The one in which i-just-hide has nearly finished an epic project...

Way back in February I started a cross stitch birth record for my friends' baby boy.  I planned on presenting it to him as a christening gift.  Unfortunately, it was a bit bigger than I thought it would be and it became clear that it would take a lot of additional work.  He was christened in April.  It wasn't even half finished by that point.  I soldiered on at a rate of around 1 hour of work each evening and more at weekends.  Finally, it's almost complete.  I've completed all the cross stitching and all the outlining.  All I need to do now is sew his details into the centre panel, do the eyes of all the little animals and the small matter of sending off to the US for a spare bit of silk.  The last two stages are going to be a bit of a challenge.  The eyes are all french knots which I am hopeless at sewing.  It'll take me ages and a lot of frustration to get them right.  I also have no idea how long it'll take the spare bit of thread sent over from the states.  I'm quite annoyed about it as the whole problem stems from me making a mistake earlier on and having to unpick a load of thread which went to waste.

I'm now aiming to get it to him before his 1st birthday which is in September.  Surely that's a realistic target!

In the time I've been working on this project two more friends have delivered sproglets.  I have a birth record kit in a drawer for each of them.  I get the feeling I'm going to be sewing fairly constantly for the next year at least.  That's not a bad thing, I like having a project to work on.  I just hope that my friends like them.  They're quite big.