Behind the Project: How it All Began

Cross Stitcher Needed
Reply to:
Date: 2008-11-22, 7:27AM
I have some unfinished cross stitch patterns that I would like completed, but I dont have the time. They are pretty big (maybe 9 inches by 11 inches), but I am willing to pay $200 to anyone who is willing to complete one.

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Our story begins with this ad on Craigslist. My husband is incredibly resourceful and has a knack for finding interesting ways for us as a couple to (legally and honorably) make some extra cash. It’s good he is this way, as he and I are performers and have a catch-as-catch-can means of making a living. Any extra money we can legitimately make is well-worth our efforts...most of the time.

When he found this ad and proceeded to send it to me, I read it with a shrug and figured it would be an easy two hundred bucks. I’d done a cross-stich for a friend’s Christmas gift a few years ago and had enjoyed it, plus, it had fit into an 11x14 frame so I figured a diminutive 9x11 would be easy-peasy.

I didn’t quite gather the full extent of the project, however, until the exchange had been made and I had the actual pattern in my hands. It printed out on four sheets of 8x11.5 of paper and every single square inch was covered in teeny tiny stitch. Look to the right for what the finished product should look like.

The official alarms went off after my first day of stitching, on December 9. According to the deal, I am to complete the project by the end of January, for a total of 54 days, or about three square inches a day. By the end of the first week, I had barely one square inch done, and that was after hours and hours of work. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and my work is certainly cut out for me.

Enjoy the following entries for daily updates, pictures of my progress, and a countdown to the deadline.