West of House, a cross stitch pattern by Clue of the Broken Needle

 I wasn't able to share my progress with this because I made it for my partner's birthday. He now has it, so I'm free to tell you all about it.

Here's the finished project in daylight (above) and in the dark (below)

If the location 'West of House' and the hidden warning about being eaten by a grue mean nothing to you, this is all from a text adventure game called Zork from 1977.  

The pattern is called West of House and is by The Clue of the Broken Needle. 

This is my first foray into cross stitch. Luckily I had a couple of cross-stitching friends who were willing to give me lots of advice and of course Youtube has all the help you need on any subject.

I did buy things that I didn't need though. After buying a hoop and then buying a q-snap frame I then heard someone use the phrase 'stitching in hand' and discovered that you don't need a hoop or frame at all and that holding the fabric in your hand is way quicker and easier.

The title and first few stitches seemed to go very quickly and so I entertained ideas about finishing it in good time and then making another for myself. 

However, there are 4083 stitches altogether and I only just managed to finish it in time for the birthday!

The hidden message is very clever. You can buy glow-in-the-dark embroidery floss, which looks white in daylight. 

Then as you fill in the space using regular white floss, the letters disappear! 

I loved doing it. I became better at the stitching as time went on and will definitely do more cross-stitching!