A Happy Spoiled Stitching Panda

When I say I'm a beginner and I'm doing baby steps... well, it may be an exaggeration. But it sure feels like it. Maybe intermediate might be a better description... it just doesn't sound right. Hahaha.

I say baby steps since I've been guided, helped and I've researched all the way. I was taught the 'basics' of cross stitching in high school. We were taught to KNOT the end of the thread so it won't go through the fabric when we start. See?!?! Didn't that shock you expert stitchers out there? I didn't know that was wrong. Until another stitcher laughed at me and said, "That looks ugly". (I was stitching in public). So she showed me how to do a loop start. And I tried that. Wow. Way easier.

Then I decided to take a freebie beginners lesson at the DMC store. Ok, I learnt another way to start. And I tried that too. I was also taught to make the back of my fabbie neat. THAT slowed me down right away. I became too conscious of the back of my fabric...even more so than the front.

PEOPLE ACTUALLY FLIP YOUR WORK TO LOOK AT THE BACK!

Well... that's what they do here. It's embarrassing. If you bring your current WIP to a stitchers meet (DMC organizes one every few months for an exhibit or a contest), they flip my fabbie to stare at the back of it. All the more I became obsessed with trying to keep the back neat... and therefor never finishing my Fairy Idyll.

By this time, I had already started amassing my haed collection... the pictures called to me, and I wanted them. And what I want... I had to have. (yes, I spoil myself). I joined the facebook groups and learnt tips there. People would post pics of their collection. Books, Magazines, threads, bobbin boxes... and I had to catch up. This called for a marathon shopping spree... I would enter bargain bookstores looking for cross stitch books, I'd hit ebay, I bought from fellow stitchers... I can say I now have a pretty good stitching collection.

I joined the HAED Bulletin Board (BB) and studied the tips there. I learnt how to loop start on the FRONT of the fabbie, and drag it down to the back. Easier to do with a  giant project such as a HAED will be. I have yet to figure out how to end the thread without having to "flip" the project over. And the  best thing I've learnt from fellow HAED addicts? NOT TO WORRY A DARN THING ABOUT THE BACK. It's almost impossible to keep the back of a haed project immaculate.

JUST TAKE IT ONE STITCH AT A TIME AND ENJOY IT EVERY STITCH OF THE WAY.

Halleluyah. Finally. Permission to stitch without having to keep checking the back is as sterile as rebonded hair. After all, they're right. Once the project's framed...who's going to see the back???

I do a lot of things impulsively... like if I see something I like...I'd probably just snap it up (and regret spending afterwards) or like how I decided to dive head first into cross stitching, I did. And went  nuts. I go overboard. I had to catch up and I did. I built up a small stitching treasure trove to rival some of the long-time stitchers here. But though I do things impulsively, I'm also a geek at heart. I like making up lists (hence wishlists are a special thrill to me), and I'm enjoying the step by step process of preparing my baby-step (learning process) giant-tarzan-yelling leap into HAED.

I had to have the perfect fabbie. (I have an 18ct ready but I got nervous so my darling Panda (a.k.a. sweet loving boyfriend) found me 25ct lugana in ecru. (I'm going to have to wait for that until he comes home on the 18th). I had to have the threads all complete and nicely organized in my bobbin box. And I have to have a nice floor stand. I'm just waiting for my new one to arrive (my sister is giving that one to me for Christmas). I had recently bought a floor stand... a few days before I saw my dream stand on a website.... so.. I've left the one I bought boxed up. To be compared to the new one that'll arrive via sister-santa. I have to have the perfect needles, so I've been stocking up on size 28 petite tapestry needles. UNTIL!!! I saw the double-ended needles. OH WOW!! I never knew those existed. I started drooling over them right away... so I'm hunting those down.

With little things like this, I let myself spoil myself. And my darling Panda helps. He figures buying me thread or fabbie or needles...and helping me hunt down cross stitch books is way better than buying me expensive bags or shoes. He likes watching me wiggle and my eyes twinkle when I add something new to my 'stash'. So he's been encouraging my stitch-mania.

He's always said, since the first time he said he loved me, that I look my prettiest when I smile. And he's been making me smile ever since.

Rango's BAD BILL

My first ever "big" (at least it felt big to me) project is framed and on display in his office... :) It's a character he helped design and set up.