The week of Thanksgiving my daughter announced that I was to become a grandmother!
She and her husband are having a honeymoon baby due in July.
CHRISTMAS BABY TRADITION
I remember the Christmas I was pregnant with my daughter, my parents had Christmas presents for the new baby, which was so much fun to receive…and were my first gifts for the baby, so I thought I’d do the same for my her now that she is all grown up and expecting her first baby.
BABY CROSS STITCHES
When I was pregnant with my daughter many years ago, I cross stitched several pieces to hang in her room.
Wanting to fill her room with cozily cute adorable lambs, the first cross stitch piece I did is in the header photo.
Back then, these hung in oak frames with mats without glass.
Due to my stitches too close to the edge, this one needed to be cut as a circle. It was difficult sourcing a frame for that, but I did.
While moving from base housing in Wichita Falls to San Antonio, I stored all the cross stitches, removed from their frames, for easier packing and storage for the futureday when they have babies.
After removing the pictures from the wall in the bedroom they shared, I was surprised to find that my 4yo and 6yo redecorated their room by hanging ponytail ties from each of the nails over their beds.
Telling them they were each getting their own room in San Antonio, they knew I’d redecorate each one for their own favorite things, trains for my son and flower gardens for my daughter…but I guess pony tail holders worked for the interim before the move! 😉
REFRAMING FOR A NEW GENERATION
Since I wanted to reverse the old plan into an updated, fresh look, I decided to simply lay the pieces on top of the backing and behind glass, to keep the dust off.
Shopping at Hobby Lobby, I found several white frames and cute gingham scrapbook paper for the backing.
Since the little squares of the cross stitch run horizontally and perpendicularly, I rotated the scrapbook paper on the diagonal.
I like how the arrangement of the gingham scrapbook paper plays with the textures of the aida cloth and the little x’s of the cross stitches.
Although I also wanted to fray the edges of each cross stitch, that didn’t work well, so I quit while I was ahead before destroying everything.
LEARNING CROSS STITCH
Although I did tons of crafts and needlework projects while growing up, I didn’t learn cross stitch until my senior year, to make a Mother’s Day pillow for my mom.
After getting my own apartment, I did a few cross stitches to decorate the space, since I loved the effect.
Despite wanting to make a baby quilt, or crochet a blanket, morning sickness was so awful, cross stitching was the only craft I could focus on.
