Well, it has been a week and I haven’t heard any news from my friend Brooke and still have no idea what the baby’s name is. However, since it is her first baby and she is a single mom, I am sure she is much busier with more important things right now than sending out emails to friends 5,000 miles away. I know as soon as it is convenient for her she will let me know all the details. While I am (im)patiently waiting for news, I started the baby sampler I promised. She knows that I am making this, so it is no surprise if she reads this blog.
Originally I had planned to do a cute border from a book that I have surrounding the baby’s name. The problem was that I couldn’t find an alphabet to suit the border, so I abandoned that idea. While I was looking through some patterns I had downloaded I came across my Ellen Maurer-Stroh collection of free patterns and three of her “Babies in Animal Costumes.” The majority of her “Babies in Animals Costumes” series is no longer available online for free. But I was inspired. Perhaps she had done one for a baby sampler.
Luckily, I am very familiar with the shop here in Europe that distributes her “for sale” merchandise (the shop is in Bonn and I have ordered from there before). I browsed around there for a while and not only did I find a baby in an animal costume, I found a bunch of other merchandise that I just had to buy. (hee hee)
The merchandise arrived last Friday and I started the baby sampler last weekend. Since Brooke told me she was having a boy, I decided to buy some light blue fabric. (Blue for a boy… I know it is cliché and traditional, but I like it anyway.) I ended up getting 25 count Lugana. Since stitches on 25 count are sort of big, I am stitching with three strands of floss. I had forgotten what a pain it is to stitch with three strands. I don’t know why exactly, but I feel that extra strand makes things just a bit more complicated. The strands seem to get tangled more easily and they don’t lie on the fabric as smoothly. Otherwise, the project is progressing very nicely.
Of course I want to do a good job because Brooke is a good friend. However, I have an ulterior motive for wanting to do my best possible stitching on this piece: Brooke’s mom is a seasoned stitcher and I want to make sure the work is excellent in case she examines it. I mean, if I went to someone’s house and saw a cross stitch piece I would examine it. I might not go over it with a fine tooth comb, but I would make mental notes concerning the workmanship. Now be honest all you stitchers out there, wouldn’t you?