You might have noticed in my previous post entitled "Cross-Stitch Kits I Bought This Spring" that I bought quite a few kits. What I didn't tell you in that post was I actually bought many, many more than that.
I can imagine what you're thinking (she's nuts!) but, I didn't buy them just because I'm obsessed with cross-stitch - I actually had a purpose in mind. The problem was I couldn't decide which cross-stitch kit I wanted for this particular purpose and then when I was looking at all the kits I found others that I just had to have.
So, I ended up buying nine other kits. Five were for the purpose I had in mind and four were because I just had to make them. Actually for the latter it's probably more because they were either Victorian, houses, or just plain cute.
By now you must be wondering what purpose I had in mind that would cause me to buy so many other cross-stitch kits. Well, I was trying to find a large Victorian cross-stitch picture that I could make to replace a large picture hubby and I had hanging in our bedroom. The large picture that is hanging there is a pressed flower collage I had created years ago.
As with everything I seem to do there is a story behind the collage. I have been in love with flowers and cut flowers since I was a little girl. My favorite flowers to plant and cut to make a floral arrangement were and still are dahlia's. The bigger the better. So, when it came time for me to decide what to plant in my perennial gardens I wanted to plant all sorts of flowers including dahlia's.
I've always been amazed by the sheer beauty of flowers and wanted to find a way to keep them forever. I decided I should try my hand at pressing them and then creating floral collages out of them. So, over a decade ago I decided to dry some of the beautiful flowers I had in my perennial gardens and embarked on pressing hundreds of them over the course of one summer.
To press them I used old telephone books, paper towels, and bricks. First I laid paper towel on the back pages of a phone book and then laid the flowers on top of the paper towel until the page was filled. Then I laid another paper towel on top of the flowers and then flipped several of the phone book pages on top of that.
Then I laid another paper towel on the new section, more flowers, another piece of paper towel, and flipped more pages of the phone book on that until I had completely filled the phone book up. Then I laid a brick on the front cover of the phone book and set it aside for the pressed flowers to dry.
When they were completely dry I arranged them into a dried floral collage which I glued to a large piece of press board. Then I matted it and framed it and hung it in my bedroom.
Well, several decades later some of the pressed flowers have browned and the color has faded from most of the flowers. Hubby thought it was time to change it and suggested that perhaps I might find a cross-stitch picture that would fit the bill.
So, I immediately thought of some of the beautiful Victorian scenes I had seen from time to time in several cross-stitch kits. Of course, my problem was I loved all of them and couldn't choose. Plus, I wasn't quite sure exactly which ones would be big enough for the picture. So, I bought all the ones I liked and thought might do the trick.
Here's what I bought for the Victorian picture I had in mind:
Dimensions 'A WALK ON THE BEACH' Cross-Stitch Kit
Dimensions Gold Collection In Her Garden Counted Cross-Stitch Kit
Gold Collection A Stroll In The Park Counted Cross-Stitch Kit - 16"X12"
Gold Collection A Treasured Time Counted Cross-Stitch Kit
Dimensions Counted Cross-Stitch Kit-M'Lady's Chateau
Of course, while I was out looking I found other cross-stitch kits that I liked. Now, if you're a follower of "The Book Review Corner" blog and my Linda's Blog you know that I love houses and that my house is filled with pictures of houses (and dolls). So, when I saw the following I just had to have them:
Haunted Hotel - Cross-Stitch Kit
Queen Anne House
Victorian House
Girl Silhouette - Cross-Stitch Kit
The Victorian scenes will definitely take awhile to complete. The little houses should be fairly quick. I'll let you know what I think about each of the kits after I've finished them and I'll be sure to include pictures in my post so you can see how I've finished everything.
