Sewing

When I was a little girl, I picked up the sewing bug from my mum.

She had always been sewing and embroidering for as long as I could remember. She even did an evening class in sewing at one point and got a little certificate etc, can't actually remember what the course was, I was only 6 when she did it! But I do remember her going to college and I even remember going to the college to see her there.

Anyway, when I was about 8 or 9, I finally got the privilege of having my own sewing box.

I got it for Christmas. It was an old style Mothercare Baby Box, just like the one in the picture on the right. It was a big plastic box that was originally used for keeping baby products for nappy changing time in, but mum, being as creative as she was, turned this one into a sewing box for me.

It came with a nice amount of blue aida, needles and some DMC threads, just enough basic colours for me to do something with. There was also a little pattern book in there. Now everything was geared towards cross stitch, so that is where my sewing history begins....Cross Stitch.

I still have most of the first projects I worked on, even still have the book, oh and the threads.

Below are a few pictures of some of my first projects.....

I also did a lovely cross stitch of an Easter Bunny pulling a cart of presents. It is so cute. When I find it I will take a picture and post it sometime.
Over the years I have worked on many projects, I was always making things for people to celebrate weddings, birthdays and babies being born.

My brother also drew a picture of a car on graph paper one time, and for Christmas, I made the design up in cross stitch and then framed both the picture and the cross stitch picture together and gave it as his present. Hopefully he still has it somewhere at his house so will try and get a picture of that as well.

This also means that I have a very special box of my own now.

Mum and Dad brought it for my Christmas Present in 1996. It was brought from a little sewing shop in Lincoln, Great Britain whilst Mum and I were there shopping at the Christmas Evening Festival they held.

And when you open the lid

It is filled with all my DMC Threads that I have purchased over the years, and yes they are all on their own little card and yes they are all numbered and in order! (The box came empty by the way, I have filled it since getting it)

I also still have my first DMC Thread Colour Chart that you could tick to show what you had at home and what you still needed to buy if you were ever lucky enough to have a few coins left over to buy new threads with whilst a student. I obviously did ok!

As you can see, I have most of the threads, well this was the list from about 1990!

DMC have since brought out many new ranges of threads and colours, so now I have realised that I have a few more to collect! So I will have to get another box for all the treads I still don't have.

So even though I am now dabbling in quilting, Cross Stitch will always be my first love.