Scissor Fobia

Hello again, my dear friends!
The other day, I lost my favorite scissors. One minute they were there, and the next there was a child sitting right where they were supposed to be, but - no scissors! Right then and there, I decided that no scissors of mine would be lost again, and made a scissor fob....

The pattern and instructions were taken from the February issue of "Just Cross Stitch". Letter "K" looked more like "A" than like itself so I did some tweaking. Hopefully, it does not look like "H" now.
I made the fob two-sided, with my initials - "KT" - on it.

The twisted cord is also handmade - out of the same threads that were used for stitching. The magazine provided instructions for twisting the cord... using the cord making machine. What? I don't have one of these!  So, I found some very good instructions on YouTube. This lady knows her stuff!
Yet, I was frustrated. Making a twisted cord requires a steady non-moving holding point - like a bulletin board, or a wall, or... a husband? I used my husband. I came up to him, gave him the end of the thread and said, "Hold this, stand still and don't move." Then I did my cord twisting as instructed.  It worked!
Now that I am no longer frustrated, I want to mention that my DH is truly a very patient and supportive man. Not just any person can stay calm and pleasant when their spouse wakes them at 2 am and starts giving weird instructions.... Thank you, I am very grateful.

I also want to say that all the materials for this project - including scissors - were gifted to me by a good friend. Over the past couple of years, she has been giving me stitching gifts - threads, scissors, buttons - and I have been putting them away, waiting for the right moment, and - here it is. Thank you, Erika!

The Scissor Fob

All In Stitches

Good morning, my dear friends!
For the past month, I have been stitching non-stop every day and night. I have been working on several projects - in fact, still working on several projects - for my stitching service. Until now, though,  there was not much to show for it in terms of pictures. So, I stayed away from posting, firmly believing that a stitching post has to have images.
So - here is the picture of my first ever official Model Stitching project.

I would call it my "live and learn" project. It was stamped cross stitch, done in three threads, with lots and lots of back stitching. I had to remember how to stitch the stamped work so the back does not look like hieroglyphs - and I recalled the technique that my host mother taught me a long time ago. It takes more thread, but in the end result the back looks like a basket weave and provides support for your work, like a back panel.

Overall, this was a great, valuable, interesting learning experience. One thing that I realized - alas, after the fact - that one has to be careful with back stitching... I have always done straight line back stitching in longer increments on stamped cross stitch - when I looked at the project, in the end it seemed to make no difference between shorter or longer stitches. But, I guess, when it comes to model and photography - everything makes a difference. Now I see (I guess) that the border does look a little ... wavy? It was not visible to the naked eye. Oh well, I did my best. I will keep notes for the new stamped cross stitch project that comes along.
Until next time... happy stitching!