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My Terry Redlin cross stitch arrived. I figured "Hey, Dad works doing the week and is spending his time on the rig (EMT) on the weekends, I'll be able to do this in secret."

...I could swear he knows I'm up to something (I am usually) and seems to be in my personal space bubble all the time. No, this isn't just me, as my mom has mentioned it too. I know at least a couple of you on here have managed surprise stitching for spouses/children. How?

Granted, I've been able to sneak in his anatomically correct heart for his congrats on passing the class. I also have to watch Dad's mini-me, because he has given Daniel a mission to find out what I'm doing. May I just say Ack?

Good luck on keeping it a secret So far I've never really had that problem, altho I have a chart just now that I'm gathering threads for & can't post pics on fbook cos my dad will see. It's an anniversary pressie that skitzz charted
Good Luck & fingers crossed his little spy doesn't catch you either

I just started telling everyone that if you see me stitching leave me alone. I need to focus so I don't make mistakes. After a few times frogging a project because of the constant interruptions they seemed to get the point. Now I could stitch pretty much anything in secret. I hope he doesn't find you out and spoil his surprise. Good Luck.

There is no easy way to do this if he is enlisting the help of your brother but I just stitch my surprise well Hubby is out of the house and I have a second project that I work on when he is home.

Dads must know when we are working on something for him. Sort of like Fathers Intuition.. or something like that.

My dad too knows I am stitching something I don't want him to see. So I just work on it at home now.. no more bringing it to work anymore. I work with him but I don't live with him so its easy for me to stitch it at home.

Is there a way you can stitch after your brother has gone to sleep? Or in your bedroom with the door closed? It sounds like this could be a big project though. Perhaps you could stitch it "out in the open" until you get to the point where you can tell what the image is going to be. Keeping just the chart page you are working on out. With my lighhouses, I can stitch the bases without being able to tell it will eventually become a lighthouse.

Good Luck

When I was stitching my eldest son's baptism sampler, I used to wait until he was out or sit up after he was in bed to do it.
He nearly caught me out once, but I managed to take his attention to something else .. was a heart stopping moment though!

Hope all goes well with yours.

The best way I've found is to have 2 things going (and ready) so if you happen to get surprised you can switch to the other one and hide the surprise. Kind of tricky when you have to look out for little eyes too though! Or if you have the chance to stitch at work, or go to the library, or somewhere away from the intended surprisee.

Bribe the mini-me? All boys have their price...

Serinde wrote: Bribe the mini-me? All boys have their price...

I like Serinde's idea Turn your brother into a double agent!

Aside from that, I have no suggestions - when I made something for my brother who lives with me, I did not even try to keep it a secret. I knew he would either see me stitching it, or it would take me 5 years to complete if I only stitched when he wasn't around, so I just told him about it & let him pick his own pattern, fabric, etc.

My 'secret stitch' turned me nocturnal! In order to get it done I was going to bed as usual, waiting for hubby to fall asleep, then getting up & working on it for an hour or so. I was shattered, but I got it done eventually!

I managed it by living several hundred miles away and being very disciplined abut saying nothing. It was a complete surprise!

I'd just ask him whether he wants to be surprised or not. If he wants the surprise then tell him to quit snooping. If he wants to know what it is then show him what you have done so far and what it'll be when it's finished. He'll still appreciate it either way.

Serinde wrote: Bribe the mini-me? All boys have their price...

What I did once was, go to bed an hour earlier, then set your phone alarm for about 1am or in the night and stitch for an hour or so, then go back to sleep but I like Serinde's idea better!!

Serinde wrote: Bribe the mini-me? All boys have their price...

Deeefinitely not above bribery. I've got a weird sort of schedule for the stitching that takes into consideration where my brother is and where Dad is. I, unfortunately, can't close my door because one of my cats gets very upset if she can't find me. If the mini-me is watching Cars for 5,603,368th time, I know I'm okay. Same goes for his nap most of the time.

I don't know if you have this show in the UK but there's a children's show on Disney called "Special Agent Oso" about a stuffed, and interestingly colored, Panda that goes on secret missions. So... I may have been manipulating the mini-me with secret missions that keep him out of my hair for a while.

Things are settling now that we're not getting tons of snow overnight. This usually isn't a problem, but he's driving my car. It's a Dodge Intrepid and it doesn't have very much in the way of ground clearance. According to edmunds.com, it has 5.1 inches of ground clearance.

This is my car... but my car is prettier.

Serinde wrote: Bribe the mini-me? All boys have their price...