A few months ago I discovered an organization where I could earn badges, just like in Girl Scouts.  I was so excited, I have always been one who likes a reward for a job well done, and let’s face it, as an adult, that simply doesn’t happen very often.  The Farmgirl Sisterhood has merit badges for just such a thing.  While I have done pieces/parts of many, I only really focused on one, Cross-stitching.

To be perfectly honest, this isn’t my first foray in to Cross-stitching, perhaps that’s why I started here.

Beginner Level:  Learn to Cross Stitch.  Start with a simple project like a bookmark or border a picture frame.  DONE.  Like I said, not exactly my first project here.  Back when my Josh was just a baby, I did a large 16×16 duck scene for my dad for Christmas, yep, that was almost 30 years ago.  Last I knew, it still hangs in his basement office.

Intermediate Level:  Learn about different fabrics to use for cross-stitching, and determine how many stitches per-inch you would like your project to contain.  Cross-stitch a more advanced project.  DONE.  I have some linen, some aida-cloth, some various projects all good for cross-stitching.  I’ve done the research in my handy-dandy Encyclopedia of Needlecrafts.  My project may not be difficult, but it will be time consuming, guaranteed.

Expert Level:  Design your own template to cross-stitch for a large project, such as a comforter or wall-hanging.  DONE.  If you put them all together, a wall hanging it could be.  The center section and each of the borders is a unique design, designed by me this time, but borrowed from others that have come before me.  I saw them all in one place at one time, about an hour before I gave them to my sisters.  Not real sisters in the way of blood relations, but sisters in the way of beliefs and lifestyle.

I cross-stitched kitchen towels for each of my Color Run sisters, eleven in all, each took about eight hours, maybe a little more on some designs.  In my previous life, I had a group of friends we referred to as Princesses.  We never got together without a little something, something for each other.  This was my first real invite back in to the land of women, I am surrounded by men daily, so I wanted to do something special, just to show them how much I appreciate them. What they do with their towels, doesn’t matter to me, I had so much fun doing them, it kept my hands busy on our many travels.  The last few days since I gave them out, I’ve looked hard for new things to do, I’m going to have to go back to stitching.  And in case you wondered, yes, I finished the day OF the party, yes, it was an hour before we left.  My motto for a long time, perhaps all of my life has been, “Anything worth doing is worth doing frantically.”  Some of us are just born that way.