If You Give a Girl a Cross Stitch . . .

 Last fall a friend came be-bopping through the church door carrying a hefty bag full of something and plopped it on a nearby table in the narthex. It turned some heads. Gosh, what could this be? A few of us gathered as she pulled piece after piece after piece of cross stitch samplers from the bag. 

“These are from Jane,” friend said. “She was going to burn them, but thought maybe some of us would have a use for them and give a small donation to the church.”

Over the course of twenty years or so Jane’s father-in-law had sat patiently and created lovely works of art with needle and thread. Burn them? Heaven forbid! You should have seen these things. There were at least fifty and guess who leaned in and got her hands into them? No dummy here. It was so hard not to be greedy but I only took four and forked over my donation.  

So, yesterday, I finally got around to framing one of them. I know, I know. it’s April already but– there were the holidays, grand kids, shopping and baking to attend to. Yup, it took a little while to get to them.

When I found an old frame in the attic, I had to scrub it up. Then I had to scrounge around for a suitable piece of backing. Found that and cut it to size then fitted my first piece carefully inside the frame. It looked awesome. That’s a picture of it up there.

When I decided to hang it over the fireplace in the kitchen I had to find a spot to relocate the rooster picture I’d had there. Casting my eye around the room I spotted the plate rail running along the top of the wall. Well, there ya go, an excellent place for Mr. Rooster.

While fussing to make room for rooster some really aggressive cobwebs reached out for a hug so I beat them back and ran for a wet cloth. To get into the open space in a far corner I had to move a chair which disturbed all the dust bunnies and splashes of Capri Sun (grandmas know what I mean) on the chair rungs. Yuck! Then, when I got down to wipe those off, I could see that the bunnies had been breeding like little sex maniacs all winter covering the baseboards with their loathsome offspring. And just above the baseboards some drips and spills from delightful meals of yore called to me. They were showing off all up and down the dark tongue and groove paneling. Grrr. They didn't have long to live. I have to tell you, these disgusting discoveries were getting to be a real drag. 

But, an hour or so later I had everything spiffed up and that’s when I realized . . .

By June (or maybe Christmas) the house should be pretty darn clean. I have three more cross stitch samplers to frame and hang. I'm giving fair warning right now to the dust bunnies to pack up and get outta Dodge. And I’ll let the rest of you know when to pop over for the white glove test.

How’s your spring cleaning going?

Here are my other pieces.