I was happy with how the colors still showed up on my dark fabric. Now time to add the beads! It was pretty easy adding the beads to the dress, but once I had to start adding them out in the "sky" it was sooo difficult with no frame of reference to work from! Counting was already hard on the dark linen, but I had gotten used to it. What complicated the counting when attaching beads was that I was using an "invisible" thread to attach the beads! I finally came up with a perfect solution that made the counting monumentally easier: a head lamp! Family teased me of being a miner while I sat stitching on my corner of the couch, but hey, it worked!
I completed attaching the last bead on Saturday, July 26, 2014: 376 days after beginning the project. I usually would just say it took me a year to complete if asked, but with this project I kept track of the actual hours I spent. The final tally was 166 hours. That averages to be about 3 hours of stitching each week for just over a year.
The following Monday found me anxious to find a frame for my piece so I could enter it into the upcoming county fair and local Peach Days. I didn't have the time to get it custom framed in time for the fair, so I came home from the craft store with a 16x20 frame that fit it okay, but that I didn't totally love. I had forgotten to bring my phone with me to the store and when I arrived home I found my husband completely distraught with the news that our 5 year old niece had been killed in a tragic accident. We spent the rest of the evening in shock, crying, praying, and pondering. I kept looking at my finished cross stitch piece and in my heart I felt moved to give it as a gift to my sister in law. It was no longer mine. It now has become a symbol of love and of the importance of holding on to hope, faith and trust in a plan of a loving God who desires our growth throughout our lives, especially through the darkest moments of mortality. A few weeks later my mom came to visit and when she heard that I wanted to give the piece to my sister in law, then she insisted on taking it back in to be custom framed. As such a gift of the heart, it deserved nothing less than the best.
