Introduction

Welcome! I'm planning on opening my Etsy shop in the coming weeks and started this blog to record the inspirations for each of my patterns. But I'll first start with my inspiration for the shop...

I cross-stitched when I was in grade school, buying little kits from Michael's. The last work I completed was over fifteen years ago, and is now hanging in my first niece's bedroom. This picture was taken before her arrival, and four years later my sister still has it hanging up! I hadn't touched a cross stitching needle or thought much about it over the years until I had a big dilemma.

I was getting married and could not for the life of me, think of a decent gift for my maid of honor and bridesmaid, who also happened to be my two sisters. Because I didn't have an enormous bridal party and because they are my sisters, I wanted to do something special.

So I racked my brain, but it had to meet a few criteria.

• I wanted the gift to be meaningful
• I wanted the gift to be unique and stand the test of time
• I wanted the gift to really mean "it's the thought that counts"

And then a movie popped in my head. My oldest sister and I love "In Her Shoes" because it's about the life of two sisters, and in it, there's a wedding where the younger sister recites a beautiful poem as a gift to her older sister called "I Carry Your Heart" by E.E. Cummings.

My oldest sister happens to be a freelance, published writer and after seeing this movie, absolutely loved this poem. She even printed it out and taped it to her wall above her desk at home.

I wanted to give her a nice copy, printed and nicely framed. I searched around with no luck. To make it even more meaningful than a pretty print out, I came up with the idea to stitch up every single word!

I went on-line, found an alphabet, plotted the words on graph paper, and then picked up cross-stitching again. It took a month between wedding planning and work and everything in between, but it was so worth it. This is a picture of her when she opened it at our rehearsal dinner.

The entire vision for my Etsy store is to provide people with the most valuable gift of time so they can create valuable mementos. I'll create patterns and creations that bring a smile to my face, in hopes that it will bring a smile to others. Happy Stitching!