This post is going to be about a very special project. I’m currently going through some shit that implies I’m spending a lot of time in the hospital, but I’m grateful of all the nurses and hospital staff taking care of me.

In particular, the nurses’ kindness and compassion has helped me to stay afloat, so I want to give them a small token of gratitude and the best way I know it’s to make something from my heart.

This post will be written a bit differently, I’ll be updating it as I go along, but publishing it only at the end of the project. This is to also ease the writing efforts as my energy is often on the lowish side.

So it starts today, 22nd of May, a rainy Sunday in Dublin. My plan is to use a mixed medium approach, cross stitch and card making. So first I chose the cross stitch pattern from Cross Stitch Daily, gridded the Aida and selected the threads, mostly replacements as I didn’t have the exact colors.

Now, I’m ready to stitch.

This is the list of supplies:

• Pattern from Daily Cross Stitch
• DMC Threads
• Bobbins, mix of plastic and home made paper ones
• Dress making tracing pencil
• Zweigart 14 Count Aida Blush
• And a needle of course!

Sunday 30th, on a sunny Sunday, this is just fresh off the hoop!

Next step is to start the card making part. That will need some figuring out as I never done it before. I’m also planning to make one for the Transport Desk people, so I’m currently looking for a car themed pattern to cross stitch.

Sunny Saturday, 19th June. Both cross stitch are now done, and washed. I just need to cut and iron, which is my least favorite thing in the world. But it has do be done this weekend as both cards need to be delivered next week.

Ok, now it’s time to wing it 😅

• Pink card for the back
• Flower card for the front
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun and stick glue
• Ruler
• Pencil and fabric pencil

First, I made a border on the fabric to sign the part I want to be visible from the front window. It should help to center it properly.

Now some math:

The pink card is 21cm wide, the area of the cross stitch is 13.8, so 7.2 dived 2 gives me 3.6cm each side. So, I drawn two lines, so I can center it.

Now let’s do the same with the top and bottom, but no math here as I don’t need to center it, since I want to have space to write something under the cross stitch. I’m going to use 3.6cm for the top. I drawn the same square on the back of the pretty flower paper.

And cut!

It came out a bit wonky as I cut with scissors as I couldn’t find the paper cutter, so I might cover the wonkyness with washi tape or some nice decorations.

Now let’s take out the gun!

I hate using the hot glue gun. It’s messy and the glue goes everywhere except where I need it. I did slowly around the sides, and now it’s under a pile of books to let the glue settle.

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Then I glued the front. I put just a little drop of hot glue on the corners and in the middle of each side, so the card doesn’t get too thick. Then I used the stick glue to glue the two cards together. I have to say it was a bit trickier then expected to glue the shorter side without ungluing the hot glue.

But it’s done now.

Both are now under a pile of puzzle boxes so all the glue can dry, and then I can add the finishing touches.

Finally, we conclude this post.

I made four cards in total with the same process. In addition to the one for the nurses and the one for the transport people, I also made one for the radiation therapists and one for the phlebotomist, guess which one? All were delivered with some chocolate, and hopefully the recipients liked them. (I gave the bag and run as I’m not very good at emotional stuff).