not really cross stitch .....

I tried a bit of cross stitching on my new waste canvas that I got when Maggi and went shopping... Oh, but first, let me tell you.... at the same little shop I finally found some Coton a Broder, which 'til now I have been unable to find in Canada.  Woohooo ..   I was so excited, and wouldn't you know, I've lost Karen's list of colours and numbers and such...so bought a few of each.

Couldn't wait to give it a try.  It is totally different from the Perle cotton which I have been using ...or the DMC regular embroidery threads...which are 6 to a strand and a bit trickier to work with ...

But..... then, almost immediately, this happened@!!  Accckkk!

What a nightmare!  It took about an hour to unravel and fiddle and finally get it sorted.  I finally cut it in several spots of course...but, that's okay I wound it onto little plastic cards.












By that time I was ready for one of these...  and convinced myself that I could be careful.... and not have another disaster .... probably pushing my luck a bit ....but, it held.   Ahhh.... a lovely Blueberry Tea... of the cocktail variety.    Good thing Karen was away on holiday...

Back to my story about x-stitching.  I should have watched Karen's video again... but, didn't.  My mistake.  I did watch it initially, but it was weeks ago now, and ...I forget a lot more than I learn.  So, didn't really know what I was doing, but found a few heart shaped cross stitching photos on the 'net and decided to make a heart of my own.  However, I seemed unsure of where to put my needle and was it same hole as the bottom of the x on the top line or one more hole down below it or what?...

Needless to say ..it didn't quite turn out like it was supposed to  ... and then I saw some (online again) where people had put some stitches around the edge to sort of gather up their stitching and make it into more of a heart shape... which I did too.

In the end it looked kinda cute...or so I think.

I folded and ironed the little test piece of fabric I was stitching on... attached it with tiny stab stitching to a piece of fabric on the block I was working on....   then did some of Karen's frilly picot stitching around the edge, and all of a sudden it looked like a tiny framed picture.  I like it.