WIPGO 2023 – Week 3 – Apache Wedding Blessing

This week for WIPGO, I’m focused on one of my oldest WIPs – Apache Wedding Blessing, designed by Kooler Designs and published by Janlynn. This piece was chosen by my college friend and sorority sister, Ivanna, upon her wedding. We’re… now almost 20 years later and it’s still not quite done. (sigh) So the goal now is to have it completed for her 20th anniversary.

My notes say I started stitching on this in January 2006. That’s probably about right. It was my first ever attempt on linen, and oh boy… there are some tension issues! I was stitching just a wee bit tightly! But thankfully the spots where my tension is particularly iffy, I can just repair by going over the stitches with an additional half stitch to plump them up and fill the space.

This piece went out into the world for an Unfinished Object Round Robin in 2011. The notes and thank you that I sent with it is still in the poly project envelope – intentionally. That way I can give some thank you credit to the lovely women who helped complete the cross stitching before it went dormant when I became pregnant with Max – Siva S. in Canada, Rachel B. in New York, Erin C. in Florida, Linda M. in Oregon, and Kristle M. in Nevada.

What’s bogging me down now is that infamous thing that was so common in stitching of the 1990s – all of the backstitching to define the images. Most of it is pretty straight forward… outlining all of the frame poles and the feathers, plus the Canada geese at the top. But there are a few different colors for the backstitching, and the chart is a little difficult to read due to the limitations when it was printed. I’m getting there though. The most difficult part really are those feathers, just to see where lines cut in to define a few of the individual feather strands. Some of them lie right on the 10×10 grid lines (grrrrr…) so I have to play it by ear a bit.

Honestly, though – there’s not THAT much left to do. It’s just that mental block with backstitching that I need to overcome, and I can push through this one. It’s long past time to get this piece completed, get it framed, and present it to my friend. I’ll be adding this one to my MAGIC list for the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild for 2023 to kick my butt into gear!