Stories of Love, Hope and Peace...

This post is a bit off topic and we had decided to reward folks that had completed one of our cross stitch designs with a free chart.

The stories that we have received with the images are truly miraculous in every way and here is a sampling:

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I have a small story to tell about stitching the StoryKeep..as it was small and portable I took it with me whenever I visited my mother-in-law at the hospital...she was dying of advanced alzheimers disease and even tho she didn't know me or any of her family she always wanted to know what I was doing and wanted to see it...it always brought a smile to her face. At the end she truly was a stranger in a strange land

Many thanks for your kindness...you are dear and wonderful people

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I stitched it for my mother who fell in love with the design. She had a stroke while I was stitching it and the design helped her through her recovery. She followed my progress and my challenge for finishing it and this encouraged her with her challenge of recovery. She worked so hard with physiotherapy etc. I am so proud of her! Snow Family gave her an interest and helped all our family through a very difficult time. Every time I see Snow Family it reminds me that however tough things get if you just move forward one step at a time you can overcome great obstacles.

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This storykeep is quite special to me. The summer I started it, my fiance and I had just graduated college and moved from Nebraska to Colorado. It was a huge move for me - new state, new area, new people. I had been eying the HAED site for about a year, but didn't buy anything as college pretty much sucks up most of a person's free time. When we moved, however, I had much more time on my hands. My fiance finally convinced me to start one of the HAED charts. With my fiance's help, I picked Stephanie's SK Blossoms and Ciro Marchetti's City of Swords as my first charts. I chose the SK because I wanted something small I could finish quickly, but also because these were the first charts that I was going to attempt that didn't come in a kit. I had to figure out fabric size/count/type, buying DMC floss, NEEDLES! I had nothing. So, I joined the BB, asked a ton of questions, looked through just about everything on there, and finally made the trip to buy all I needed for both charts. I liked starting with the SK because it gave me an idea on how HAED designs, the confetti stitching involved, and realized how much I LOVED not having to do specialty stitches! (I still can't make a french knot to save my life ).

Of course, once I started it, my fiance became interested in my progress and how it was looking. Suddenly, the Storykeep became his storykeep, and he has no problem showing people what "Jennifer stitched for him." I think it's the only thing he will ever admit to owning that is made up of so many pinks! However, I can't tell you how happy I am to have found HAED designs. My fiance and I are both into the more fantasy side of things. To have found something for me to stitch and him to say "wow, that looks cool" is amazing. These are things we both want hung up on the wall when I'm done. And I hope to finish many more!!

Well, I'm sure this is a bit long-winded, but in short I really do love these designs. Stitching them gives me peace of mind when things get stressful. I cannot write, but I love reading other's works. I cannot compose music, but I love playing it on my violin. I cannot draw but I love stitching artist's amazing work. I revel in creativity and imagination, and HAED designs capture all of that. Thank-you!!

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I have bought the Figurine of the Gatekeeper also.

Again the loneliness of the design grabbed me. She is alone with her thoughts Together with the most beautiful flowers of the world.

Exceptional.

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I absolutely adored doing Toadstool Towers. I especially loved doing the first bottom quarter. I remember doing each 10x10 row across and seeing things just starting to come through with each row. I remember my first joy of seeing the purple flower come to life and the path with its cobblestones, it was so magical and when I was stitching the door I really felt like I wanted to be a fairy and live in this most enchanted home, in fact I still look at the finished piece now and want to live in it LOL!
I'm still very proud of myself for completing this wonderful chart and I do miss stitching it. It now hangs very proudly next to my bed and I'm forever drooling over it and probably will for the rest of my life.

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This lovely draggie I stitched lovingly for my mum for her birthday a couple of years ago. I had to stitch it in secret, as I live with her, and so I did about 100 stitches a day. I started it in the January and it took me 76 days to complete. Her birthday is in July so I had plenty of time to stitch it and get it framed. I loved stitching this piece, the blues and greens were so gorgeous and I really loved watching it come to life. There were times as I was stitching it that I really wanted to show mum but I had to be strong and not show her, but at least I could show the rest of my family and the haed family too. It was well worth the wait as she adores her dragon and she has named it Jewels. It now hangs above her chair in our lounge. Also Lisa Victoria herself emailed me after I completed Dragon Dreaming and was very impressed and pleased with it and told me I could choose a print of my choice from her website. I was absolutely amazed and over the moon with her generosity and I chose the print Violets Garden, so each time I look at it, it reminds me of my time stitching QS Dragon Dreaming.
This piece was actually my first haed finish but again it was something that I couldn't share with my mum until her birthday, but it was certainly worth the wait.

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I love Jessica's artwork and when I saw this design already completed on the haed forum, I just had to stitch her as well. I love the dusky pinks in this design and the leaves in her hair. But there's something about Titania that draws me in. I feel that she's looking right at and through me and in a way haunts me, but in a nice way. She even reminds me of myself (maybe in a former life). But to me she very strongly reminds me of one of my favourite books 'The Mists of Avalon' by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and to me she's not Titania by Morgaine, or otherwise known as Morgan le Fey. She now is on my bedroom wall right under Toadstool Towers and next to my bed. She took me 39 days to complete and was my 2nd haed finish

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I love this pretty fairy. She's so dainty and so feminine and was such a joy to stitch. I adored watching the flowers come through and her pretty face come to life. I plan to have her on my wall next to QS Shimmer by Selina Fenech when I finish it. I still haven't had Belle framed yet, but hopefully I will this year. She took me 47 days to stitch. I have a stitching diary so each day I write down what I've stitched so that I know how long pieces have taken me to do.
There's not so much of a story with this piece, but that doesn't mean that she isn't as loved, as she certainly is. She was my 3rd haed to complete.

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This was the first piece of cross stitch I've ever done on hand dyed fabric and it was lovely, and I will certainly do more. With this chart I decided that I would omit the background myself as the dark outlines were very easy to see, and I did it as I went along, and was very easy to work out. The fabric really complements the artwork and I am still very pleased with the result. Even the frame I painted myself, along with the mount and I've framed her myself. The butterflies I didn't really enjoy doing as there was so much confetti stitching, but the result I love, so it was worth the effort. With her dress there was some metallic thread which I decided to change to dmc light effects using a purple thread instead of white, and again I am still really pleased with the outcome. I enjoyed stitching her dress and wings as there was quick a lot of bulky bits in the same colour, making her very quick to stitch and in the end she took me only 25 days to complete and is my 4th haed finish.
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A huge thanks again for your wonderful generosity. I really loved going back and telling my stories about my cross stitch, it brought back such lovely memories in the telling.