This is my counted cross stitch masterpiece.  My daughter Deb took a photograph of the Tabernacle… blew it up to an 8×10 and charted it by hand on graph paper.  There might have been computer programs for that but she didn’t have one and I’m not sure we even had a computer!.  She also bought the material and my daughter Patty bought the threads and that was my Christmas gift that year.  All I had to do was sew it.  People always ask how long it takes to do projects so I kept track.  Over the course of 3 months I sewed a total of 138 hours… every inch of the picture is counted cross stitches… even all the blue sky… and there seemed like endless amounts of that.  After it was finished we took it, along with the original 5×7 photograph and had it framed.  For a couple of years I just wasn’t happy with the frame though so when I had my other MV counted cross stitches framed I gave this picture a new one.  I also added a little plaque at the bottom that says The Tabernacle, Oak Bluffs - Martha’s Vineyard. 

   But I had said I couldn’t do it… ever… I would never be able to do counted cross stitch.  Too hard.  Too boring. I had too many excuses.  Then my daughter Deb saw the counted cross stitch of the map of Martha’s Vineyard and the rest is history.  We figured if I was ever to do counted cross stitching surely something Vineyard related would get me started.  She even said that if I hated doing it she’d finish the map for me.  Sounded like a good deal and so I began.   One X after another…  counting, counting every single stitch… but then it started looking like MV and I was pretty impressed and proud of myself.  

As you can see I didn’t stop at just the map of MV…. I did six other MV kits.  The top row is the 5 lighthouses of MV.  Second row is the MV map, Oak Bluffs and 4th of July at Ocean Park.  Bottom row is Edgartown, steeples of MV and an untitled one which is different buildings  and spots around the island. 

So I guess the moral of the story is to never say never because if I hadn’t tried well then I wouldn’t have these beautiful pictures and reminders of Martha’s Vineyard.