love to cross stitch, not only does it distract me from some of the harder days I face and give me the stress relief I need it also gives me some gratification that I can take something so simple as a blank cloth and turn it into something beautiful. Sometimes it is hard to say good bye to the things I stitch as I put so much of my time and myself into these projects. I pick designs that I find beautiful because of what they are or what they represent.

This last week I finished a wolf cross stitch for my friend Mike Wilde. Last year while I was living with my Grandma and Grandpa Condie out it Tooele I was working on a wolf cross stitch to give to my Mom for Mother's Day. When I finished it I gave it to her early. She told me she couldn't take it to work with her because if Mike Wilde saw it he'd be jealous. He loves wolves. As a fellow wolf lover I immediately bought the colors and cloth I'd need and I began working on a new wolf cross stitch for him. But between the time I started it and the time I finished it I would get married, add two new puppies to our lives, and move twice, therefore delaying my finished project. But I finally got it finished, and with a month to spare before his birthday.

All my cross stitched projects take up a lot of time, and most of them I've spilled blood while working on them as I've jabbed myself with my needle. But for me it is all worth it in the end to see the finished product. As frustrated as I can get at times, as hard as it is to have to go back and undo stitches when I've miscounted, as frustrating as it can be when my progress feels so slow it is all worth it in the end when I see the final picture. I love cross stitching and I love the feeling of accomplishment when I'm done.

This Buck was the first big cross stitch I ever made. I gave it to my Dad for his birthday in 2006.

My friend Becky asked me if I would make two horse cross stitches for her nieces for Christmas in the year 2006. She said she'd pay me for them. The first horse I made for her was the Arabian. It took me four months and countless hours to get it done - I'd get up and work on it, I'd go to work for four hours as I was only working part time at the time and then I'd come home and work on it until I could no longer stay away. It was beautiful in the end but not one I'd like to do again.

This paint horse was the second horse cross stitch I did for Becky for her neices' Christmas presents. This one was much smaller so it only took me a week to get it finished. It might look simple but a lot of details were put into this for the shading and especially the grass and shadow of the horse. I wasn't sorry to see both of these projects finished as I was very stressed out at the time to get them finished before Christmas. I think I had them finished with five days to spare.

When I was dating my old boyfriend he loved Superman - and had a lot of Superman stuff. So I went online and found a DC Comic Cross Stitch Pattern book and I made this Superman cross stitch for his birthday only three months before we broke up. He might have thrown it away I don't know what happened to it now.

My sister Melinda and her husband Brent got married in December of 2008. I had no idea what to give them for a wedding gift and so I started to think. When I saw this pattern book of wedding cross stitch designs I bought it and immediately began to search through it seeing which pattern I should make for them. That way it was something personal and something that will hopefully last a lifetime. I spent three months and again countless hours making this for them, but they were both so surprised and they loved it. I know Melinda especially appreciated it because she knows how many hours I dedicate to these projects so I knew I picked the right gift for them.
This wolf cross stitch took me nearly two years to complete because I had stopped not long after beginning it because it was much more complicated than I had expected when I had bought it. But I loved the pattern so I started it up again when I moved out to Tooele to live with my Grandparents. It took me six months to finish when I got started up again and not two weeks after I finished it I gave it to my Mom for an early Mother's Day gift. She keeps it in her room and she loves it - not because she loves wolves but because she knows I made it for her.

And this is my gift for Mike Wilde. As simple as it might look it still took me over a year to get it finished and endless hours. When I saw the pattern in the book I didn't really care for it all that much but the more I worked on it the more I loved it and I realized just how beautiful the pattern really was. So I hope he likes it when he opens it next month when my Mom and I take him out to lunch for his birthday. Mom says he will for three reasons. 1. Because I made it just for him. 2. Because he knows how much time and effort goes into projects like these. 3. Because it has a wolf on it.

I'm now working on my newest project, it's called In Harmony and it is another wolf cross stitch. I haven't finished it yet because I just started it last week but below is what the project will look like when it's finished. When I have it done I'll post a picture of the actual cross stitch for you to see.