Camp Cross-Stitch

I always wanted to go to "sleep away" camp since first seeing the "Spin and Marty" serials on The Mickey Mouse Club in the 50's...yes, I'm that old.  Theirs was a western-style camp at The Triple R Ranch.  Then..."The Parent Trap"...the first one with Hayley Mills (1961).  Again..."sleep away" camp.  I did get to go for a weekend to a church camp at about the age of 11 or 12.  My mother and her sister were "counselors" for the teenage girls and brought myself and my cousin along...who were too young to participate...but found things to do.  Cathy (my cousin) and I short-sheeted beds and "dropped" the broom down the stairs early in the morning...successfully irritating the teenage girls.  We did get a stern talking to, but it was well worth it!

Greetings happy campers!  Here's my new design "Camp Cross-Stitch".

I needed a pillow for my favorite stitching spot.  It's a camp sign for fictitious "Camp Cross-Stitch" with the camp flag and slogan "where stitching away rules the day"...the arrow pointing the way.  Outside the lined border is the full capitalized alphabet, lower-case alphabet and numbers.  I stitched 1" black buttons in each corner or you could put your initials and date there if you'd like.  I finished the pillow with a binding like you'd put on a quilt.  I also wanted this to look like a pillow that had spent many years at camp.  I used Rit tan dye to over-dye the ticking fabric.  I used Instant Antique from Primitive Gatherings and dabbed it on the stitched fabric with a natural sponge here and there to age it.  (And...what's camp without s'mores!  I only ate two while taking the photos...really.)

Several years ago I went to the John C. Campbell Folk School for a week...sleep-away camp for grown-ups!  It was a wonderfully creative experience and I'm planning on going again...probably next summer.  Too much fun!

Enjoy Campers!

~*

p.s. Robin says that retreats are like "sleep-away" camp.  Now...if they just threw in a little horseback riding, s'mores and sing-a-longs around a campfire at night...my life would be complete!