Wedding and Anniversary Gifts

Last week, we celebrated our 10th anniversary, and wedding and anniversary pieces have been on my mind.  My in-laws' 50th anniversary will be coming up in the not too distant future, so I've been thinking about something we could stitch for them.  It's also traditional wedding season - June is still big for weddings, right?  (Although it seems like October is pulling ahead in terms of popularity.)  

I've already shown you some of the Bent Creek pieces I've done for weddings in a previous post.  I thought it would be fun to go back and look at some of the pieces I've stitched as wedding gifts, or on occasion, anniversary gifts because I can't get my act together in time for the wedding.  And in the case of this first piece, a Christmas gift because we didn't even stitch at the time the wedding took place.

I like to tie what I stitch into the event whenever possible.  With weddings that don't have a specific theme, I look to the the time of year, location, even a special reading or a song from the ceremony for inspiration. 

This is a piece I modified from a Leisure Arts leaflet called Marriage Keepsakes.  I had stitched the pattern once before, as designed.  This time, I changed the text to a poem my BIL and SIL used on the bookmark favors for their wedding.  They didn't have a theme for their wedding, so I drew on the colors they used, blue and silver.

Another couple I stitched a gift for also didn't really use a theme for their wedding, so I used this Bucilla kit, "To Love and To Cherish" as a gift for my far away friend.  She and I met online while we were planning our weddings, and have remained close ever since.

I changed the pink flowers to a peachy color so they would look more like the peach colored carnations that the bride chose for her bouquet and their decor.

I've also designed pieces completely from scratch by using motifs from several books I own.    This is where cross stitch software comes in VERY handy.  I have used PC Stitch for several years with great results, though I must admit that once I upgraded, some of the functions I could do quickly and easily became more complicated, and I am still muddling my way through some of the software.  (I want to go back to the old way of doing things for some functions, and it's just not possible.

For my friend Kelly (also a fellow wedding planning site buddy), I created a piece using the Song of Solomon quote they used for their invitations.  Red roses were a big part of their fall wedding, so I incorporated that into the piece as well.  The rose motif in the middle was tricky - I wanted something symmetrical - and ended up playing with a charted rose and its mirror image to get the look I was going for.  (Names are intentionally blurred for privacy)






One of the more unusual pieces I've done was for a couple that had marigolds and cicadas for their wedding theme.  Definitely not your typical wedding theme!  In 2004, the cicadas of Brood X (the largest group of periodical cicadas that emerge every 17 years) were coming out.  The marigold part was easy - I tapped the same flower book I used for the roses in the previous piece, but the cicadas proved to be a challenge.

I ended up stitching a simple piece, and worked the cicadas into the framing.  I found some line art drawings and printed them on velum paper, then used an Exacto knife to trim away the excess and cut out the middle.  I mounted the paper to a store bought mat with spray adhesive.  It turned out better that I expected and made for a very interesting wedding record.  Working with printed velum and a store bought mat can be tedious, but it adds a whole new level of versatility and flexibility to framing pieces.


On a much more traditional note, I used a reading that was very important to the couple to stitch this Book of Ruth Sampler by Design Connection (now OOP).  The names were charted out on paper, pre-stitching software, and I would definitely move some things around were I to stitch it again.

And the last piece I have for today should be familiar to many of you, as it's Blackbird Designs I Thee Wed.  It was a commissioned piece, stitched for my cousin to gift to a friend.  You can find the details on the piece here.

 Do you stitch gifts for weddings, anniversaries or other significant life events?  How do you choose what you will stitch?  Do you have any go to designers or charts that you've stitched more than once (like my fondness for Bent Creek's I Do)?

My first commissioned piece

Blackbird Designs - I Thee Wed
stitched on 32 ct. Mushroom Lugana
with recommended threads

My beloved cousin Kerri was the maid of honor in her friend's wedding, and asked me if I would stitch something for her to give as a gift. After a few emails back and forth about what her friend might like, I sent her a few suggestions and this was the one she picked. She liked how it tied into the wedding colors of pink and green and thought it would look beautiful in her friend's house.

So this is the very first piece I stitched on commission, for just the price of materials and not my time. (I didn't mind doing it - stitching is my sanity as I am sure you can all relate to). All in all, not a bad gift for about $50, and yes, I had my husband frame it.

Once again, I must highly recommend American Frame. Beautiful frames, pre-cut acid free mounting board, and free shipping when you spend more than $50 (if you frame several pieces, it's not hard to get to $50). Plus they will send you up to five samples of frames and/or mat board before you even order.

We tried something new this time with spacers. Normally, I frame without glass or acrylic, but my cousin asked if we could put something over the stitching to keep it cleaner. Since we were framing without a mat, I did a little reading on the site and found the spacers. They come in long sticks that are easy to cut and fit into the frame, and worked like a charm to provide an air space between the acrylic (most online places will not sell and ship glass) and the stitching itself. Now that we know how well it works, I'll definitely be doing it again for a few pieces I plan on hanging in our kitchen. They won't be right near the sink or stove, but I'd like to give them that extra layer of protection anyway.

I do have several other pieces awaiting the framing process, so hopefully I'll be able to show them soon.

A gift for a far away friend

Quaker Fragments Stocking by Blackbird Designs (March Leaflet)
Stitched two over two on R&R Reproductions 30 ct. Alabaster
with Crescent Colors Ruby Slippers and WDW Monkey Grass

Would you believe I had this piece stitched and waiting to be finished since, oh.... AUGUST? Yep. August. I knew I was going to stitch and finish this piece for my friend Michele, but I didn't think it would take me so long to do the actual finish finishing. Naturally, I had to be difficult and not follow the finishing instructions in the leaflet. Oh no. I had to do thing *my* way. And by my way, I mean pleading with my husband who is far more patient and diligent than I am to trace out the cardboard and assemble the stocking for me. I did get him to trace the cardboard and cut it out, but I was on my own for lacing the stocking onto the cardboard.

A little tugging, a little clipping, and a little cursing, and it was done. Just barely done, but done before Christmas. Which is not to say it arrived before Christmas, but I did mail it out before Christmas - perhaps about a week or so before the big day. Two weeks after Christmas, I still hadn't heard anything about it from Michele, so I decided to forgo a surprise and ask her if she had received any envelopes from me. She had, in fact, not. I was devastated. Everything else I had mailed on the same day had made it to its destination, and I was psyching myself up to stitch and finish this piece again. I was not looking forward to lacing the stocking onto cardboard again, but the actual stitching of the piece was fun. Luckily for me, Michele emailed me a few days later to let me know she had received the envelope and was just thrilled with the ornament and the additional tokens I had sent her.

You see, Michele is a major Seattle Seahawks fan, and I am a Cowboys fan, so we give each other good natured ribbing throughout football season. I sent her my interpretation of her beloved Seahawk's colors in overdyed floss, something I imagine would either frighten or amuse the big burly football players. You can see the colors here on her blog.

And there's a story behind the colors I selected for the stocking itself. Michele loves the color red, so I knew I was going to work that in there, but I didn't want to do two shades of red. I pulled a few shades of red that caught my eye from the overdyed racks in my LNS, but when I saw the name Ruby Slippers, I knew that was the color I was going to use. Michele is a big Wizard of Oz fan as well, so how could I not? As for the green, I picked a green to coordinate with the red, not by color name. It did, however, work out perfectly for me as my chosen color is Monkey Grass, or as I like to call it, Flying Monkeys. Yeah. I'm cool like that.