My first cross stitch project, c. 1984

I wish I could remember exactly when I bought this, but I'm guessing it was around 1984, maybe as late as 1986. I know I bought it at a craft store in the Rio Grande Valley when I went with my grandmother to get some yarn. She was a madwoman with the crochet hook! I never got the 'yarn craft' bug... I mostly end up with a tangled mess when I try. I don't think I actually stitched until I got back to Austin and I don't think I actually put it in the painted frame until sometime in the 1990s. As you can tell from the large picture, I didn't have a clue about making all the stitches go in the same direction (which will be a recurring theme), but it is a cute little picture. I have a thing for castles, which will be another reccurring theme.

I also tried some embroidery on and off but never really got anywhere with a project. I think I finally threw away the kit I bought and started also around 1984. I left it in a hoop for too long and it rusted! The other attempt I made at doing some hand embroidery was copying some patterns from a calligraphy book onto white cotton. They also didn't really amount to much and joined the other in the trash bin. The inspiration for trying the pattern from the calligraphy book was the young adult fantasy books that I loved as a kid. Okay, I *still* love some of those books. In particular, the second book of "The Ash Staff" trilogy by Paul R. Fisher has one of the characters making a cloak and embroidering a leaf pattern along the bottom, which was on the cover painting. How obscure that seems now! I still haven't done much more embroidery, but I have some kits in my storage bin that are combination embroidery and candlewicking. I bought them for next to nothing during the 10 months or so that I worked a Hobby Lobby to make ends meet after college. I actually ended up buying a lot of stuff during that time that are still around the house waiting to be stitched... it was also the place where I got the quilting bug, but that's another post for another day.