Tag Archives: cross stitch

Dec 23 2014
ornament

Cross Stitch Advent Calendar Ornaments

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ornamentI have worked hard to complete cross stitch advent calendar ornaments. I loved how they turned out!

Materials:

What I did:

ornamentsFirst I decided how to space out the ornaments on the linen. I should have measured it but I didn’t. Then I cross stitched them all which felt like it took forever mainly because it almost did.

Next, I measured about in inch around all sides on the pattern pieces and cut. I then took out my sewing machine and found matching thread and did a zigzag stitch around the edges of all 25 pieces.

Then I decided which color of fabric would go best with each ornament. I then placed the fabric right side up on table and laid the cross stitched pieces wrong side up and pinned them to the fabric. Then I took pinking shears and cut out the fabric around the linen getting as close to it as possible without cutting the linen.

ornamentsNext, I cut 6 inch pieces of ribbon and slipped a folded in half piece between the two fabric layers and centered  and pinned it with about ½ inch of the cut sides sticking out.

Then, leaving about an 1½ inch opening (to be able to turn right side out) I straight stitched with about ½ inch seam going back and forth over the ribbon a couple of times.

Press, on the fabric side, and carefully turn ornaments right side out, pushing corners out. Press again.

Stuff to your desired fullness.

ornamentHand stitch the openings closed.

Enjoy your hard work!

ornament

Nov 13 2013

xStitch Designer, cross stitch iPad App Review

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cross stitch app

xStitch Designer is a cross stitch app for iPad only and costs $1.99.  I love the idea of being able to create patterns sitting in a coffee shop, waiting in the doctor’s office and things like that. I have to say, it is worth the price. I know people have a hard time spending money on apps but I don’t know the last time I’ve spent $2 and have been entertained for more than a minute.

Things I love:

  • 5 brands of thread to choose from! DMC, JP Coats, Sullivan’s, Anchor, Madeira
  • You have options for canvas size, for creating from scratch and for picture conversion
  • You can create patterns from scratch
  • Picture to pattern conversion and you can edit the picture pattern further
  • Right side bar, it’s out-of-the-way and self-explanatory
  • Simple tap the square to add a stitch, can choose between adding the thread color, symbol or both
  • Scissors to remove a stitch instead of an eraser is a cute idea
  • Can save your works in progress
  • Email and share with Facebook or Twitter your patterns
  • Print to AirPrint printer

Things I’m not so in love with:

  • Screen size, zooming in and out distorts the proportions of the pattern and you have to zoom in a lot to make sure you click the correct square
  • No finishing details, backstitch, french knots etc options
  • No letter writing help, it can be done but you have to figure it out on your own
  • No half stitch, quarter stitch, etc options
  • No undo button

Something I noticed when playing around with a picture of a hibiscus flower was that the size of the canvas affects the detail of the pattern which is obvious but also the brand of thread changed the detail of the pattern. Some brands are better for picture conversion apparently.

Overall, I enjoy this app. It’s perfect for creating smaller, simple projects. I think I’m going to use it create some coaster patterns. You can never have too many coasters. It’s great for getting the basic understanding of cross stitch pattern making. xStitch Designer is worth it for those who want to create patterns on their iPad.

 

May 27 2013

Useful Cross Stitch Websites

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I’m always looking for useful websites and apps for crafting. I’ve created a list of some of the more useful websites I have found.

1. Stitchpoint.com, Stitch Point has a cross stitch writing tool. It let’s you pick from six different fonts styles and creates a chart for the text you want to stitch. It even has handy tools in the upper right hand corner that helps you plot out the design to make it the right size for the fabric space you’re using. Great to use for designing simple text only patterns or to add text to another pattern.

2. Crosstitch.com, Cross Stitch Caption Maker, is similar to Stitch Point in the fact that it allows you to create your own text patterns. But it only has two free fonts available. For $12/year you can have access to 40 font options and can add borders to your text designs.

3. Janlynn.com, this website has a selection of free cross stitch patterns. All of the patterns look simple enough complete and are super cute. My favorite one that is available right now is the Dolly Mama Wine Bag. I’m thinking about stitching it and giving it as a gift next Christmas. It has seasonal, holiday and other options to choose from and I think it’s a pretty big selection of free patterns.

4. Maurer Stroh, this website also has a variety of free cross stitch patterns. I found the site slightly annoying to use but the patterns were worth the annoyance.

5. To get an even bigger list of places for cross stitch patterns and information go to JuliaXstitch.

Apr 19 2013

Favorite May Day Crafts

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Growing up we celebrated May Day, which is May 1st, and we put a lot of effort into our baskets we would create. If you don’t know what May Day is click here. Basically, it is where a person creates a little basket with flowers or candy inside and they put it on the door steps of their sweetie, ring the bell and run! If the person answering the door catches the basket giver, the give them a kiss and send them on their way. I think it is a cute tradition, even if you feel a little silly doing it.

Crafts:

 DLTK’s Crafts for Kids has a lot of cute May Day craft ideas to do with children

TLC also has a list of kid friendly craft ideas.

Martha Stewartmay day, of course, has a cute and easy take on a May Day Basket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple non-traditional crafts for May Day:

tiny_baskets_1_mediumThese are adorable knit baskets that would be perfect.The pattern is by Vicki Mikulak and can be found on Ravelry.

 

 

 

May Day

 

 

This is a cute and easy cross stitch basket pattern for May Day.

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple of options if you’d like to buy instead of create:

may day

 

The Etsy store Heartmade Treasures is selling this beautiful and traditional May Day Basket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

il_570xN.372182922_sebw

 

 

 

The Etsy Store ElsieAStyle has this elegant basket for sale.

 

 

 

may day

 

 

This basket sold at Amazon would be a cute May Day Basket, just add flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 31 2013
cross stitch heart

Cross Stitch Heart Pattern

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Cross Stitch Heart

I was thinking about Valentine’s Day and realized I didn’t have a cross stitch heart pattern. I wanted it to be like something I use to draw in junior high, you know, the heart with my love’s and I’s initials in it. Then I thought about Rusty and how he is part of this family, so I put half a paw peeking out over the top of the heart.

cross stitch heart

Pattern

 

 

 

The pattern didn’t turn out the greatest when I scanned it because I pretty much beat it to death while I was completing the stitching, taking it everywhere with me. Next time I’ll scan it before I start the stitching. Lesson learned.

 

 

 

 

 

cross stitch heart

Stitching the paw print was a pain in my rear. Even though I had my pattern the squares are so tiny that it would have benefited me and the pattern to make it a bit bigger if I want to stitch this heart again.

 

I really need graph paper with smaller squares so I can make bigger patterns. This tiny heart reminds me of a Pound Puppy patch! I don’t know what I’ll do with it now that the stitching is complete, maybe I will put it on a stuffed animal and then watch the Pound Puppies.

Dec 20 2012
mushroom

Simple Cross Stitch Patterns made from an App

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I mentioned previously that I found an app for iPhone and iPad. It’s basically pixel art transferred to cross stitch patterns. I did make some simple cross stitch patterns. But, the app doesn’t allow for half stitch, back stitch or knots. It is fun to play with and see just how difficult it is to create a pattern. I’m posting pictures of the ones I made. They are very basic and the graph space doesn’t expand to be a very large canvas. For some reason, some of the patterns I could save with the graph behind it, as a .pdf.  Other patterns, the program had issues with and had me save as an image file resulting in no chart. All in all the program is fun to play with and to get a basic idea of pattern making but it’s not for serious pattern makers. Now I know what I’ll be doing to pass the time when I ride the T.

simple cross stitch pattern

 

simple cross stitch pattern

Key

background in Mario Brothers

background in Mario Brothers

 

mushroom

 

Dec 18 2012

Found a Cross Stitch App! Stitch Sketch Review

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Found a cross stitch app for iPhone and iPad! It’s called StitchSketch! The website also has a download for PC computers. The lite version of the app is free and the full version is only $5! It takes some getting use to especially on my phone because the screen is so small. But it allows you to save and send/email the charts as images and pdf files. It can also upload your designs to your DropBox account.  This is the only app I can find that allows you to create your own designs as well as turn a picture into a cross stitch pattern. I’m so pumped for this and to keep learning more things about it because I no longer have to draw the patterns out by hand! Bottom line, this app is fun but not for large or detailed projects because it doesn’t have backstitch or half stitches. Now, I just need to take the time to get familiar with the program.

Dec 16 2012
pattern

Cross Stitch Chevron iPhone Case

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As mentioned before, I was cross stitching a chevron patterned iPhone case. It’s finished and I LOVE it! Isn’t it beautiful?

chevron iphone

 

I decided to do the chevron pattern in white, turquoise and 3 different shades of grey.

I was going to do all of the grey stripes in the metallic thread but I decided it would be too much shine for me and I find metallic thread to be a pain in the you know what to work with. But I like the way there’s just a little bit of shine. I wanted to find a grey that was just the matte version of the metallic and I knew I had some in my tangled ball of thread left over from other projects. There are two shades because the lighting in my apartment is bad and I didn’t realize they were two different shades until I was in natural light and had already stitched using both colors. But I am really thrilled with how it turned out. The variations add just enough personality without being too loud. I find it to be perfect for me.

Dec 10 2012

Chevron Cross Stitch Case Iphone 4 Pattern

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I ordered a cross stitch cover from ThinkGeek! I am so excited to have a chevron cross stitched phone case. The case actually came with three colors of thread, needle and some patterns and the company has more case patterns at Leese Design. Just go to the bottom right of the page and click the red “chart” box. There are a lot of patterns to choose from but most were of certain themes/holidays and I wanted something to that didn’t look out of place throughout the year. I decided to create a chevron stripe pattern because I’m kind of obsessed with them at the moment. I didn’t know which way I wanted the stripes to go so I found some blank graph paper at Better Cross Stitch Patterns website, and started coloring. These are the two I made.

 

chevron cross stitch iphone horizontalvertical chevron cross stitch

Black and white versions

b&w horizontalvertical black and white

I don’t have the little camera hole in the upper left corner on the patterns because I figured it’d be pretty simple to omit it. Now I need to decide which pattern to use!