I am a very task-oriented person by nature. If I start something, I’m going to finish. I have to finish, otherwise it will drive me crazy. But sometimes, it’s the starting that trips me up.
Last week, I finally got around to starting a project I’ve had on hold for over 30 years. That’s right . . . 30 YEARS! Thirty-two to be precise.
The summer after I graduated from high school, I got a job working in a little tourist town called Solvang about 30 minutes away from where I grew up in California. This is Danish community with fun little shops that harken back to their forebears in Copenhagen. Having picked up cross-stitching a few years before, I was excited to get a part-time job in a needlework store. This family-owned store was wonderful. I worked mostly with the grandmother of the family who was eager to give me tips and tricks to put to use in my own stitching. She taught me how to separate my threads so they would lay smooth, how to stich over two threads on linen, and how to use two hands instead of one. Because of working with her, my girlish hobby became a lifetime passion.
While working there, I enjoyed looking through all the patterns and kits the shop offered for sale. But there was one kit that captured my heart the first moment I laid eyes on it. It was from the imported section. The expensive kits. All summer I looked at that kit, dreaming of making it mine. So I saved up my money, and before I left for college, I bought it.
Sweethearts – by Eva Rosenstand.
Can you tell I’ve loved historical romance my entire life? Even at age 18, I couldn’t resist a pair of young Victorian sweethearts.
This kit came with imported linen fabric and was larger than any project I’d worked on before. The finished design would be roughly 24″ x 18″. I worried my novice needle skills wouldn’t do it justice. So I packed it away, promising myself to stitch it when my skills had matured.
As I went through life, I would occasionally think about this kit, languishing away at the top of my closet. I knew exactly where I would hang it in my house when it was finished. But I still didn’t start it.
Then a month ago I finally pulled it out. I had several large projects that I was looking forward to starting, but they could take years to finish, and I worried that if I didn’t start my Sweethearts pattern now, I might loose my eyesight before I got around to it. And I couldn’t break my younger self’s heart like that. Not after all she had sacrificed to buy it.
The price tag was still on the kit – $87.90. A king’s ransom for an 18 year old back in 1989. Shoot, it’s still a lot of money today.
Well, I’m excited to tell you that my patience has paid off or my procrastination has finally come to an end. I’m not sure which is more accurate. The kit has been opened, the linen ironed and edged, the floss organized onto bobbins, and the first stitches placed.
Because this kit is over 30 years old, I discovered that the white thread that had been included had yellowed in several places. Thankfully, I had a stock of white thread from my own supply ready to substitute.
I have now officially begun, so hopefully my task-oriented spirit will carry me through to completion.
Do you have a project waiting for your attention that you are having a hard time starting?
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Ah, Karen! I am SUCH a quitter! Writing is the only “project” I ever completed and I had SO many little crafts or scrapbooks or other things started when I began to write. I finally got rid of them all so I wouldn’t feel guilty. (And writing is the thing I’m much better at and enjoy more, so that’s okay.) But it’s a joy to see you carry this through and I’m SO impressed that you saved up for that kit all those years ago. I can’t wait to see it finished. (And I hope you’ll give us updates here on the blog from time to time!)
Thanks,Deb! I’ll be sure to post a finished pic but it will likely be a year or more from now. 😉. I kept my favorite hobby but I gave up housework when I started writing. LOL.
I have always loved this picture. So much that I have a large picture hanging in our guest room. It is really so romantic 🙂 I wish your success in your stitching.
How cool, Jocelyn! I’m glad I’m not the only one who fell in love with it. 😁
I have a sweater I started knitting 30 years ago. It’s all finished except for one sleeve. I made coordinating sweaters for my husband and three kids but never finished my own. I started writing books, instead, and like you, lost interest in everything else.
How funny that it just needs a sleeve. So close! I’m sure many readers are glad you decided to give up knitting in favor of writing, Lynn. 😀
What a wonderful story of how you came to love needlework. I hope you enjoy working on your project. Wishing you the best on it.
Thanks, Stacy. It just goes to show the impact you can make on a young person’s life without realizing it. I never saw that grandma again, but I still remember all she taught me.
I haven’t done any embroidery for years, but one of my unfinished projects is a perpetual calendar that has the flower of the month embroidered on that piece. The month pieces are oval shaped. When I got to the point of almost completion, I realized that those oval disks don’t fit the inked placement shapes on the actual calendar! 🙁 So I’ve never finished it. Such a bummer! (This is probably really hard to follow!)
What a bummer to put in the work and not have it fit, Kathy. That would make me grumpy for sure!
My projects that I have waiting are more straightening projects than crafty ones. After finishing a kitchen remodel, we’re moving on to clearing out my office/junk room so that we can tear up the old carpet and lay the wood flooring we already have in our possession. In a previous remodel, we had already replaced the flooring in the other bedrooms, when we went ahead and bought the wood for my office. Clearing everything out of my office is a major project, so this floor has yet to be replaced. Sometime in the near future that project will be complete, and my office will, once again, be straight and lovely.
I hear you, Suzanne. We desperately need new carpet in our house, but every time I think about moving everything it gives me hives. Ha! I’m getting desperate, though. Our carpet is 25 years old and stained. I cringe whenever we have people over.
Ah, Karen! I love Eva Rosenstand and Solvang! Our daughter moved to California 30 years ago after finishing college and unable to find a job in Virginia Beach. Shortly after, I started visiting every summer, and have been to Solvang many times. I learned Danish needlework (counted crosstitch) through the officer’s wives club when my husband was stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. in the early 70’s. Our teacher was a woman from Holland who ordered kits by Clara Waever and Eva Rosenstand for us because counted crosstitch could not be found at that time in the US. My daughter became a crosstitcher also, and we went to a needlework shop in Solvang numerous times. She has become a much better and faster stitcher than me, and several times took some of my unstarted projects to do. It’s a small world!
In answer to your question, I have cross stitch projects and scrapbook projects that I thought I would have plenty of time to do once I retired from teaching in 2014. Hasn’t happened. Yes, do update us on your project. It will be beautiful.
Small world indeed, Betty! How fun that you are so familiar with Solvang and Eva Rosenstand! And to have learned from a woman from Holland. Very cool! I grew up in Lompoc, just a short drive from Solvang.
Ha! I have a log cabin quilt kit in the house somewhere that I purchased just before our wedding some 30+ years ago? Does that count? A more immediate project is to sort my writing research. I have the file boxes, folders, all that, but the pile is so daunting and so big and … But it must be done! Good luck as you take on this new/old project!
Thanks, Janice. I’m glad I’m not the only one with 30 year-old projects hanging out in the house. 😉
Our family stopped in Solvang on our CA road trip this past June! I’m cheering for you as you complete the project that captured the heart and imagination of your 18-year-old-self.
How cool, Becky. I haven’t been back in decades. I wonder if that needlework shop is still there or if I could even find it. 😁
Awesome! I love the picture and can’t wait to see the finished product! And yes, that was a huge amount for cross-stitch back then. So glad you bought it anyway so that you have it now!
Me, too, D’Ann. I’m looking forward to finally having it out of the package and on the wall. 😁
I was an avid counted cross stitcher back in the 70s and 80s. I still do some counted cross stitch and enjoy it. I have a project I started about 30 years ago that I decided I need to finish while I still have good eyesight. I am gradually working on it.
Good for you, Ruth! It will feel so good to place that last stitch!
I also have a cross-stitch project that I barely started 20-30 years ago and it is still in my craft cupboard waiting to be finished. For several years, my eyesight wasn’t the greatest so it was not an option. But since I’ve had cataract surgery, I think I could try again. I am a piano teacher and it is a picture of a piece of music on a piano with a vase of flowers. I have a place for it on the wall over my piano. You have inspired me! Good luck on finishing your project – it will be beautiful!
Hooray, Leanne! I hope you are able to finish it. It sounds lovely! I adore musical patterns, being a firmer band and choir nerd. 😁
I actually visited Solavang in the summer of 1991! We were visiting my Uncle in LA and we drove up to see Hearst Castle and we stopped at Solavang while traveling. Was that the summer you worked there?
Sorry missed that you said the year you worked there was 1989. Was a little to excited about the post mentioning somewhere I’d actually been!🤦🏻♀️🤣
Congratulations, Karen. Getting started on a major project like that is daunting. I learned to crochet as a child from my grandmother but after a concussion as an adult, I needed a non-electronic task to kick start my brain again. I walked into a yarn shop and said, “I want to knit stockings.” “Do you knit?” “No.” “Maybe we should start with a class on basic stitches.” For the 15 months out of work, I learned to knit. My first real project was a stuffed, made-in-one-piece 15″ tall teddy bear! His entire head and body are twisted stitches as I’d confused the knit stitch! I never think small. BUT, I still have the ultra expensive silk yarn and shawl pattern I was too afraid to start. Maybe this fall (after writing conferences) it will be time. You are an inspiration.
Just reposting because first went in with the wrong address! Now following.