I might have recruited another stitcher

She seems to be well on her way!

I bought our niece a little cross stitch kit at AC Moore for her Easter basket. It was supposed to be "My First Cross Stitch". These kits may be the reason that kids don't stitch, because it is BAR NONE the worst beginner cross stitch kit ever.

Why?

It has fractionals.

Our niece is 7 years old. She is incredibly bright. But she is 7.

I'm 33. I'm not that big on fractionals. At least I was spared them til I was 14, and, even then, I put that kit down for a few years, til I was 20. And had nothing else to do and no money to spend on cross stitch. I'd already encountered blending filament, so this wasn't that much different. But I was 20. And she's 7.
I can't imagine encountering them at her age in a kit marketed to ages 6 and up.

God bless her, she tried.

I asked her how the kit was coming. She said she tried, but she had a bit of a hardship. She took it out on the porch. And it fell through a crack. I told her it happens to the best of us. I think you end your pledge period as a stitcher when you lose your first needle. She said she knows what crack it went down through. I told her they make more needles. I was going to give her a pack of mine, but we had Mother's Day at our house and the needles got packed away. And the doors locked to keep cracker crumbs off our more important treasures.

She said she likes butterflies and flowers. So I was thinking of going through what I have and kitting her up a simpler freebie with floss and a pack of needles (because in our stitchers' sorority, we need plenty needles, right?) and seeing where she can go with it. I think she'll actually like stitching as long as it's not overwhelming. Maybe that was the difference when I was a kid--the kits weren't as complex, there was more of a variety for a beginner to choose from, and the stitches in kits weren't so hard. I'm a kinetic learner, so I appreciate the challenge of learning by doing, but fractionals on a kid design were a bit much!

I think she liked doing it. She noticed a Sanman tuck I had hung on the coat closet. She was studying it intently and said it was pretty. I think she's drawn to the desings with charms on them--she's a girl who likes her bling! I think she wants to do it, it's just a matter of having her a needle and something she can do. We'll save fractionals til she's 10 . . . or 30?

Her little brother was also interested in stitching, he has commissioned his first work. A "monster twuck," just like his uncle's. He is about the cutest kid ever . . . soooo anyone know of any monster truck designs