This isn’t exactly a big reveal, as these stitches have been my blog’s header for months, but I think it’s about time I got to writing about one of my most ambitious embroidery projects ever.
When Janeal, one of my best friends from high school, won my most recent giveaway, she asked me to do something with her ultrasound. After weeks of thought about it and consultations with my stitchiest friends, I decided to just dive in and do a cross-stitch interpretation of the first picture of her son.
This is an example of the pattern I made and used to create the piece. It was really a pretty huge undertaking. Hundreds and hundreds of stitches made out of seven different shades of gray. It took up 100% of my spare time over about three weeks – and I really loved doing it. Every time I finished a section, I felt great about myself, and I was happy to do it for such a dear old friend.
Ah! The wee one’s sweet little head. That’s his profile, looking up. Kind of hard to tell when you haven’t stared at it for days and days in a row. I was able to give this to Janeal the day after she gave birth, which was pretty tender for me. I’m still/always so in awe of childbirth.
After finishing that piece, I tried to turn this image of fetus-Grady into a cross-stitch pattern, but it just wasn’t working out as well. I think I need to scan it. But I thought if I could do it twice I could turn it into a thing for the shop; custom ultrasound embroideries. They’d be pretty ridiculously expensive, but I think they’re just lovely. I really like the texture of cross-stitch. It’s a lot of work, and the weight of the work sticks with it, I think.
