Lost No More Archives - Yearning to Create

Conference Project Time Again!

I love General Conference weekend, and it’s almost here! It’s an opportunity for us to listen to our living prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, and other Apostles as they lead and guide us in these latter days.

Do you remember “my Conference Project”?

This is how much was finished after the last conference six months ago. I love to work on this cross-stitch called “Lost No More” by Greg Olsen during conference. I find that my brain listens better when my hands are busy. When I’m looking down at this picture of the Savior, rather than at the distractions of what others around me might be doing, I absorb the messages of our church leaders better. But that’s just me! I’ve never been able to master the art of taking notes – I miss what they’re saying while I’m writing what they already said!

Anyway, I’m sure looking forward to this opportunity of attending Church with the whole world!

Conference Project

General Conference was over a week ago now, but I’ve still got lots of the wonderful messages floating around in my mind. When my Ensign magazine arrives next month, I’ll attack it with a highlighter pen. But if I need to review something sooner, I just go to this General Conference site and read or re-watch all the inspirational messages. Anyway, here’s how much I got done on my cross-stitch during conference!

I have taken it out of the hoop, so anything that is outside of that circle line is new. The sheep are appearing!

For some reason I was drawn to working on the purple flowers – must be a spring thing!!! The purple is all one colour, but do you know how many greens there are? Me either! But a lot of them were: one strand of this colour and one strand of that colour, put together to make one colour. I sure like that the background scenery is just a half cross-stitch – goes so much faster (not that I’m in any rush, I just like it to look like I have done something!).

I watched four sessions of conference – two on Saturday and two on Sunday, and they each last for two hours. Intermixed with the speakers is beautiful singing from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It truly is a spiritual feast!

So back to my project . . .

I have reached the edge by the purple flowers!!! But look at the finished picture and see that I have many years of conferences left to work on it! And look at all that thread! and all that space on the cloth!

But . . . on to a new conference topic . . .

Look at this cute little treat my Visiting Teachers dropped off before Conference.

And this one that Jen’s Activity Days Leader dropped off!

Such a cute idea! Such thoughtful people!!!

“Decide now to make General Conference a priority in your life. Decide to listen carefully and follow the teachings that are given.”

Conference Project Update

Ahhh, there were lots of inspiring talks at Conference!!! Can’t wait to attack my copy of the Ensign with a highlighter, looking for special quotes that touch my heart that I can turn into a craft!!!

And yes, I got lots of cross-stitching time in! Took breaks only to stand up and sing the rest hymn and to nurse my baby. Here’s how it looked at the end of conference . . .

Getting lots of background done – it goes so much faster as lots of it is only a half-stitch.

Can you remember how much was done before the weekend? I can’t!!!

Oh wow – I got lots done!!! Good for me!

Look at all those stitches!!! It’ll be even more clear when I outline it someday with a dark backstitch.

And now I might dig it out and stitch a little for a day or two, but mostly it will sit until the next conference in six months. And just think – then I’ll be doing it in my new house!!!

Creating at Conference

This is how my “Conference Project” looked at the end of eight hours of stitching through Conference. I’m almost ready to take it out of the ring, so progress is indeed being made – slow progress!!!

Even added a new colour – purple!!! Little purple flowers are in the east south east corner.

This tree part I’m working on is really hard, and I’m going to tell you why (whether you want to know or not!).

Take a look at this pattern (which is actually about double the size of the pattern I’m working off) . . .

. . . do you see all those horizontal three’s and eight’s? They are making me go cross-eyed as I try to follow them and count them. So I’ve done all the easy parts of the tree and now will try to fill in these two colours that are so similar you need good natural light to be able to tell the difference. Which makes me wonder why I’m so concerned with getting it right. Because seriously, who’s going to notice if I mess up some leaves in the tree?

Anyway, I love General Conference. I was wondering though, where Pres. Monson was in the first session. Doesn’t he usually do a welcome address? I was hoping he was okay. And then they announced him as a speaker and I felt so happy. “Oh good! He is here!” were my thoughts. And then he got up to speak with the cheeriest “Hello!” I’ve ever heard. I love our prophet!!!

We moved into our new home two weeks ago, and didn’t have our big screen set up yet (the family room wasn’t finished yet and who wants to get sawdust on their TV and couches). So we had nine people sitting around the computer in the office watching the broadcast on lds.org. Mac would disappear from time to time and it was much easier to watch conference (and cross-stitch) when she wasn’t around trying to climb onto my lap. Anyway, one time she came back into the office and pushed her way past seven people to get over to me by the window (need good light for cross-stitching that tree!). I looked down at her and let out a yell! She had decided to be creative too – using markers and her face, hands and arms as the canvas!

My thoughts were (in this order) “Oh no! I wonder what our new walls look like!”. Followed by “I sure hope that’s washable marker!”. And finally, “We gotta get a picture of that!”

Fortunately the walls were fine, the markers were washable and we got pictures! She cleaned up nicely – all the way to her ears. The worst part was: I can’t remember who was speaking and what they said! Luckily that’s easy to fix: re-watch it or read it!!!

Looking forward to April when the Conference Project continues . . .

My Conference Project

I call this my “Conference Project” because I usually only work on it about twice a year – during General Conference! I think focusing on the Savior is a great thing to do at Conference!!! And I know that I listen better when my hands are busy.

I started this in February 2006 so you can see it’s taking awhile. It’s called “Lost No More” by Greg Olsen. It’s the most intricate cross-stitch I’ve ever done. I’ve never had to mix strands of colour before, and all the shading is very hard to follow so I better get it done before I need bifocals!!! I really love this picture, maybe because I have a fascination with sheep and goats – must be that NewZealand part of me!!!

This is how it looked at the end of last year.

And this is how it looked a few days ago . . .

You can see the little sheep now!!! And a lot of the background is only half stitches so it goes twice as fast – that was exciting to figure out!!!

I’ll post a picture after Conference and we can see if I’ve made any progress after about 8 hours of stitching and listening to the words of the Prophet and Apostles.

I love General Conference!!!

P.S. This is the 181st Annual General Conference.