Getting started

I have done cross-stitch for a number of years, but I have always been intimidated by Teresa Wentzler's fantasy designs with their partial stitches and blended threads. Her designs regularly take several pages just to cover the color chart alone, never mind the detail involved in the actual patterns. Then Teresa Wentzler released her "Romeo and Juliet" kit and I fell in love with the colors and design. I reasoned as how I did want to try a larger project and "Romeo and Juliet" was relatively small for her pieces. So I wound up ordering the kit from Fantasy Crafts. I also received her "Stretch" freebie included with my order, so I have more TW to contemplate.

The kit arrived on Thursday. Fortunately I had been reading the Teresa Wentzler Bulletin Board, so I knew where to locate the color key on the back of the French instructions. Key in hand, I spent part of the night sorting the colors, only to run out of bobbins.

This necessitated a trip to Nimble Needles, a small needlework store in the Crystal City Underground. I use the shop primarily because it's near the Metro, useful for restocking simple supplies on the way home from work. I found my bobbins and some Floss Away bags for the rest of the floss.

With the floss neatly organized, for now, I turned my attention to the light blue Monaco fabric, basting the edges to prevent fraying. My fabric always frays. Even when I work with pre-finished bookmarks, I have this problem.