Stitcher of Pixies

Back in February, I posted the beginnings of an optimistic project.  Pixies, Pixies and more pixies.  One of my readers was quite taken with this project and has asked me to share the background of the stitcher.
Today, I'm re-posting the pictures as well as a short backstory.  Thom, thank you so much for sharing your talent and your story.
Enjoy.

The backstory of Thom and idea of the pixies…. 

When I was seven years old, I came down with the chicken pox and had to stay home for several days.  I was one of those lucky people who had a small outbreak of them and the adults made it to be a bigger deal.  After a couple of days of being confined to the bed and not being able to go out to play (it was my luck to get the pox in the spring) I went exploring in my mother’s sewing cabinet to look for something that would occupy my time.  I came across a kit she was working on; it was crewel embroidery and was of Raggedy Ann and Andy in a chair.  I had never seen her work on this and only the arm of the chair was completed.  So I thought hey I can do this and began reading the instructions and looking at the stitching diagrams.  I started on the sailor hat and went from there.  By the time my mother came home from work, Andy was all done.  She came to check on me as I was very quiet (which in her world meant I was up to something destructive or plotting to take over the world) and when she saw what I was doing, she was more impressed that I was being productive and taught myself how to do crewel.  By the time I went back to school, the design was finished and I was looking for another project to do.  She took me to Benjamin Franklin (a craft store in the area) and I picked out a cross stitch design of Scooby Doo and the gang.  As soon as we paid for the kit and were in the car, I anxiously opened the package to read the directions and from there the rest is history.  That same feeling hits me now when the mail carrier brings me a stitching package.  I won’t say how long I’ve been stitching but I will say I can remember when DMC floss was $0.10/skein.

 

The idea of doing the pixies came when I moved into my new house.  My guest/reading room has a beautiful view of the lake.  It was originally going to be just a guest room but once I saw the view and how relaxing it was to watch the water, I added the reading area to it.  I wanted the room to have a calm and relaxing effect on all who entered.  For me that was the view and a way to have a “garden” that would survive my crazy travel schedule and incorporate my favorite Shakespeare comedy, A Midsummer’s Night Dream.  I always pictured the fairy party differently in my head and all the fairies would be decked out in their finest floral gowns.  I found an antique book engraving of Oberon and Titania that I had framed but couldn’t find any other fairies to go with them.  About that time Nora Corbett started growing her pixie collection.  I bought a couple to see how well they would go with the prints.  They complimented them perfectly and I decided that I would stich the pixies I liked and have them all framed the same way.  As the collection grew I thought this is going to be the perfect garden and fairy party!  As of today I have 7 stitched and four framed with 3 more on their way to Jill and Amber.