Sunday Stitches – October 24, 2021

As you know I’m stitching along with friend Judy on Eliza M Stone 1881 from Whilst Iris Naps which is a fund raiser chart, as a Sunday Stitches project – which basically is a stitch saved to stitch on just on Sundays.    I did pull it out about 1:30 AM this morning to start putting a few more stitches in but didn’t stitch on it for real long before setting it aside.  When I picked it up I had the first row of letters done, outside border around those letters and half the  border done beneath the first row of letters.  So a few more letters and border work done. before I set it aside.

What I was working on most of the evening was the project I had told you was for a Christmas present that I finally got the piece I needed so I could start planning it.  As those who have read my blog know, I have a  best friend which has been my Chauffeur for many things since I don’t drive, have never owned a car, due to vision issues.  I’m very blessed to have her as a friend for so many years and very lucky she is retired.  She was my chemo buddy sitting with me thru those appointments and many other doctor appointments, chauffeured to the ER when I broke my arm, which then began her chauffeuring me to work and picking me up on the few days I was working in the office as the broken arm healed (and doing so many things like taking out the garbage bags when she dropped me off at home and opening jars and things I couldn’t open one handed); and then that, after Covid mandated working from home for a while, morphed into chauffeuring me to and from work on the part time schedule once we were able to return to the office 50% of the time which will continue thru the end of December so I didn’t have to ride a city bus to and from.   I do look forward to someday going to do some of our weekend ramblings out for breakfast or a stop in a shop like we used to, but so far I am still avoiding restaurants and shopping and haven’t been in them since Covid started.  Anyway, all that is a long way of saying how grateful I am for friend who has gone above and beyond and in addition to her normal Christmas gift, the “Chauffeur” needs some special gifts as thank you this holiday season.   As I was searching “chauffeur” related items on Etsy thinking I might be able to find something cute, nothing seemed quite right until this old book, published in 1905, popped into my list.  Lightbulb moment!   I have been wanting to finish a cross stitch piece on the front of a book similar to what I had seen in this Lori Holt Flosstube.  This was the book I ordered.

I’m going to leave the title showing and mount my stitching below it.  It’s not a large space to put the stitching in – only about 4″ x  5″ so I spent a large part of yesterday late afternoon and evening  searching for what I wanted to stitch on it.  She is an avid biker so I wanted to include “her ride” and after much search and counting stitches finally found a bike motif that would fit and started there.  I also knew the words I wanted to put on it:  “It’s all about the Journey…. Enjoy the ride.”  So I spent a long time with the Sampler Motif book trying to find the style and right size letters to chart out for  the phrase.  After starting, erasing, restarting several different styles of letters I finally found one that would fit but that process took longer than I thought it would.   

But it was made easier because I remembered I had gotten this book from Amazon a while ago since I want to work on charting a sampler with motifs that have meaning to me (one of these days).  This is is just a book of graph paper for charting.  It does have an index in the front so you could list a pattern or page of motifs to know where to find them (I however would not be that organized).  (and that cover has also given me an idea if I ever need to print another set of floss tag cards – it’s just so pretty).  Anyway, after getting the letters all figured out, and searching for a simple border line that would work with them, I pulled fabric and floss.  I’m using a green (to go with the book cover), a gold  and a dark grayish black similar to the border of the book cover and got to stitching.  Here’s where I left off last night before switching to the Sunday Stitch.

After I get the words finished I’ll figure out how much room I have left for additional stitching.  She has two dogs so I may add dog motifs or I found a simple little turkey-looking bird motif – we have seen tons of turkeys that live in the city on our rides to and from work so I may add them.  It’s sort of a design in progress as I go along so who knows how it will end up.  She’s also a VERY avid book reader so will appreciate the fact that it is mounted on a book that she can stand up to display on one of her book shelves.  Sometimes a gift idea just falls into place perfectly and this is one of those personalized gifts that will be perfect.