Saturday, November 8, 2014

I am alive

I had a very stressful summer with work and I didn't enjoy it at all. I read somewhere that a sign that your emotional health is not good, is lack of participation in hobbies that used to bring you joy. I felt that way this summer. I didn't do any crafting because I was so drained physically and emotionally.

Well, it is fall/winter now and there is time to do things! Emily and I have been squeezing time in, usually on a Friday afternoon to get some sewing done. We started these embroidery samplers and it is going pretty well. I will post pictures on a later post. Embroidery isn't my strength though. I am not that familiar with stitches and so I keep defaulting to satin stitches.

Last night I started a new cross stitch project. It was a free DMC chart for a snowflake sampler. I love the symmetry of the pattern. I ran to the quirky cross stitch store after work and was looking for some overdyed floss. I considered opalescent fabric, but I think that would have overwhelmed the pattern. It is too 'clean' for opalescent and variegated  floss. Well, I was looking at embroidery floss when the one of the owners came over and pointed out this other kind of cotton thread I'd never heard of before. Caron Wildflowers described as "a single stranded hand-dyed cotton in variegated colors. It has more of a matte finish when stitched. Use one or more strands as required by the ground fabric. It is between a #8 and #12 pearl cotton in weight." I am really enjoying it and I did some reading from the company's website and it is a nice tale.

I figured out why not since this is just a pattern that you can use any colour. I really like the finish. It is more raised in my opinion and I love to run my fingers over the top of stitches. Gives a bit more dimension and while the Xs are clear, they fill out nicely.