It Never Fails

Today, as I was driving down 359, I noticed a Needlework shop that I hadn't been in. I have done counted cross stitch before, and thought it might be fun to pick up some projects to take back to Italy.

I went in and discovered a treasure trove of patterns! Cross stitch has come a long way since I did it years ago! I especially love the tiny patterns they now have, patterns that are really cute and should stitch up quickly.

I bought a number of patterns. One set of three for Halloween, one for Thanksgiving, a sampler for Christmas, and a sampler about the joys of reading. I decided to buy the materials to make the Thanksgiving pattern.

First off, the fabrics they now have are incredible! I remember shopping at craft stores years ago and finding white and cream and the occasional red, green, or black. The fabrics now are linen and come in amazing colors. I will be stitching my Thanksgiving pattern on Summer Khaki.

My pattern uses nine different colors of thread. Even the threads are better than they used to be. The saleswoman was showing me how many of the threads are slightly variegated, which gives a more interesting look to the finished product. I was persuaded to buy four new threads for the larger areas, so I will get the variegated look. The other five threads cover smaller areas, so I decided to go home and looks through my large stash of DMC thread to see if I had those colors.

Okay, so if you're not keeping up with the math, my pattern needed nine different colors of thread. I bought four colors, which means I needed five more. I came home and looked through my DMC thread - all 243 colors which I own. Guess how many of the thread colors I don't have? Two. Out of my 243 colors, I could only come up with three of the five colors I needed!

If any of you have done cross stitch, you will understand why I titled my post "it never fails". I don't think I have ever done a project and had all of the threads I needed.

On the plus side, I get to go back to that fun store now...