Cross Stitch Project: The Salon

I got ambitious. I gathered my cross stitch patterns, made a master list of all the floss colors I would need, and purchased the goods. Then I decided to do the biggest project I've ever completed as a birthday gift for my sister-in-law, who is a very cool hair stylist. I didn't keep track of the hours I spent, but working on it in the evenings while my husband painted Warhammer models and old Columbo episodes played on his computer via Netflix, it took me several weeks. The result? "Anna's Salon," of which I am rightly proud.

I made plenty of beginner's mistakes. I miscounted my stitches in several places. My backstitch sections are clumsy. Also, I didn't pay attention to what I was doing in a couple spots and the crosses are reversed (I usually stitch right under left, in these cases I stitched left under right, oh well). But I also personalized the design, covered (I think!) my errors pretty well, and added shiny strands to the white fill of the mirror, to make it sparkle. Working with the metallic floss was quite the adventure. I also figured out my own lettering style and placed my words in the pattern to best advantage. Another thing: the craft shops aren't the place to shop for picture frames, for displaying the finished piece. I found a much better selection (and cheaper prices) at Fred Meyers.

I learned-by-doing, as I usually do. I learned what to do with the tools I have and which tools I still needed to acquire. And I enjoyed the work.

And the SIL was very, very pleased with the gift.