Sleepy cat with books

July 24, 2019July 12, 2019CraftyK Leave a comment

This card is for a second cousin of mine and the brother of the Scholarly Cat recipient. This is the family where one of the kids is allergic to cats and they can no longer have one as a pet. So I’m creating a cat they can have around.

This one does have a fur from one of my cats that got caught under the interfacing fabric while I ironed it on. So there is some real cat on this card. Hard to avoid when they insist on sitting in my lap while stitching.

This pattern and overall card is pretty straightforward, nothing too fancy this time. The cat body is in the colors recommended by the pattern. The rest are from my scrap collection to continue using that up. Once I got started counting the stitches was pretty easy.

This one is mounted on a slightly textured wallpaper. Like his brother he is into something called Larping. It sounds Medieval to me so I found a more antique type wallpaper I thought was fitting. Using foam tape I mounted the cat onto the wallpaper. I used double sided tape to mount the wallpaper to the cardstock.

Stitching

Started: July 3rd
Finished: July 10th

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Fight Back with Books

April 12, 2019March 24, 2019CraftyK Leave a comment

As I got older at family gatherings I would have an aunt come talk to me about books. Mostly of the Fantasy/Sci-Fi genre. At the time that was also of interest to me, now I tend towards other types of books. This particular aunt also works within the public library system. I’m not sure if she is a regular librarian because I feel that she does a lot more than help people find their next read.

After doing so many single color patterns lately it was nice to continue on this bright colors theme. Like the last card, books are the theme.

When I came across the Books pattern on Dailycrossstitch.com I thought it would be the perfect front to her birthday card.

This design is stitched on 18 count Aida. Even with measuring I cut this one really close to the edges. I thought I had enough space, but I was stitching right up to the taped edges. Trying not to sew the tape into it. After doing that I realized maybe for the next one I should make sure to leave plenty of breathing room.

The pattern was pretty easy to complete. The letters went really fast. Even on 18 count the card ended up being a 5×7. Width-wise it would have run to or even off the edges of my normal invitation sized cards. I was trying to keep the cards small it just hasn’t worked out that way for all of them.

For the frame, my original thought was to go dark. I picked out a few wallpaper pieces that I thought might work, but wasn’t happy with any of them. Then I started looking through my cardstock and found a blue one that made the stitching pop more than I expected. I went back to the wallpaper and found this green patterned paper that was funky and worked with the two thin green books in the picture.

The Cricut was how I cut the cardstock for the card and the frame around the cross stitch.

I also tried to stabilize the piece by using the interfacing fabric I learned about for the last card to see if I could keep this from stretching and bubbling so much. I think it may have worked since I had to try multiple times to line up the design where I wanted it within the opening.

I wasn’t able to do my normal pulling until it sort of fit, which is probably the cause of the bubbles. The “lite” interfacing fabric is still very flexible, I just can’t pull and tug on the fabric like I used to, which is a good thing.

Stitching

Started: March 10th
Finished: March 22nd

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Scholarly Cat

March 17, 2019March 10, 2019CraftyK Leave a comment

When I asked my cousin what her sons like, I was told Larping. That is something I’m not sure has ever been captured in cross stitch form. I was also told they like cats (although one is allergic) and reading. Luckily these are things much more readily available in the cross stitching world.

I found a pattern on dailycrossstitch.com with a cat sitting on a pile of books. This was the perfect fit! Logan is also off at college so the extra large books are also quite fitting for this stage in his life.

Yet again I found myself lost as to how I was going to assemble this card. The ideas aren’t coming like they were before. I’m in a Cross Stitch Club on Facebook and the day I finished this card she answered how she was able to cut around her patterns for cards and not have fraying.

Interfacing fabric. Who knew that you can make your own iron ons?! Luckily for me JoAnn’s was having a sale the weekend I learned of its existence, so I purchased a yard of the stuff to try for myself. Cost under a dollar with tax! Great price for trying out something new.

You can see a little bit of separation of the interfacing fabric and the Aida cloth in the image above, but I don’t think it’s too bad for a first try. I was told it would be quite stiff, but it didn’t really do that to me. I think it was the kind of fabric I was sold, it was called “Lite” and I was told there were thicker ones, but the salesperson felt it probably wasn’t what I wanted. This seems to work ok, it holds well and give more “stiffness” to the piece than just tacking it on would.

The background is from my massive wallpaper collection. I thought the pattern fit a kind of Larping theme. It makes me think Medieval, something from a family crest maybe.

It was fun trying out a whole new way to mount a cross stitch to a card. Now I have square with frayed edges, mounted in a “frame”, and this, cut out no fray.

Stitching

Started: February 28th
Finished: March 10th

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2019 Cards

January 3, 2019September 6, 2021CraftyK Leave a comment

If you don’t want to read the nuances about the cards I created in 2019, this is where you can see them all by month of creation. It can also be a place to get some inspiration for your own cards!