FGTH stitch-up

For reasons exclusively related to the regular passage of time, this year's a big year for me and my cohort. As such, I had a bit of thinking to do for a present for my old friend DJLB. Fortunately, inspiration came from the baby samplers that C's been making for the various babies that her nieces keep popping out. Having tried knitting before, how hard could cross stitching be?

And, what with it being DJLB, what better subject than a blast from our collective pasts: Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Drawing on their elaborate mythology (i.e. drawing from the elaborate publicity machine that promoted them), an obvious source on which to base a cross stitch design was their "equation" ...


To wit:
[ lust + war + love + faith] x FGTH
The colours for the various elements I borrowed from the appearance of the equation in the (surprisingly excellent) computer game that was released in 1985 around the peak of FGTH's UK fame. Anyway, what with it being pretty simple and all, it stitched up pretty well ...


In no small part, of course, due to the (patient) help of cross stitching pro C, who tidied up quite a few of my early missteps. Although, that said, by the end I was more or less able to stitch on my own, even starting threads up and finishing them off all by myself (though having only a five colour design does make things pretty easy on this count). The final step was to turn the whole thing into something classy (and DJLB does do class) by taking it to the framers in Bedford Place ...


Who did, I think one would agree, a pretty grand job turning it into something classy. At the same time they did manage to vastly increase the total cost of the project but, as a special present, I was happy to push the boat out. The word on the street is that it now adorns DJLB's den, so I can't have gone too far off the mark. Anyway, last and least, a picture of the framed cross stitch together with me to provide an indication of scale ...