7 Days of New Year's - Day 4: Two Cross stitch Finishes For Some Slow Sunday Stitching!

While I had not expected to spend the first few days of my annual "7 Days" craft-a-thon working on cross stitch, I can now say it has paid off!  Even better, the results happening today means I can join in over at Kathy's Quilts for some "Slow Sunday Stitching" talk!

For the past three days I have been trying to finish up what was supposed to have been a Christmas gift for my MIL.  She and I both quilt but after I started cross stitching a few years ago and then saw this cross stitch design, I just knew I had to stitch it for the both of us.

This is "Time to Stitch" by My Big Toe Designs.   I had started it early in the month with the expectation that since this is not a full coverage piece, I was sure I could get it done in time to make the early mailing deadlines for Christmas.  But checking my project tracking notes, I see I lost a week when I stopped stitching to try to get three Christmas quilt projects done in time to display.  Yeah, only one of those got finished in that effort!

As I talked about in my Day 2 post, I had originally purchased an 8"x 10" frame for this.  However, even before I finished the stitching, when I tried to insert this into it, the 14 count natural AIDA fabric I used would not squeeze neatly into it.  In a way that saved me because by then I had decided I wanted to add a line of text to the design.  I wanted to emphasize that the sentiment while stitched in cross stitch, also worked for our joint love of quilting.  However, even though I found a really small font in a book that worked,  it would have put a further squeeze on getting the design to fit in the frame opening even if the fabric had been cooperating.  

So I pivoted on the finish, deciding instead to mount it onto an 11" x 14" piece of painting canvas.  To fill it out, I added fabric borders and padded the bordered piece with batting before bringing the fabric edges around to the back and securing them to the canvas back.   

Since I wasn't using a frame,  I wanted to find a way to give my MIL a way to hang it if she'd like to display it that way.  To accommodate that option,  I made twisted cording from the four colors of floss I stitched the piece with using a cording tool I had purchased for finishing another piece.    

To finish the backing neatly, I cut a piece of  flannel fabric from my stash,  stitched a label onto it and used spray adhesive and hot glue to secure the backing over the fabric edges.  

Since I was going to use the cording tool,  I figured I might as well also "fully finish" the piece I had purchased it for!  All the way back in April,  I had started on finishing this year's Frosted Pumpkin "Year of the Dragon" piece which I had finished stitching up in February(!).  

Considering that the year is now almost over, it's about time I git 'er done and display it!

I had purchased both the cording tool and a tassel maker to add embellishments to the piece after I had decided on finishing it to look like a lantern.

The cording tool instructions were all in Japanese but thankfully the University of YouTube came to the rescue to explain how to use it!  

And now it's finally done and hanging with the pieces I stitched to commemorate 2023. 

I've already decided not to do another "Year Of" for 2025 -- well, at least not as a "New Year's Stitch" as I have done the past two years.  I have two other cross stitch pieces that I'm anxious to get started in January.  But who knows, I may decide to do the 2025 Year of the Snake (also available as a printed pattern) later since I've had fun doing this series so far.  The downside of them is that once the year is past, they are not as pertinent for display so I will admit it dampens my enthusiasm for pursuing it.  But now's not the time to stew over such things, there are two more days left before the New Year rings in and more than that many projects left to tackle!

My thanks to Kathy for another year of providing a place for us to share our Slow Sunday Stitching projects.  Wishing everyone a safe and happy entry to another year of relaxing and comforting hand work!