Pet Peeves

I don’t get it, may I whine a little? 

You buy a craft kit, as you know, they are not inexpensive. You put hours of work into the project contained in the kit (your work is beautiful, by the way), now it is time to put all those beautifully crafted pieces together…

Whining starts here...So tell me, why do manufactures do this to us?

Exhibit #1 Christmas Around the World “Victorian Hearts” Counted Cross-Stitch Ornaments, designed by Bonnie Smith Disotell. Kit was made by Bucilla, who knows how many years ago.

The complete kit includes everything you need including the lace (lace may vary).

The Aida cloth is beautiful 100% cotton and high quality, the velvet ribbon and floss are top notch.

The  cross work design for the last one is complete, but not yet assembled:

The lace however came from the $1 (or Euro) store. 100% polyester, cheaply made and it shows. 

Applying this lace to this project completely cheapens all of that high quality materials and work put into the project.

Funny, the lace looks pretty good in the picture, but take my word for it is not worth sewing with. Ewwww.

Exhibit #2 Pattern unknown. Instructions and any other information missing from the project bag. The base is plastic with a grid holes, the ribbon appears to be silk, the embroidery thread is nice quality embroidery floss cotton.

The lace, not again! Cheap looking polyester edging. This time, the picture does not lie.

...Whining ends here...

Both of these projects are courtesy of my mother from her stash of UFOs. They are mine now as the counted cross stitch portion is complete. I do not do counted cross stitch as I can not count.

So here is the plan, the Christmas Around the World “Victorian Hearts” should look, well, Victorian. The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901). These laces might not be from that time frame, but they are close and a nice match to the rose heart.

 As for Exhibit #2 Pattern unknown,  I don't believe it needs a lace edging so instead the two finished pieces will be placed back to back and some sort of binding will be attached to finish them off. I am in search of a good match down in my sewing stash.

Stand by...