How it all began

Yesterday I was reading Bren's blog http://piecesfromme.blogspot.com/where she told how she got started on quilting.
That started me reminiscing about how I got started on counted cross stitch.
It must have been about seventeen years ago....... I remember going to a little needlework shop in my lunch hour where I bought a tiny kit that had a floral design by Permin of Copenhagen. I couldn't wait to get home. That evening I eagerly opened the kit and, to my dismay, found a blank piece of fabric! Oh no, I had imagined the pattern would be stamped on the fabric and I'd be stitching in no time.
After a few failed attempts I threw it to one side and my daughter, aged about 14 at that time, asked if she could do it. I told her she could have it, she took it to her room and imagine my surprise when she showed me the finished piece next morning!
The only error I could see was that she had used one strand of the DMC instead of two.
My daughter became very interested in cross stitch at this point and I bought her several kits but I'd completely lost interest, thought it a total waste of time, and returned to my knitting. I'd admire her efforts but had no desire to try cross stitch again.
A couple of years later I got to know someone at my work that did cross stitch and I decided to have another go. I bought a needlework magazine that had a little kit on the front and this time, with help from my daughter, I finished it!
I remember being proud of my efforts and still have that little card to this day.
My next attempt was a Moira Blackburn sampler kit which seemed a huge undertaking to me back then. I still wasn't patient enough at the slow process of doing counted cross stitch because I started it only to throw it aside for several years.
Meanwhile I did improve a lot by stitching on smaller projects that gave the satisfaction of actually finishing something and it was around this time that I really became obsessed with stitching.
I finally picked up the sampler again in 1995 and finished it even though I knew by this time that it was full of mistakes and not very well done at all. The border didn't meet up and I remember, horror of horrors, just fudging it!
I still love that pattern to this day and only wish I'd kept it as I would love to stitch it again, properly this time, on linen using silk threads.
Moira Blackburn is still up there with my favourite designers, I still love samplers of all kinds and even have a MB sampler (Peaceful Garden) as a WIP.
I still have a lot to learn about stitching and embroidery but one thing I know for sure is that working with a needle and thread, no matter what the style of embroidery, is a wonderful pastime.