Believe it or not this project came to me in a dream about three months ago. I dreamed vividly that I was stitching up the Evangeline border and that inside it I stitched my and my husband’s names and the date of our wedding anniversary. Our 20 th wedding anniversary is this coming July and I was making the embroidery to celebrate that. I woke up and immediately knew the project was beyond my skill level. But it stayed in my mind and recently I decided my skills had improved enough that I could give it a try. The anniversary is at the end of next month and there is no way I’ll have the project done by then. But I’m going to work hard on it and try to at least have made significant progress by then.
So far as you can see I’ve only worked on the outer border. I’ve ordered a pattern holder for my stand and once it arrives I’ll start working on the more complicated flowers inside. Truthfully I’m a little intimidated by the project, but I’m also excited by it. This morning I stitched out on my shaded patio for 2.5 hours. Patio stitching is my favorite and it was such a great way to spend a morning.
I‘ve been telling some friends that I’ve discovered the next trend— hot stitching. Some days I just want to stitch in the sunroom, even though it is easily ten degrees hotter than the rest of the house. I stitch and sweat and hydrate and by the end I feel so incredibly relaxed. See? Hot stitching!
Today I spent most of the day hot stitching. I’m almost done with one side of the pattern. It is rife with mistakes. This pattern is really a little too hard for me. But I’m enjoying the challenge and the chance to meditate on 20 years of marriage, which this piece will ultimately commemorate. And even with mistakes, isn’t it stunning?
Slowly but surely I’m continuing to make progress. I’ve realized I use the outer border as a kind of grid to keep me oriented while I stitch the inner parts. Today I did the little pink flower in the corner. Fun!
You're not spoiled, you're accomplished! And I'm laughing at how those needleminders seem to multiply. Your pattern stand looks spiffy - do you like using it?
Back home and I was delighted to see my pattern holder finally arrived! Now my excuse to just stitch the simple border and wait on the rest is gone. And just in time as I’ve stitched the border from one side of the cloth to the other. I’m enjoying being home and using this sweet stitching setup. Between the stand and the tray, I feel very spoiled.
Deck stitching doesn’t get much better than this! We’re renting a house in the Jemez mountains for a few days. All the forests are closed because of fire danger but I can still stitch out on the deck.
You can do it! I can't wait to watch you. I loved that design as well, and ordered it pretty quickly after Krista released it. It looks lovely outside and your needleminder goes with it perfectly. Hey! You got another needleminder! Those things are like M&M's. You just have to have more.
Dear C, I think I remember back a while when you were intimidated by another pattern, and proceeded to finish it beautifully. It will happen here too!
What a beautiful idea. I'm sure that your dream will come true. Don't worry about finishing in time. 💖