Cross Stitch Birth Record for Kiddo

I have a creation to show! This is truly labour of love and it has been eating most of my spare time this past fall. I finished it on Friday and it was a huge weight of my shoulders. I still need to frame it, but otherwise it is done.

The Whole Picture

I began working on this when baby E was even more of a baby, and didn’t sleep through the evenings. Since I was tired from breast-feeding her at night I just wanted to sit in the TV couch, and because she was waking up several times during the evening I had to be near her.  So I decided to work on a craft I could do in the couch. So I decided to do cross stitch birth records for the kids. The kiddo chose his own motive, with cars obviously. Little did I know that it was filled with details such as plenty of back stitching and French knots. It wasn’t anything particularly difficult, it was just a lot. Every night I would stitch away and by then end of it I seized every given opportunity to sew just to finish the thing. Baby E will have to wait for hers, I don’t want to sew another cross stitch right now.

 

The French Trailer

This trailor was one of the last things I finished. I had to learn to do French knots. That trailor has 66 of them. 66! I know they are a bit wonky, but frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn. I’ve replaced the worst looking ones, but kept some others. I like how some patterns are repeted in the motive, such as the tree, the lawns and the tractor, the orange car and the orange tree. Plus the animals are cute and varied.

The Tim Gunn Car

I sometimes here Tim Gunn when I’m working on something. I hear his concern about over-designing. I actually did hear his voice when working on this cross-stitch. This blue car is an example of that. It has two colours, blue and orange (the blue also uses two strands in different colours) and back-stitching details and French knots. It felt as if Tim Gunn should have stepped in and said that you shouldn’t just keep adding stuff, but also removing them so it doesn’t look over-designed. In the end I think it looks pretty good, but some element could probably have been removed.

The Name

Yes, here I reveal the kiddo’s full name, as well as birthday (which should be read as June 4, 2010). Gustav is what we call him, but it didn’t sound allright to put Per behind it, it fell weird of the tongue.

There you have it, what I have been working on for about six months. Now maybe my sewing machine can get some attention as well. And my blog. A weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I feel as if I have plenty of time. I wonder how long I will live in that illusion. I also wonder when I will dare to pick up Baby E’s motive (although, it’s not as detailed).

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