Cross Stitch Hoop

Hello!  I come to you today, on my due date!  Still no sign of the baby... but I have finished another longstanding WIP!

I finished those socks on Friday, and yesterday I finished an embroidery I'd start last summer - maybe June or July.

This is a present for a friend who has a baby called Ella.  At the time I started Ella was only a few months old... now she's over a year!

There wasn't any reason for the present - I just felt the need to make this.  You know how it is, when inspiration strikes!  However, the inspiration left me for some time... hence this languishing in the unfinished pile.

I found a cross-stitch alphabet online that I liked, and used that to make the name.  The flowers were part of a bigger cross-stitch picture, that I also spotted online.  I used just one flower extracted from the picture, and flipped it over to make the second.

I planned it out in excel, and used embroidery threads I already had.  In fact, I had the threads, the aida, the hoop and the ribbon already - it was a "free" project, if you don't count my time!  (And the fact I bought all the supplies at some point - just not then!)

I had actually managed to finish the embroidery off by the end of last year - it was just the backing I had left to do.  That's what I completed yesterday, and the addition of the hanging loop and bow.

I used running stitch to draw the aida together and covered it all with a circle of felt sewn on.  The aida was a bit stiff and hard to keep down, so the felt backing looks a bit padded.  I think it's fine, though.

All in all, I'm pleased with this and looking forward to giving it to my friend.  Not sure when I'll see her now, however, with the pending birth!!!  But at least it's ready.  I'm finding it very satisfying finishing off these longstanding projects... maybe it's a creative form of nesting!

Check out my sewing projects here.

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