…my true love gave to me a chalkboard ode to coffee!
I finished this at around 2:00 PM on Christmas Eve, but between washing it, framing it, and wrapping the collection of gifts that sat there mocking me, there was no way this was getting posted.
Back in the summer, I was wandering through Michaels with a friend – I can’t remember what he was looking for – when I darted down the needlework aisle to see if they had anything interesting. Oh, and Michaels? Your needlework “aisle” is a joke.
Due to the craptacular nature of their selection, I really didn’t find much of note, but he zeroed in on a clearance kit. “Ooh! If I buy this, will you stitch it for me?” Gaah. I hate that question, but like him enough to shrug my shoulders and nod. It wasn’t a terribly sophisticated or complicated design, and although it was on black aida, I figured I could handle it, and then somewhere along the line decided it would make an excellent Christmas present for him despite the fact that I had four other pieces to finish.
I just realized that because of the angle at which the picture was taken, you can’t see the solid white border along the right side, but it’s there.
Now, while I discovered when I stitched this that black aida isn’t as terrible as I remembered, it’s quite something else when the cheap kit gives you a piece of fabric with barely 2″ of clearance around the edges of the pattern, making it difficult if not impossible to grip the fabric with your Q-Snap when you get to the outside edges. Had this been a generous cut with better Q-Snap tension, I suspect it would have been finished ages ago. Also, the white floss ran completely out well before I was anywhere near finished – and I had triple-checked the instructions so I know that even the backstitch was to be done in two strands and not one. Luckily, I had some white floss left over from a different kit which filled the need nicely. Had it not been December 21-ish when I ran out, the company would have been getting a nasty letter from me.
Now that it’s done, and I can breathe again, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. He was thrilled when he opened it yesterday, so mission accomplished.
I hope Santa was good to everybody. Thanks for another great year! 🙂
The Witty Child 