Futzing Around, Trying to Organize a New Project

My brother was a serious Motocross competitor and loved to ride his dirt bike in the hills of the area then known as the Tillamook Burn (now known as the Tillamook State Forest). His life was cut short by melanoma skin cancer at age 20. After he passed, my parents organized an annual motocross event in the Tillamook Burn to raise funds for cancer research.

We are coming up on the 60th anniversary of Mike's death next April, so I wanted to create a piece of cross stitchery to commemorate the his life and passion. My sweet husband happened to find an original Mike Stewart Enduro patch from one of the early races and surprised me with it. After some thought, I went looking for a cross stitch chart featuring a motocross rider in the woods, and found one that - while very complex with 27 colors - is just what I had in mind.

My plan is to lay out the image on 14-count Aida fabric, sketch in the boundaries, then arrange the patch and two original photographs in the composition, marking their location with a heat-erase marker. After the stitching is complete and blocked, I will place the photos and patch, then secure them in place.

Downstream, the piece will be professionally framed and hung in our study at Casa Norte. It's a big project, but I think my stitching skills are up to it