A Long Time Ago...

... I thought cross-stitch was far too difficult for me. Then I made some small Christmas chair ornments and I was hooked. This was probably my first attempt at something larger. I made it for my husband's uncle and aunt. I had never taken a digital picture of it, so we were visiting them now and I took my chance to put this one on the blog. G

Surprise

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this weekend. My mom cross-stitched this sampler for the occasion and M. and I picked it up at the framer's just in time to present it to my parents at their party.

My own small contribution to the festivities! It's a pattern by Brenda Keyes. It looked quite easy in her book, "Traditional Samplers", but turned out to be a lot of work! The charm is one of the Shepherd Bush silver charms. Luckily I had just enough Gloriana thread to finish it (with only an inch or so left, which was quite stressful at the end) G.