{"id":23677,"date":"2012-09-30T00:09:37","date_gmt":"2012-09-30T07:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=23677"},"modified":"2012-09-30T00:09:37","modified_gmt":"2012-09-30T07:09:37","slug":"cross-stitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/23677","title":{"rendered":"Cross-stitch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tWondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/a> \u2026<\/p>\n

For this week\u2019s Merit Badge<\/a>, I decided to tackle cross-stitching! Why,\u00a0you ask? Well, that\u2019s easy. I started a book club.<\/p>\n

Huh?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Let me explain.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I got it in my head to have a little gift for my girls when they arrived. You know, so I can live up to my reputation as Hostess with the Mostess. What better gift for my little bookworms than bookmarks, right? Right!<\/p>\n

I found the sweet little templates at the craft store (where my favorite clerk was rocking her ruffled apron, BTW) and picked out a whole ton of fun, colored threads. I decided to stick to autumnal colors and nearly bought out the orange section in my sudden craving for all things pumpkin.<\/p>\n

I had a total of five bookmarks to make, and to get the feel before I went all crafty and artsy and over my head, I decided to do my first one with a full-on pattern. This is called counted cross-stitching, I learned.<\/p>\n

How hard can it be to count stitches? Well, how ADD are you? Can you chew gum and rub your tummy? Pat your head and walk? Wait. I mean\u2014never mind.<\/p>\n

Oh, shiny!<\/p>\n

Ten, eleven, twelve \u2013<\/p>\n

squirrel!<\/p>\n

fourteen, fifteen, sixteen \u2013<\/p>\n

sandwich!<\/p>\n

So, maybe counted cross-stitch wasn\u2019t my thing.<\/p>\n

Quitting while I was ahead (and by \u201cahead,\u201d I mean not too dreadfully behind), I abandoned the counting, and with the next bookmark, I used a colored template. So I didn\u2019t have to count, but I still had something to guide me when my thoughts wandered into sandwich territory.<\/p>\n

Mmmm. Turkey and cranberry, with cream cheese \u2026<\/p>\n

This was better, and the result was very nearly a legible bookmark. It may or may not say Betsy\u2019s Boks<\/em> instead of Betsy\u2019s Books<\/em>, but really, if you squint, it\u2019s hardly noticeable. Besides, Betsy is notoriously farsighted. She has to prop her book open all the way across the couch. I figure I\u2019m golden.<\/p>\n

So, by the third bookmark, eyes crossed (dare I hope, not permanently), fingers pricked, and thread count getting low, I was getting the hang of it. I determined to take a cue from my rogue quilting days, and abandon the patterns and just free-style, baby!<\/p>\n

The ending result with the last three bookmarks? Artistic!<\/p>\n

Avant-garde!\u00a0You might say.<\/p>\n

Surrealism! Shout the masses.<\/p>\n

Abstract! Says I.<\/p>\n

Pseudo realism! For sure.<\/p>\n

Less Monet, perhaps, and more Dali, in form, but my bookmarks are unique. One of a kind. Hey, just like my friends!\u00a0And I think I\u2019ve got the hang of this cross-stitching stuff now. I may not be ready to open my own Etsy shop just yet, but stranger things have happened \u2026<\/p>\n

In order to personalize my gifts even more, I looped some lovely ribbons through the top, to stick merrily out the spines of their books, braided them, and even hung a sweet charm on the end. Seriously. Cutest things ever.<\/p>\n

Etsy who?<\/p>\n

Jane\u2019s Bokmarks are where it\u2019s at!\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life \u2026 For this week\u2019s Merit Badge, I decided to tackle cross-stitching! Why,\u00a0you ask? Well, that\u2019s easy. I started a book club. Huh? Let … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[363,548,566,574],"class_list":["post-23677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters","tag-gladsome-sisters","tag-maryjanesfarm-farmgirl-sisterhood","tag-mba-jane","tag-merit-badge-awardees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}