Crafting in the Time of Corona XI

I really enjoyed figuring out how to make the letters when I cross stitched the Nero Wolfe covers so I decided I wanted to do a letter focused cross stitch. I know my sister likes illuminated manuscripts and I had seen some embroidered letters on Instagram using metallic thread so I thought it would be fun to make my sister a cross stitch of an illuminated manuscript using gold thread.

I found this picture and began developing the pattern. It quickly became obvious that because of the thread count I was using (20 count) and the amount of threads I needed for the letters, not to mention the size of the piece of linen I had left (finished size is 6″×9″), that I was only going to do a fragment of the page. It also became clear that, due to transforming the design to straight lines and boxes on graph paper, the finished piece was going to be inspired by the original rather than a replica of it!

And when I began stitching it another thing became clear. While I had seen attractive embroidered pieces using metallic thread on Instagram, I had missed this meme until after I started attempting to stitch with the gold thread.

I’m sure the verses of this song cover the reality that metallic thread separates, shreds, and makes for very messy stitches.

I recently read an interview of a person who designs cross stitch patterns and she said that one should always stitch their patterns before offering them for sale. I can see why now as I made lots of changes to my pattern while I was stitching. This was probably the most challenging cross stitch I’ve ever done and while I wish the gold stitches looked better I am pretty proud of finished piece.