The Stefo Crew: The Cross Stitch Chronicles, or My SuPeR SeCrEt PrOjEcT

Scott and Emily spent the better part of 2022 househunting. In September, they found this beauty and made an offer, which was accepted contingent on inspections and some contractual details.

Around this time, Scott confided to me that because finances might be tight, them buying a house and all, a good many of their Christmas gifts might be handmade. I also know that he is a minimalist and really values handmade and upcycled gifts. In a flash of inspiration, I knew what I had to do.

I had to immortalize their first home in thread.

Don't even ask me where this came from. It's not like I was especially interested in, or good at, cross stitch. Up until then, I had only worked in cross stitch for a few weeks in 2020, around the time Noelle's knee gave out and we were going to physical therapy. She was so downtrodden at not being able to walk that I was trying to find things for her to do to pass the time. It turned out that counted cross stitch was my jam, and I finished the project she and I started. It was so satisfying - like coloring with thread.

Anyway, at this point I was spending most of my time using my Cricut machine, sewing, or possibly crochet. I think I had just tried to get Regina interested in cross stitch, which reminded me of how much I enjoy it. But I just knew I could do it and I had a vision of what I wanted to create.

I began with the photo from the real estate website. Using a lightbox, I traced the house with black marker onto a sheet of white paper. Then I traced my tracing with pencil onto a sheet of 18-ct aida cloth. I picked 18ct because it would allow for more refined shapes than 14. In retrospect I am glad I didn’t pick 24ct. I would’ve had a crippled hand. And gone blind.

Then it was off to the races. I picked a color and started. I think I chose to start with the terra cotta and black to define the shape. All that yellow was intimidating.

Then I started filling in the windows, although later I would come to wish I'd put curtains in instead.

I chose two shades for the house: a yellowish ecru and a pale yellow, and used them in alternating stripes to simulate siding

I had gotten deep into the yellow by the time it dawned on me that this sale still hadn’t been finalized yet. I also still hadn't seen the place in person, and although I kept hoping to find an excuse to drive all the way there, I just couldn't come up with a good enough reason, and gas was still pretty expensive. All this uncertainty made it a tense couple of weeks for me!

October 17 was the day of the actual closing, and the day we helped Scott move in the first truckload. This was also the first time I had seen the house in person. I was more than a bit dismayed to find that I hadn't chosen exactly the right shade of yellow, and ALSO that the black trim was actually dark green, AND the circles were actually holes.

Oh well. Too late to change it all. It's either abandon ship or carry on!

I decided that now was as good a time as any to tackle the little Scott, Emily, Scarlett and puppies in the picture. We had gone to a corn maze together earlier in the month, and I skulked around taking stealth pictures of them so I could get their relative heights, hair colors, and wardrobe choices fixed in my mind.

Man bun? Long hair?

Beanie? Glasses?

It was around this time that I had asked Emily so many questions that I had to come up with a plausible excuse. I told her that I was using embroidery thread to make Scott a Christmas ornament. In fact, I told her I was making embroidered ornaments for everybody. She was sweet enough to go pick out a skein in the color of Scott's favorite shirt, and picked out a bunch of shades that I could use for all the varying shades of blonde-to-brown in the Stefo Crew.

This is what I got when I asked Scott for a picture of his face.

And this was my rendition:

I'd seen Emily in black & white stripes so many times that it was the obvious choice.

I finally settled on a backwards ball cap for Scott.

Then it was on to yellow, yellow yellow. I did fill in a little of the sky for funsies, just to see how it would look. I deliberately randomized the stitches at first.

At some point around here I discovered something called thread conditioner. Michael's had some for $10, but Beiter's had a $5 cake of beeswax that turned out to be a game changer. I can't tell you how many threads had broken and had to be secured because of the needle's friction up till then. It quite literally doubled my productivity.

Two solid weeks of filling in the yellow, then...

Oops. Not so fast.

Back to the sky and trees. I just let the variegated green do its own thing as I filled in the trees from top to bottom, and it turned out that I liked the gradiated effect so much better than my randomized version. I could have chosen to pick out all the blue stitches and start over, but I just let it be.

Thanksgiving weekend I had to drive a friend to the train station in Harrisburg. This is how I passed the time while they were saying goodbye.

I used a different blend of greens for the grass

And another blend for the bushes. I also switched up the orientation. Horizontal for the trees, vertical for the grass, diagonal for the bushes (and red tree).

I found 3D potted plant and outdoor adventure stickers in the scrapbook section of Michael's. I had envisioned placing plants and a kayak in the picture. Then the framing staff gave me a hard time and said there wouldn't be enough space.

Originally I wanted Beiter's to frame it. I finished on Dec. 4, and on Dec. 5 I took it over. After hashing out all the details for the better part of an hour (with one of the kids waiting in the car. Regina, maybe?), the framing expert told me there was no way they could finish it before January. I didn't want to go to Michael's, but they do have a 2-week turnaround policy, What could I do? I had only just finished it the day before!

The frame was one that I had in the garage, originally given to Regina by Brenda Reidler with a Margaret Keane print of two big-eyed children that reminded her of Regina. It had a very deep solid frame and the added bonus of a) being free and b) being an upcycle. I bought myself a light-up magnifying glass ($5), three or four packs of embroidery needles (about $10), two cakes of beeswax ($10), the roll of aida ($15), and probably 30-40 skeins of floss at $0.70 each. The stickers were probably another $10. The frame was free, but the framing job cost $75. So my homemade Christmas present turned out to be rather pricey after all.

OH - and after I brought it home on Dec. 17 I noticed that Michael's had FAILED TO CLEAN THE INSIDE OF THE GLASS. There were smudges ON THE INSIDE! I was so heartsick that I just took to my bed when I found out. I was so upset I thought I was going to throw up. The back was sealed up so thoroughly that I would have ruined it if I tried to open it to clean it.

I really expected more from the "professionals" at Michael's.

I don't have a photo of the finished product after it was framed. I'll get one eventually.

P.S.

The framed finished product