Cross Stitch Scissor Keep

It was Kimberly’s birthday ages ago, and we have somehow ended up with a small tradition where we make each other a gift. Normally this is fine…but when you have a small person in your life it’s a little more difficult.

Anyway, whenever Kimberly comes to my house she waxes lyrical about a scissor keep that I made myself years and years ago so I thought I’d make her one. It has cross stitch strawberries on it and is based on a pair of Queen Victoria’s slippers (I can find no evidence for this on the net so you’ll just have to trust me!).

I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to craft supplies and patterns, so I thought I’d just make Kimberly an identical scissor keep. I searched high and low and unbelievably this is pretty much the only cross stitch pattern that I haven’t kept from the last 15 or so years. So it was back the drawing board. I decided to make the Celtic Bird pattern from Textile Heritage (the same company that designed the Strawberry pattern I did years ago.

I love the results, however, I did not love the copious amounts of backstitch in this design. I don’t remember there being that much backstitch in the strawberry cross stitch pattern, and when I looked at it there was none on my scissor keep (but that could just be because I was lazy and didn’t bother doing it). Also the counting on this was really hard for some reason, I think the large blocks of colour on the bird were actually more difficult than the smaller sections of colour on the strawberry.

Sadly the celtic bird design doesn’t have any beading on it, which I’m sure is one of the things that Kimberly likes about my original scissor keep, but never mind.

I’ve now made three things from Textile Heritage and I think the designs are great, and the patterns really easy to follow. But they do change the patterns relatively frequently so if you’re interested in making the celtic bird I’d by the kit now.

A great little project but it took many more hours than I anticipated – but late than never hey!

I’ve also been enjoying

Anticipating the six month subscription to Bustle and Sew, the online magazine, from Pam’s lovely blog Gingerbread Snowflakes

The small bunch of lily of the valley in my lounge

The fact that Beatrix rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time yesterday!