This cross stitch is from a kit and I stitched it up about eight years ago for my Dad for Christmas. It's hard to see but outlining the Chinese character is gold metallic decorative thread. And the word "joy" is done out of red metallic decorative thread. Take my advice and never, ever, ever work with this thread if you aren't more advanced and know what you are doing. This was my very first large cross stitch project (if you could see the back, it's atrocious), and I was bad, I knotted thread (I KNOW), I didn't finish it off properly and I carried thread from one side of the project to the other...bad, bad, bad. And then I worked with a metallic decorative thread (I'm not sure what kind of thread it actually is since it was in a kit and they didn't specify), I've never been more frustrated in my entire life, if you pulled too hard the thread broke but you had to have some tension or it sagged, also if you didn't let it unwind periodically and it got tangled you were screwed, and the more you pulled in and out of the Aida cloth the more the ends of it frayed, ugh. Moral of the story: if you are just starting out on cross stitching don't use specialty threads, just don't do it kids.
The other thing I did wrong, 'cause I was a newbie, I didn't wash OR press the finished project before I framed it and gave it to my Dad. So a while ago I asked my Dad to bring it home so I could fix it. I finally got it washed and pressed; although you can tell that it's been sitting un-pressed in a frame for a while since I couldn't get all the lines out. Furthermore I added the backstitching on the flowers and (not pictured) my "signature." And now it's finally, all the way, complete and back with Dad. So pretty!
I started this kit about a month after completing the "joy" picture for my Dad. I used to take it to school with me and work on it between classes. And then I moved, and packed everything up and this thing has been in storage for about eight years and turning into a UFO a.k.a. un-finished object in cross stitch lingo.
I finally fished it out about a week ago and realized it was about two hours of work away from being done, so I sat down and finished it. Again, I started this before I knew what I was doing and coming back to it now that I know what I'm doing was a little rough. I wanted to fix it but there was really no way to do it without taking it all apart. So I gritted my teeth and just finished it up. It's supposed to have the metallic decorative thread outlining the characters and making up the word "success" but I decided I didn't want to do that again without the proper supplies (i.e. some wax to run the thread over). So I just used black and I think it looks pretty!
Side-note, this is still sitting unframed in my apartment...oh well.
