I'm going to attempt to make this for our second anniversary in June (cotton is the official gift). These were the roses we had in our wedding.

I'm a bit ambitious, I'm stitching this on 28ct Laguna, over one. First time for me, so I'm excited and nervous at the same time.

April 3, 2004

I've decided to try something new, I gridded my fabric before starting. I hope it turns out to be worth it, it took me about 4 hours to make the grid. I'm hoping it makes the counting a lot easier, which is an issue when doing such a large piece over one.

April 8, 2004

8 hours of stitching.

The over one is going better than I thought it would, though it is definitely challenging. The magnifier I purchased really is on the lousy side (distortion) so I haven't really been using it much.

I have been very appreciative of the gridding so far, its amazing how much it helps, even though its a bit of a pain having to remove the grid as I go.

April 22, 2004

19.5 hours of stitching.

This is so hard to do in secrecy! I put in some TV time at a friend's house, and got a little more done at work. I am a little saddened about the slow pace of this project. Hopefully I'll get more done on my next business trip, and I'll be able to stitch at home after June 15th (our anniversary).

There's a section of blended threads (the really dark area), and I had read that I should just do half crosses for that section. So silly me does the half crosses the way I do my first leg of the stitch, in this \ direction. When it was done, it looked weird, and I realized that I should have done it in the direction of the second leg, /. I had to rip it all out and redo it. Frogging when doing 1 over 1 is really, really hard.

May 16, 2004

30 hours of stitching.

Brad's been installing ceiling fans at his co-worker's house, which gave me a little more than 10 hours of solid stitching at home. Eight of those hours was spent on one single color, two more on another.

I hope to get more done on a business trip this week.

July 5, 2004

40 hours of stitching.

I unveiled this on our anniversary, June 15, so now I can stitch out in the open at home. Of course, due to school, work, and way too many cross-stitch and craft projects, its still plugging along slowly but surely.