Sign of the Arrow

While Alan and I were in Saint Louis, one of my friends there, Lauren Graham, got me interested in needlepoint after seeing several of her husband, Randy's, belts that his mother had made for him. Lauren explained how her mother-in-law, Susie, taught her to needlepoint and told me of a cute little shop in Clayton that had everything you could possibly need for any needlepoint project. It was then that I learned about Sign of the Arrow. It really is the sweetest craft shop you've ever seen and after going in to look around I decided that I wanted to learn how to needlepoint. I went in one day and sat down with a precious lady who works there and who patiently showed me the basic stitch. She also gave me this in case I forgot :)

After learning how easy it really is I decided I was up for a project of my own. I had the best time looking through all the fun patterns and all of the beautiful threads.

I finally chose a Saint Louis Cardinals ornament. I decided that this would be a fun project and Alan and I would be reminded of our year in Saint Louis each time we hung this on our Christmas tree.

There were several colors included in the pattern and it didn't look like anything too hard which was perfect for me as I was just getting started.

I was so excited to begin! I began with the lightest color (white obviously) as instructed and sat down as soon as I got home to begin. This is what I accomplished that first day:

Slowly but surely the canvas began to fill up...

There was a lot of white!

The day my flight to Nashville got cancelled in April I sat down and finished it (not having anything better to do that day!)

So proud of my completed project, well almost that is... once I got done I had to take it back to Sign of the Arrow to have them send it off to the "finishers"

Today in the mail I received the finished product! I absolutely love it and it means so much to Alan and I who both now love Saint Louis so much. Only 6 more months until Christmas when this will go on our tree!