Sampler update

I have completed all the cross stitching required for the sampler & got a better photo of the last page I put on here:

 

Next each page has been backed with a piece of thick interfacing & then I mitered the corners & tacked the excess linen to the interfacing. with this done I have joined two pages together using long armed cross.
At this point I realise how tiny these pages are!

My next step will to purchase some suitable ribbon to bind the pages together.

While I am finishing things, I made a tassel & finished my chair:

Now, soon I hope you will be seeing the next lot of projects, which include one unfinished sampler for friends, a piece which I am testing the instructions on for my Mum, the Home Sweet Home project & not to mention a few baby gift things. I really should get onto those baby gifts, or at least plan what I am going to do there!

My Baseline - getting cross

I don't recall doing any stitching during high school, or University. I did pick up the crafting bug again while living in Dunedin & was given this to do:

This was quite an interesting turn to my stitching, as previously I had never sought advice, only used standard Aida, & this project while started when I got it, I didn't finish it for about 6 years.

AFTER finishing, I showed my mother, who commented it was probably meant to have been done by stitching over 2 thread (that's why it was so tricky!) & she taught me how to frame it myself.

Other than being a bit tricky (& 1/4 the size it was supposed to be) it took me so long, mostly due to becoming a mother - small children, kittens (not that i had a kitten) & threads don't mix too well.

So, with this one under my belt & being inspired by my mum in regard to gifts I started making these:

Since I did these, I was then commissioned to do this one:

Then there have been some other gifts, this first one, was an online challenge & ended up being sent to the UK through livejournal

Then I joined a group of crafty ladies through mutual friends & facebook - anyone can join the "crafty foxes" there may even be a chapter in your location. We get together - people from all crafts & skills, a theme is picked & you choose to join or not & create something for someone else in that theme. The first I did was an 'anti-valentine' theme:

 this one was for an 80's theme.

Then there have been the little gifts, where I've been particularly poor, but felt the people deserve a little something:

Pretty much all Cross Stitch... don't worry though, there has been more! Through the above items, I have moved from kits, to book patterns to my own drawings on graph paper. Or blending them all.
Most things I have managed/remembered to photograph before giving, but there are a couple of items where I didn't - 1 was a crafty fox swap & the other was a commissioned piece which went to Canada.