The Butterflies Have Started

I have joined my first ever cross stitch exchange. It is a Christmas Ornament exchange. Stitch and finish (ready to hang up) a Christmas Ornament. I am doing it for the Cross Stitch Crazy posting board. I received my e-mail the other day telling me who I am paired with and I won't post it here because I don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone else but I will say this I AM NERVOUS AS HELL! I know I shouldn't be because I know my stitching is pretty good, my backs are usually neat (except for those designs with massive color changes in small areas using blended threads..those never come out real neat LOL), everything crossed in the same direction etc. etc. but I am still nervous. I had already finished a few ornaments and chosen the one I would finish and send for the exchange as I planned to enter it back when I joined the board a few months ago. But when I received my e-mail match there was a notation that the person I am matched with prefers angels and a specific color. (Won't say cuz that will give it away) I had not stitched an angel and I've been looking for days for a design but I can't find one that I like that is small enough for an ornament. So I will go with my original choice as the person told me that it did not HAVE to be an angel and that she is very excited. I just wanted it to be something that I knew the person liked best. So my feeling bad is my usual being too hard on myself thing. But man I am nervous! This is the first time I have given something I stitched to another stitcher! Someone who knows how to stitch and thus knows what they are looking at and how it should be done. As usual I am worried that I won't be up to par in her eyes. I know that is my own nerves and self-esteem issues and it has nothing to do with the recipient at all. She has been nothing but nice, friendly, warm etc. since I joined the board, so I have no reason at all to believe that she would be judgemental or anything negative at all. I'm just scared I guess.

I just hope she likes it! Other than the butterflies I am really enjoying stitching for such an exchange. The idea of something I stitched going to someone that I know will appreciate all the work that goes into stitching is a lot of fun. I had a good time figuring out which pattern to use and ended up stitching a few different ones to select from once I knew who my partner is. Having not stitched in a long time doing this has brought back my enjoyment of stitching again and I am so glad that it did!

I really appreciate all the people on the boards I have joined and the mailing list I am on for being so welcoming of a newcomer. It made it a lot easier for me to want to participate in board events. Well off to the doctor I go!

Stitchy Update

My DH has my camera in Virginia with him, which is why I had not posted any updates. But today I finally got the scanner working again and used it to take pictures of my wips.

I joined a yahoogroup called WOCS. It is about a year old and does cross stitch for charity. I really liked the idea and have started one of the cow charts they are doing.

This is a chart by Stephanie Cliquennois and can be found at her site. She is from France and has created quite a few of these little cow charts. They are quite adorable. These squares will be used for a quilt.

Here is the Blackwork Cat from Kitty and Me Designs as of Nov. 8, 2007.

Here is a picture of the Mini Amish Quilt I mentioned in an earlier post. I am not that far on it.

This is called Amish Sunburst and is made by Cross My Heart Designs. I've done peices on black fabric before (the large wizard for my DH) and had no trouble with it, but this time it is slow going trying to find the holes. Maybe I'm just out of practice. It has been at least 6 years since I have stitched on black.

My DS is sick with an infection in his throat so I have halved his school work. It is difficult to get him to pay attention when he is ill. I am sure he will feel better in a couple days.