A Change of Projects

Well, I hate to admit defeat, but I have decided not to do the project for Mom that I started shortly after writing New Project. I worked on it 3 or 4 times, but it got the better of me! There were 3 things making it different from anything I've done before. First, every space on the cloth had a stitch in it, like needlepoint. Second, a lot of the stitches were half-stitches and not cross stitches. And, third, the cloth was 18-count instead of 14-count. This means there are 18 stitches per inch instead of 14. I'm sure this does give a smoother, more "picture-like" appearance, but for someone with bad eyes, it is more difficult. Each time I worked on it, I counted each starting spot at least 3 times, got started on a section, and at some point, got way off and had to take it out and start over. I'm sure I could have eventually gotten it, but I wasn't enjoying it. It was adding to my stress instead of being a stress reliever. So, I talked to Mom and we are going to pick out a different project for me to do for her.

In the meantime, I am going to start on the project I picked out for Austin's room. He likes maps and history, so I'm going to do an Olde World map. It is a larger size, but it is on 14-count cloth and there are no half stitches. Also, if you see an off-white color in the design, that is the fabric itself, not stitched over. This is the type of cross-stitch I have done before. There are some beads to attach, but I don't think that will be too hard, and there are some french knots, but I've done those before, too.

[caption id="attachment_26379" align="aligncenter" width="660"] The words at the top mean “NEW EARTH AND WATER MAP PAINTING.”[/caption]

I wonder how long it will take me to make this. I have no idea! A lot depends on how often I work on it and for how long each time. I'm sure it won't be a quick project. I was going to start working on it today, but I didn't because the instructions said to wash the floss first. I've never done that before, but apparently the company doesn't guarantee the color-fastness of the darker/brighter colors any more. So, today I washed 2 shades of red, one shade of dark brown and one shade of dark green. I have a few others to do, like purple and a couple of other greens at least. I will probably do them tomorrow. I didn't want to have too many out at once and get them mixed up.

Does anyone have a guess about when I will finish this? I think it would be fun to see what everyone thinks and how close you all come to my actual time. I'll be waiting hear what you have to say.