Category Cross stitch

Noel

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This card took a really long time. I started it and then life took a very different turn than expected. It drove my desire to do anything right out the window. After a few months I was finally willing to pick this back up again, to get it finished. It’s time to move onto something else.

This card is part of a set from the late 1980s. I still have about 5 of them left. This was the easiest pattern from the set. Even with the design being simple, if you start counting the rows of colors in the gradient, you’ll find they are not all correct. 🤫

Once I found the mistakes, I decided to run with it as is. Giving this piece a unique look since it no longer matches the pattern.

Assembly was straightforward. Some double sided tape and everything else was already provided with the kit. As with many of these “smaller” patterns, I am amazed how many hours it actually takes to finish.

Stitching

Started: October 16th

Finished: March 5th

Stitching time: 8.25 hours

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2022 Cards

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If you don’t want to read the nuances about the cards I created in 2022, this is where you can see them all by month of creation. Regardless of life circumstances I was determined to get some cards made.

Hope this provides some inspiration for your own cards!

February

May

mothers-day-2022

June

July

September

October

December

20221227_195602-01

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Make Your Own Kind of Music

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I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to finish this one before my friend turned the big 4-0, in November. Clearly I was on top of it with plenty of time to spare.

I’m writing this in late July and you will be seeing this in November. I don’t want to share it early even though I’ll be sending it in a few days.

My friend is not only an amazing photographer and writer, she also has a passion for music. I found this pattern on dailycrossstitch.com and just had to make it for her.

I did a little modification of the pattern. For the arrows I used variegated thread to add some dimension. I also added backstitching around the word music. It wasn’t standing out enough against the lines.

I used a purple sparkle paper for the frame and cut it out with my Cricut. The back of the cross stitch is stabilized with interfacing fabric.

Stitching

Started: March 30

Finished: April 10th

Stitching time: 11.25 hours

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Noel Candle II

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I made this kit in 2021 and ended up getting another one. It’s a kit from 1988. Everything comes ready to make the card, including the envelope.

The last version of this card ended up going to my uncle for Christmas. This one will be going with all my cards to a friend’s craft fair booth.

It’s a straight forward pattern, only a few quarter stitches sprinkled in. French knots in metallic thread is the challenge with this pattern. Looks awesome when done, but not easy getting there. Metallic thread makes me nervous I guess. I can have very dry hands and pick that stuff up and I’m sweating like crazy and the thread just frays. I ran it through thread magic several times which kept it together a little longer this time.

I do struggle with picking which color to work on each time I finish a general area. There is a fair amount of “confetti” in this one. To keep stitches consistent a little planning is needed.

Stitching

Started: September 16th

Finished: October 8th

Stitching time: 7.75 hours

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Rocking Horse

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This pattern is from a 1988 card kit. The pattern is hand drawn! I can’t imaging having to draw out patterns by hand. Sometimes advancements in technology are great.

Compared to the last several projects this one was easy. Mostly because the pattern was bigger than the actual design.

Well I thought it was easy until I started stitching. Then it took longer than expected to complete. There are several color changes and backstitching tends to take longer I think.

I have no idea what my deal is with metallic thread. I get all sweaty when it’s time to use it and that’s the worst time to have sweaty hands. By the second strand I was running it through Thread Magic at least 3 times to try and keep it together (usually it frays really bad). The extra coatings did help.

Since this is part of a kit, assembly went smoothly. Double sided tape to hold the aperture card together.

Stitching

Started: August 7th

Finished: September 4th

Stitching time: 7 hours

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Wrapping Bear

CraftyK 2 Comments

This cross stitch pattern is from a 1992 kit that was supposed to be made into an ornament. The design is by Celia Lange.

This pattern is riddled with 1/4 and technically 3/4 stitches. Since I knew there was so much backstitching I have learned that skipping the 3/4 stitches is better if backstitching is going through it.

Instead of following the pattern completely, I used quarter and whole stitches. This helped guide where the backstitching was going and not overwhelm the pattern.

This kit came with 18 count fabric which made it more challenging than most. It took several long breaks between stitching sessions to get this one done due to all the quarter stitches.

To finish this one I found simple paper in one of the Christmas paper packs. There is green in the cross stitch and green dots on the paper. Since there is text stitched I didn’t use any stamps or writing, just the pattern.

The cross stitch is stabilized with interfacing fabric and mounted with mounting tape. The paper is mounted to the card based with double sided tape.

Stitching

Started: June 1

Finished: July 17

Stitching time: 5.25 hours

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Old Fashioned Santa

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This cross stitch pattern is from a 1988 kit that was supposed to be made into an ornament. The design is by Lois Winston.

The design and stitching were simple which was nice. A little backstitching was involved too.

I wasn’t sure how to finish this one. I have a set of Christmas paper that looks “antique.” I found a page with old world Santa’s that match the cross stitch. Well, with one major difference, they are walking the opposite direction of each other. Even so, I went forward with using it.

Since there are so many Santa’s on the paper I decided to make it the background. The cross stitch is stabilized with interfacing fabric and mounted with mounting tape.

Stitching

Started: May 24

Finished: May 31

Stitching time: 2.5 hours

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Santa’s Sleigh

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This cross stitch pattern is from a 1988 kit that was supposed to be made into an ornament. The design is by Lois Winston.

This turned out cute and yet it’s so small! Getting all the backstitching in was a challenge and added quite a bit of time to finishing.

I took a risk with my paper choice. Hot pink with red for the Santas is overwhelming yet cute. I chose to place the cross stitch over the background with mounting tape instead of making a frame. This helped cut down some of the intensity.

The cross stitch is stabilized with interfacing fabric and cardstock. The interfacing is clear so the pink and Santa heads were showing through. Everything else is attached with double sided tape.

Stitching

Started: April 23

Finished: May 12

Stitching time: 5.5 hours

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Winter Scene (Art. 126)

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This cross stitch pattern is from a kit that was supposed to be made into an ornament. I’m not a Christmas tree person and personally have no need for ornaments and turned this into a card instead.

While the design is small and seems easy, it was more challenging than I expected. Not only is it tiny (and a tiny piece of fabric provided) it has quite a few colors. Along with backstitching to finish it off.

The card was a multi-step process. After picking the paper, I decided I wanted to make it a frame. Because the pattern is small and no words are stitched on it I also wanted to add some text.

I’ve acquired many stamps over the last few years, but I have avoided Christmas ones. With no stamp and not wanting to handwrite anything I chose to use the writing feature of my Cricut. Since I don’t pay for Access that means any font I use is outlined and not a single line.

I decided that wasn’t a problem because I recently bought alcohol markers and could color it in. In my head I just made my own stamp. The nice thing about that was more color options and testing colors before working on the final version. No cleaning a stamp between color tests!

For this card everything is heald together with double sided tape. Nothing too fancy there. I did use interfacing fabric to seal off the back of the cross stitch.

Stitching

Started: April 12

Finished: April 19

Stitching time: 4 hours

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Seasonal Goose

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Where to start with this one. I completed the stitching so long ago I don’t remember much about it.

This pattern came with a tri-fold aperture card ready to use. I didn’t have to make any decisions on paper, colors, or final size.

While stitching did take a while it was very nice to have all whole stitches. French knots went pretty well too on this one. I don’t think any are loose. The photos below are of the stitching in progress. The one on the right is what the pattern looked like before any backstitching or knots were applied. Those two things really made a difference!

The card does have elements that most in the series of kits don’t have. There is embossing on the front and the inside left panel. The company also embossed their logo on the back. The other cards I’ve completed from this series didn’t have that much extra detail.

To get everything assembled I used a light interfacing fabric behind the design and double-sided tape to hold it all together.

Stitching

Started: November 8

Finished: March 28

Stitching time: 11.5 hours

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