General Conference is coming!

EDITED: Since I've received so many requests for this pattern, I've made a Google doc for the instructions and the patterns. You can view all of them through the link on HERE on my Free Cross Stitch Patterns page -- I hope you enjoy them!  Please let me know at smileynann@yahoo.com if you've made either of these -- I'd LOVE to see! :)

It's not often I talk about religion -- but with five kids you know I'm either Mormon or Catholic, right? :) I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and sometimes we're called Mormons. And twice every year, our church has a General Conference, two days of meetings (always at 10:00 and 2:00 for 2 hours each, and another meeting just for the men of the church. The ladies have a similar meeting a week before General Conference).  Many people outside of the western United States have to dress up and go to their local ward (church) building to watch the broadcast, but you can now stream live online at lds.org. Or, if you're around Utah, you can watch it on TV, and sometimes our family calls it Pajama Church. :)

I just love General Conference time. It's always a really peaceful couple of days; we're all together as a family, and the kids know they need to be quiet so we can listen. I've been surprised at how much they really absorb, even though they're playing with cars or dollies in the corner. There are so many wonderful talks -- and the Spirit is so strong - I always feel SO recharged when we're done. And now I'm done preaching at you, and we'll get to the reason why I'm even talking about it.

When I was growing up, my Mom was pretty strict. We were pretty young when we were required to watch all four sessions of Conference -- and for kids whose Mom didn't let them watch much TV, it was a pretty clear indicator to us that she thought it was important. One of my favorite things to do during Conference was to have a cross stitch project. It kept my hands busy and gave me something to do when the talks got a little long. :)

Lately, I've been working on the "Once Upon a Time" sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. It's so, so darling -- follow those links! I haven't gotten very far, and I've found a girl on Instagram (@lumablumahandmade) who is doing the storybook names instead of month names in each block, which I really like. The biggest thing I'm planning to change is the month of March -- it's my birthday month, and I just REALLY don't want to use the three little pigs for my month, even though the big bad wolf is so darling!

So, I'm a little overwhelmed by how behind I am. I started in March, so I was already behind, and I've only completed one full month. And, since I'm the Mia Maid counselor in my ward, I thought the Young Women might really like to have a simple little free project to work on during Conference. They have a symbol, a torch with a girl made of flames.  Is she the original "Girl On Fire"? I think so!  I found a cross stitch pattern on Pinterest that I really liked, but it linked directly to an image and I can't find the original source. It was hand-drawn, and I wanted something a little more professional and easy to read. So, I worked my magic and made a pattern for my girls. Since it was a free pattern in the first place, and quite simple, I think it's probably okay to distribute -- so if you want a copy, I'm happy to email it to you. Just comment with your address and I'll send it to you as quickly as possible. {EDIT} just follow the link at the top to get the instructions and charts you need!

Isn't she cute?!

 



** Random story: When I was a Young Woman (ages 12-18) myself, I took a sweet little Precious Moments coloring page, and the Young Theme, and made a cross stitch pattern of both. It turned out so so cute! I ended up making two -- and giving them to both my sisters. :)  Before my little girls are in Young Womens, I'd love to make them each one too!

Since you need choices in your life, I also made a Provo Temple cross stitch pattern, but I used a pattern from etsy for the Angel Moroni, so I don't feel comfortable distributing that part of the pattern.  But here's the part I used; it took quite a long time to work up, and I'm so happy with how it turned out!

And I last-minute had to reverse the Angel Moroni -- you want to make sure the Angel Moroni is pointing the right way! Again, just comment with your email and I'll send my part of it. {EDIT} just follow the link at the top to get the instructions and charts you need!   And then you can have a great General Conference project too!