Current Project......

This will be my project till finished at this point. My husband brought this in from an auction of an estate of a family who the husband was abusive, got released from jail, and tragically went home and shot his wife, son, mother-in-law, father-in-law, and himself. Only the father-in-law survived. When I saw the box and found four unfinished items she had worked on in there I just knew I had to finish them. One because I liked them myself but mostly because this was probably her safety retreat and deserves to be finished, placed in a loving home, and appreciated. I know my stitching is my therapy and in her situation this just had to be the same. So, while she was a knotter she did very nice work, she also held tension almost identically to me so I can blend my work with hers and get these done. I have already finished and posted photos of the one that required only some back stitching and a few stitches she missed to complete.... that's ironic as it's God Bless this Home and I'll turn it into a pillow. She had two Christmas ones and one other. So.... this is where it was when I got it and this is where it's at this morning. I've worked very briefly on it prior to last week and after finishing the unicorns I picked this up. This is going to be one of those oh my when you see what it is, then the backstitching going in. I don't think I will frame this one. I think I may turn this one into a wall hanging...maybe.

When I got it

 

 

 

Where it is on 10/19/2015

This is the first of the four I completed.

 

 

When I got it and just started the back stitching.

 

 

 

 

When I finished

I put the last stitch in the unicorns this morning.  This one was a long journey.  I started it shortly after my mother started dialysis in April 2011.  Worked on it fairly well while we got her training taken care of and I got her going well.  Then I really lost the time to stitch.  Between working and homeschooling and Mom I just barley had time to breath.  So it got put aside and was only worked on a tiny bit here and there over the next two years. 

Then October 2013 I picked it back up for some serious work. Of course something else came up.  We had to do some renovations and had to move my mother in with us as her dementia had gotten to the point she couldn't be alone any more... not a lot got done and it pretty much got put away again.

Then about a year ago Mom took a pretty dramatic down turn in her health and I started having to sit a lot with her both at home and in doctor's offices and through transfusions so the unicorn came back out about the middle of October 2014. 

Unicorns  Oct. 21, 2014

 

 

 

First of the year I worked a little bit here and there but work and Mom had me tied up.  My husband had brought in some unfinished items from an auction so I carried that a bit with me when I took Mom to the doctor and finished the backstitching on one of those.  Then Mom took some down turns and I had the unicorns with me a bit, spent one hospital stay working on a baby sampler and the unicorns.

Unicorns Feb. 22, 2015

 

 

 

Spent another trip in the hospital with Mom and was working a little on the unicorns... they were at a point that you really had to concentrate so I also worked on a Mirabillia that called me during that time.

 

 

 

Unicorns March 2, 2015

 

 

Then we had to start going three days a week to hemo dialysis as Mom couldn't do the home dialysis any more.  So I took along the Mirabillia and finished it up.  May and I had another project, my husband's niece was getting married so I worked on her wedding sampler and the unicorns got put away as I had to put a wiggle on it to get that done in time for the shower. 

 

End of May I pulled out the unicorns again.  Took them with me to the dialysis unit and worked when I could here and there.  Mom was again in the hospital so they went with me and I had it with me while I sat with her the last days o her life in July.  It kept me from flying apart. 

 

August and September I worked up two baby samplers so while I wanted badly to work on the unicorns I just had to put them down while I did the two samplers. 

 

About the middle of September I finally got this back out and on the frame and set my jaw to finish them.  Today I put in the last stitch.... yeah.   Not a bad year of cross stitching at all considering the amount of time I spent running with Mom.  After the first of the year I've had four new starts and finishes all full sized patterns.    Now this is finally finished. 

 

 

 

Unicorns 10/16/2015