Something a little different

Back in the early 90's I loved to cross-stitch.  It was one of those things that made me feel like I was actually a little crafty.  I would sit for hours counting stitches and playing with my DMC floss.  I subscribed to cross-stitching magazines and traveled to cross-stitching stores just waiting for that special pattern to come my way.  And then one day there it was. My Grandmother actually found the pattern in one of her magazines and we both fell in love with it.  It was rated "difficult".  By 1994 I had been cross-stitching for well over 4 years and thought nothing was too difficult for these hands.  Boy was I ever wrong.  This pattern actually consisted of two prints.  One was a little boy and the other a little girl.  The little boy print was the pattern I decided to start on first.  I liked the colors.  If your a cross-stitcher, it becomes rather boring to work with the same color.  The little boy was so vibrant and FULL of color.  My work was cut out for me, but I was bound and determined to get these pictures done.  

Sometime in 1994 I started my little boy picture.  I filled many, many nights and many hours of counting and stitching.  In 1995 all I had left to do was the back-stitching and that print would be done.  Then I could finally start on the little girl.  What I did not know was that there was going to be a move in my future.  A move where the little boy was lost!!!  LOST!!!!  All that work!!!!!  

A few years later I was rummaging around in my cross-stitching books and came across that little boy picture again.  Just the picture, not all my hard work.  I decided then and there that I was starting over.  This was a project that I was seeing to the end.  

These pictures are my proudest achievement.  They took me almost 2 full years to complete.  They are also the last bit of cross-stitching I ever did.  To this day I still have hundreds of DMC floss and patterns that have never been used. These pictures were beyond "difficult", in every sense of the word.

You may be asking yourself why I am telling you all this. Well I decided to try my hand at cross-stitching on a cookie. 

I found a free pattern at ABC Free Cross-stitch and got to work.  If you would like to see the pattern I worked off of you can go here.

This was honestly not an easy cookie.  It took me two hours to pipe all the lines with a #1 PME tip.  With no clogs I might add :)  Instead of making the traditional X's that you make with cross-stitching, I did dots with my 1.5 PME tip. Now that the cookie is done, I really wish I would have taken step by step pictures.  But I was not sure whether this project was going to turn out as well as it did. 

 

I'm linking this post up with Melissa at Simply Sweets by Honeybee and Stephanie at Ellie's Bites Decorated Cookies for their January Inspiration Challenge.  The challenge was "New Year/New You".  And believe me this cookie was a true challenge and something I have never tempted to do before.  

In the next few weeks I will be sharing some Hot Air Balloon cookies and a new technique to me.......fondant AND Glaze Icing with a few Royal Icing accents.