Friday, September 28, 2012

Something old....

Most stitchers (and quilters, and crafty people in general) I know have what we fondly refer to as WIPs, or works-in-progress.

It seems to come with the territory. We get all inspired, and start some new and exciting project, and somewhere between that glorious start and an even more glorious finish, our interest wanes. Or we get sidetracked with life. Or (shock horror) some even newer and more exciting project comes along and we abandon the original project....cough cough.

I may have talked about this before? LOL...I am somewhat of an expert on the subject, actually ;)

I've recently rediscovered a WIP that has me...well...motivated!  It dates back to when I was a young Mum, all excited to stitch her precious first born baby his very own wool-embroidered blanket.


And excited I was. The minute I spied the photo in my hot-off-the-press copy of Inspirations magazine (Issue Number 18) I mail ordered the kit...long before the days of computers and online shopping!

 When it arrived, I stitched a little bit of the design, and that's about where it ended. I hated the way the ends of the stitching shadowed through the doctors flannel. I didn't like the wool that came with the kit, and even went so far as to source some different wool.  Life got busy, and the kit got placed firmly in my too hard...ooops, I mean WIP... basket. Until recently...when I started to feel like stitching something a bit more challenging than the backstitch/blanket stitch that I've been doing such a lot of lately.

 So I pulled it out, unpulled all the stitches, backed the doctors flannel with some fusible web, and started stitching once more....until I ran out of wool.

Funnily enough, the wool I had substituted had been discontinued several years ago, but an extensive online search had me on the trail!

As of today, I am back in business, and happy to be making lots more of those yummy colonial knots...woohoooooo! The dye lot is a bit different to my original wool, but I figure that sheep are usually a bit multi-coloured anyway  :)

And that precious first born baby?


Well, the blanket may just cover up to his knees on a chilly Winters night! And his face in the photo is, coincidentally, an accurate portrayal of his face when I told him I was embroidering a Woolly Sheep blanket for him...LOL!

Happy Friday!

TTFN xxx

6 comments:

Leisa@Scrapsidaisy said...

Well done you for conquering a WIP - even sourcing threads! WoW! Perhaps an heirloom for the grandkiddies now (did I type that out loud!! )...Um Riley's face = priceless!

Mylittlepieceofengland said...

I did enjoy reading that, I'm not alone :) I have a throw started from when I was expecting my daughter, it now lives in the depths of a cupboard, oh dear!
It's going to be gorgeous when you finish, something special to keep for the future... :) xx

Anthea said...

OMG Suzi that's a Geriatric WIP!! Good on you for tackling it again after so long...

Nicky said...

Good on you! You have made me so happy to see I'm not the only one with this 'problem'. Love the look on that face too!

Hope said...

Yay! Hope you still have some weather suitable for stitching woolly blankets :)

Linda said...

Susan it will be perfect for grand babies but that's miles away so don't rush you've got lots of time.
Xx