Time is not on your side

Seen as I've started new projects the other day I haven't really much to show at the moment but watch this space. So I thought I'd post the first of my many archived pieces.

This one is a clock that I designed to commemorate the 10th anniversary of my father's priesting. I wanted to stitch him something special. It is probably the first time I had done a bit of designing myself. It started from seeing a clockworking in a NS so I picked it up and set my brain ticking thinking what to do with it.

I took some pics of the Cuthbert Cross which he likes and he was priested at Durham Cathedral where Cuthbert was buried. I also had a pattern template that my mother used to design the silk and gold work ones she stitched on his stoles.

 I then spent many painstaking hours hand charting it. I do have a computer software program but it never seems to make them how I would like. I hate the way that it pixalates the image and those type of charts do my noggin in. I spent many hours with the papers on the window tracing and retracing till I got it right.

 I then stitched the design on black Aida. Love the contrast it gives and makes the colours pop! I used gold metallic thread for the main outlines to give it a richness.

 The quote is from one of my dad's college lecturers when he was studying theology, one of those quotes that really stuck with him. And this was the perfect quote for my ambitious idea of finishing that I had had for this. It also is one that will resonate with every stitcher!!

I added a Celtic border from a book didn't think that designing that was a necessity seen as there are so many already out there. I also added the dates to and from in the top corners. And turned my piece into a wonderful clock that sits in my father's study.

Making the stitching into the clock was the scariest part of finishing a cross stitch I have ever encountered. In adding the clockwork you need to drill   - Yes I said it DRILL a hole through the middle of the stitching. If ever there was a time to not mess up it was now!! It was then housed in a box frame.

Luckily all went well and the finished clock is a thing of beauty!

I think someday I'll have to be brave and make another cross stitch clock.

Keep stitching