Today's achievement is a plastic canvas tissue box cover featuring everyone's favorite depressed donkey, Eeyore. The kit is by Janlynn and the price tag informs me that I purchased it at Hobby Lobby. I bought this kit two or three years ago, intending to make it as a gift for my fiancé, as he is particularly fond of Eeyore (I personally prefer Tigger).
So I worked really hard on it at first and got a lot done. I got everything except some of the back stitching and the French knots completed. But I ran out of white yarn, which meant I couldn't put it together. This was frustrating. I got some more, but one thing led to another, and I got stalled again for some reason. I know I wasn't particularly motivated to finish as there wasn't much use for it in Japan since tissue boxes don't seem to come in this size there. They come in the short rectangular boxes rather than the taller square ones.
But then we came home and unpacked some boxes and I found it again, and told myself that it needed to get done now that it could be used. So, after being stalled by another project that ran out of materials, I got going again, finished up all the back stitching, did all the French knots (which I really, really hate), and tied on the cute little bows all in one evening. I was all ready to put it together, then I noticed that only three of the four sides had the dark green stitching along the top. I got about halfway across and ran out of thread. *cue rage*
This was the second thing I ran out of with this kit and I am rather annoyed with it. The directions gave the color of the thread, so I wasn't too worried about being able to find more, it was mostly just that I really shouldn't have had to go out and get more. I paid for a kit with materials to complete a project and I did not get what I paid for. And unfortunately the color given seems to be mostly an approximation as it didn't match as well as I had hoped. I ended up ripping out the half I had done on the last side and just doing that one side in the new color. I don't think you can really tell the difference on the finished project, so that's a relief.
All four sides are the same and they turned out pretty cute. The backstitching isn't as precise as I'm used to with cross stitch, but it gives it a kind of charm. I like the combination of the thread details with the basic yarn stitches. There is a clear difference in the thickness of the materials and I like the visual variety it provides.
The instructions were really easy to follow and the pattern was clear. I moved the peach stitching along the bottom of the sides up a line since they weren't laying flat very well without the overcastting on the bottom edge (which was the very last step) and I'm happy with the decision.
Assembly was pretty basic with all straight edges. This project was on 7 count plastic canvas, making it a larger mesh than the previously posted penguin coasters. I like working with plastic canvas as it is very sturdy and makes for projects that are not only decorative but functional.
While this project has not been a surprise for quite a while (and I'm not even entirely positive if it ever was a surprise...) I am very happy to have it finished so that my fiancé can enjoy it. He has lots of allergies, so a tissue box cover is very useful for him. I hope that whenever his allergies make him miserable and he reaches for a tissue he can smile a little when greeted by these cute Eeyores. He deemed the project "Awesome," which may just be because he loves me, but I'm okay with that.
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