Cross Stitch Finish: Apostle’s Creed

I have a finish to share with you and I’m so excited. This is the Apostle’s Creed by Heartstring Samplery.

I started it…

on my birthday which is in mid-December. My goal wasn’t for it to be a fast stitch…just a steady stitch. I made the goal of stitching one row every week. For many weeks I stitched two but I only had to complete one row. Often times I would just stitch on it one night a week and that ended up being enough time to stitch more than one row…or I would stitch one row and a motif. Whatever mood that struck was fine as long as I completed one row each week.

I stitch this on 40-count Thornfield by Needle and Flax.  It called for Harvest Basket by Gentle Arts for the words but I used Trail Dust by Classic Colorworks for the lettering instead.

I really love this linen and thought it was perfect for the piece. I will be trying to find that linen again. It’s hard to find so we’ll see how that goes. I love that it looks naturally old and stained.

I did a few changes.

I’m old-school Lutheran and prefer the older way the Apostle’s Creed is said with “christian church” vs “catholic church” so I recharted that. I also left off a couple of bans at the very bottom of the chart. I liked that the top started with some red colored flowers and wanted the bottom to end with red too. The original has three, I think, more bands at the bottom including the designer’s family initials.

I opted instead to end with this beautiful tulip band. I opted to not stitch a couple of the leaves in the last band of flowers at the bottom. I put my initials and the year I finished it there.

My frame came from the thrift store. It was a thrift store that I don’t often get to. In general, the prices are a little higher and typically I don’t make an effort to go. They had this frame there…I cut thrifted frames down and frame things myself. I typically wouldn’t spend $15 for a frame as where I live, most thrift store frames are under $5…but this one I thought would be perfect for my Apostle’s Creed.

I did cut it down myself and had every intention of finishing myself but I wanted a piece of glass for it cut. Kalissa, my daughter told me there was a frame shop in Decorah called The Perfect Edge. She was getting something framed and asked if I wanted to ride along and see if they could cut the glass for me.

They could. I was so happy. In the past, I’ve been ordering glass online. It’s great to have a local source now. YAHOO! Curiously I asked if they do cross-stitch finishes and if they have someone who laces the pieces. She said yes. After talking with her for a bit she said that they are okay with cutting down antique frames. They are fine with lacing and finishing pieces too. Hmm. I decided that I would leave my piece with her and test them out.

I am COMPLETELY impressed with them. Turnaround time is about two weeks but if you are trying to meet a deadline, they can try to squeeze a project in. I told her I was a blogger and wondered if they might do framing from people out of state as I know so many people are looking for good, reliable, experienced framers who don’t have a long turnaround time. The owner told me she would be happy to help anyone and to work with them. The same person always does the lacing of the pieces so you can be rest assured that a newbie won’t be working on your piece. YAHOO!!

I was especially impressed that they are willing to work with a customer’s own frame if it’s in good shape. YAHOO!!

I’m so happy with this finish!! The frame is perfect for it and well worth the $15. I can’t believe I almost didn’t buy it!!

For now, it’s hanging here. I don’t know if it will stay here or not. I have my main stitching wall done except for one piece and this won’t work there so I have to expand my stitching to somewhere else.

I’m tickled to have this finished and for it to have turned out so nice. I am also tickled that it wasn’t too expensive to frame and that I found the new framer. I can do these myself and will do some myself but I’m glad there are options for me locally. That’s a HUGE relief for me.

Can you believe I almost didn’t spend the $15 for the frame…oh, I’m so glad I did!! I am so glad to have this piece in my collection.