This is my first cross stitch project.
You may recognize it from my last post. It is the one that started my love affair with cross stitch.
To be certain it is an affair that has waxed and waned over
the years yet still one that I come back to time and again.
Here are some of my other first projects.
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| Geese, bunnies, sheep...very early 90's |
You can probably tell by the style and subject matter that I
began stitching in the early nineties. I
was a young bride and my husband and I moved about 250 miles away from our
nearest family within the first year of our marriage to a very rural area of
California. (Yes, it’s true, not every
square inch of the Golden State is covered in pavement.)
In some ways it was all an exciting adventure and in other
ways it was very lonely. I had studied
graphic design in college and in our new town there wasn’t a lot of demand for
my skills. As my husband settled into
his new job, I took a part-time job as a receptionist in a doctor’s office and
looked for ways to release my pent up creative energy.
I did tole painting and sold my creations. I began, at the instigation of my Mom, to
explore painting with thread. It was fun
and a lot less messy. I subscribed to a
cross stitch magazine and waited for the arrival of each issue with
eagerness. I even started designing some
of my own charts, inspired by Bible verses or contests in the cross stitch
magazine (which I never entered!). And
then low and behold…baby number one arrived.
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| Cross Stitch & Country Crafts...definitely more cross stitch than anything else |
Crafts of all kinds were put on hold as I poured myself into
motherhood. Occasionally I would do
something as a gift but my creative energies were flowing in a new direction. Baby number two arrived a few years later and
soon the school years commenced. I did a
stint substitute teaching while my oldest, a son, was in Kindergarten through 4th
grade. But my heart and creative juices
were drawn to homeschooling and so off we went!
During our time of homeschooling (which isn’t quite
completed) we adopted our 3rd child from Uganda. Pretty soon I found I needed to explore a hobby
for my health and sanity's sake. I went digging around in old drawers for my
cross stitch.
Painting with thread has some very appealing
advantages. It’s not messy and it’s easy
to put down and pick up again without worrying about brushes drying out or
taking up valuable space on the dining room table that you might want later
for, oh say, having dinner.
As I perused through my drawers I found plenty of unfinished
projects (which I still hope to finish someday!). Among them was a project I
designed.
A little light went on.
A little App on my iPhone glowed bright orange. The creative juices were surging forth and
the wheels of my brain began turning.
As you recall, I mentioned that I had sold my artistic
endeavors before. It involved traveling
to craft fairs and making multiples of the same object. I never seemed to really do better than
support my crafty habit. I learned then
that the real profit was in selling patterns.
(It was about then that my son arrived.)
Etsy, the bright little orange App on my iPhone, provided
the perfect platform for my thread painting designs.
And so, Luhu Stitches was born. Granted it is still in its infancy. But this is one infant that sleeps through the night (thank the Lord in heaven!)
And I am so happy to introduce to you my very first design,
and my oldest. Yes, this is one of those
projects that languished in my drawer all those years.
It was inspired by a cross stitch magazine contest. As I recall the contest was to design a pattern based on a song. When I originally designed it I chose an old Sunday School song. As I worked to finish the sample recently, I decided to change out the wording to a simple Bible verse. What I love about this design, after several years, are the colors. I am also partial to checks.
I hope you will come visit my shop at
Etsy.
