"All Is Vanity" Counted Cross Stitch Project - { Emmett Idaho Photographer }

I learned how to cross-stitch from my best friend's sister, Reina many many many years ago. I think I was about 10 years old at the time (so that's over 20 years ago) and she was cross-stitching something for her Mom and I wanted to know how she did it. Well, she showed me and I've loved it ever since. Over the years I've created blankets for friends and family and wall hangings of various art pieces and still haven't stopped. My problem? I have so many of these projects ongoing that when I moved to Idaho, I put them all in a box and that box ended up in storage but now I can't seem to find that box. ARGH!! So now I've started over, purchased a few pieces but this time I am only doing 1 project at a time (at least that's what I tell myself~LOL).

I don't know what it is about cross-stitching but it's something that I turn to it to destress from a hard day. It's something that seems to melt away and push all the problems stirring in my head down deep in order for me to concentrate on this piece of art that I'm creating. Yes, I follow a pattern so I'm not creating an art piece out of thin air, but watching the art come to life from a blank canvas by following the meticulous pattern is just something that I absolutely love to see. It's something that I created. And it's beautiful!

Since I have somehow misplaced my projects somewhere in storage, I went searching for new patterns. I came across a website called Scarlet Quince that produces cross stitch patterns of beautiful, famous art pieces. I came across the All Is Vanity art piece and immediately thought of a great friend of mine that loves skulls. I knew that she'd love the artistic aspect of this piece and would hang it in her home with pride.

Here's the progression of this art piece as I cross stitched it over the past few months ~ photos taken with my cell phone camera so please don't judge the quality of the photos ;)


This is what the piece will look like completed. Notice how you'll see that it looks like a skull, but when you look at it closely, then it's a woman with her reflection in a vanity mirror. That's why it's titled All Is Vanity.

By the beginning of December 2009, I had finally almost finished the 1st row (there's 5 rows total)

Towards the middle of December I had finally finished the 1st row and began on the 2nd row (bottom left image). Now the details are starting to come to life. You can see the progression of the 2nd row at the bottom of the image below and then the finished 1st and 2nd row on the top image. Can you see that it's a woman with her hair up in a bun on the left side and then you see the front of her on the right side? Can you see it? This progression took me some time. I finished the top 2 rows on 2/8/10.

Now I really was looking forward to finishing this project. The top row was a bit boring, I admit it, but then the 2nd row really reeled me in and I found myself pushing to get more and more completed. By March 1st I had finished about 1/3 of the 3rd row and by March 20th, I had completed the top 3 rows. Now you can really see the woman and her reflection with the vanity top and mirror and her reflection plus the bottles that make up the teeth in the skull.

You would think that this would be an easy piece to complete. It looks like it's just alot of black and white with some subtle grays here and there. OH NO!!!! There's black mixed with dark gray, there's black mixed with medium gray, there's dark gray mixed with medium gray, there's dark gray mixed with medium dark gray, and so forth. It's a very difficult piece to do and takes ALOT of patience and attention to details to follow the pattern precisely. If you happen to purchase this from Scarlet Quince I recommend that you purchase the large pattern...trust me, it will help tremendously on following the pattern.

I'm almost done with this art piece and have a few other projects lined up; including a couple pieces for my best friend Janet. One of the projects that I was working on before I moved was for her and now I have to start all over, but she's worth it ~ after all, she's my best friend ;)

I'm aiming for the end of April to have this project completed. Once it is finished, I will post again on the completed piece.