Cross Stitch Letters BIBLE!

Dear Shayne,

I found a super-fantastic awesome book last week: The Cross Stitch Letters BIBLE. Not only does it have a ton of freakin' awesome letters to cross stitch, but it also turned out to contain my own personal Holy Grail.

But I'll tell you all about that in a minute.

First, a bunch of photos. (Seriously -- a bunch. Do you have a few minutes? Get ready...)

Here's the cover (Ooh la la! It's French!)


And just so you can grasp the sheer cram-packed AWESOMENESS of this thing, check out the thickness:


It's a BIBLE, Shayne. A bible.

It ranges from tiny letters to large. Here are some small ones (there are also some that are super tiny -- like, 1 or 2 ... [what do you call the smallest unit of measurement in cross-stitch? Not a pica... a thread? A count? Whatever. The smallest square unit.] tall!)

But these are a little taller than that -- and kah-yute!


I like this extended one at the top of the page...


Each alphabet is numbered, and that number goes up to [flips through many pages...] 739. Wow. And that does not include the numbers!

Here are a couple of medium-sized ones:


And some that are little bigger:


This one is kind of a cool dual color -- hard to see in the photo, but the red is outlined by black:


I am a sucker for one really ornate single letter. I foresee some monogram-y gifts in my near future. Like this:


Or this:


This one would be great for a little girl -- or someone who loves butterflies (so sweet!):


This one is kind of fun, but perhaps for whole words:


And I think this one is my favorite one in the whole book -- I love how it looks like there's a string of pearls intertwined with the letters:


As I mentioned, there are also numbers:


And even a bunch of alphabets on the bias, which is really neat:


But, Shayne, remember about 4000 photos ago, when I mentioned that this book contains my personal Holy Grail? Are you still there? And interested in hearing this story?

A couple of years ago, I cut out an image from a magazine of a cross-stitched letter A and I hung it on the Inspiration Board I made a few years back. Here's the clipping:


(Looking at it now, I realize it's probably from Chez Sucre Chez -- she sure does make great stuff!)

At the time, I thought, "Wow. I would like to make a 'B' [the first initial of my last name] in this font!" So I poked around the internet and... never found it. Since then, I have checked out decorative letters in various books and still... never found it.

As I was flipping through this Bible in the store, the skies opened up and a ray of sun shone down upon me. Look what I found:


It's within a few stitches of the one I had at home! Yesss! And right next to it? Why, yes, that would be a B!


I don't know why I've been so enamored with that exact font, Shayne, but I have. And it is now in my very own hands! So you know what I'll be doing this weekend... (photos coming soon!)

love,
kelly