My neighbour, who is currently struggling with her own health, while caring for her husband whose mobility has been severely hampered by a stroke, produced this cross stitch kit, called The Journey and asked me to embroider it for her. She had bought it some time ago to make as a gift for her daughter, who likes both bicycles and flowers.
The daughter is currently travelling 40km a couple of times a week to take my neighbour shopping, and she wanted to give her the framed embroidery to thank her.
While she said it didn't matter how long it took, I was anxious to get it done. I don't mind cross stitch, but I'm not a fan of the intricacy required for this one - a lot of individual stitches and clusters of colour, as well as a great deal of structural detail, including gears. It required concentration on both the chart and the fabric - and was hard on my eyes. It's a large postcard size - about A5.
I worked the lower left quadrant first, mainly because it looked the most intricate. I started with the wheel, but then outlined some of the bars to keep myself on track. I would normally have worked these as outlines at the end, but it helped to have some guidelines.
I didn't photograph the progress in detail - I just wanted it done! The second wheel and lower right quadrant came next, with the handlebars and basket frame added to give me perspective. The sunflowers were easier than their leaves - a welcome relief from the painstaking fill-in of the blossoms behind the wheels and in the basket.
I pushed on to finish late one night so I could add the text in the morning.
It was a joy to see it done
to remove it from the hoop, take out the tacking, and iron it.
It's now with my neighbour, who is happy and knows how she wants it framed.
I have my fingers crossed her daughter likes it.
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