Cross stitch finish! ah, Coffee…

admin — Mon, 22 May 2006 19:16:44 +0000

This piece has been a comedy of errors. All blame is mine, as I appear to suffer from an inability to count properly when tired. The hat is slightly off, a few stitches are done in the wrong colors, and when it came time to backstitch the coffee cup, I did it in dark blue instead of dark brown because I was too lazy to go find the brown. I did purposefully stitch the dashed line in gold braid because I thought it would be prettier than if done in brown floss. The border? The border is not part of the pattern. You’ll note the bottom edge– I mis-counted where I needed to start the piece, and the whole thing is a few squares too far south on the cloth. The border is to ensure the fabric doesn’t unravel before I figure out how I’m going to finish this. My husband commented that I really have a hard time letting go of a piece, and that is largely true. I was thinking this might need more sparkle, or perhaps some beads. I’m so irritated with all the minor mistakes however, that I find I’m able to let it go quite easily. And without further ado:

Post from: Blisstree

Bargain kits

admin — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:46:57 +0000

When I was looking for some needlework to do last summer, I decided that giving counted cross stitch another try would be fun. I had tried it a decade or so ago, and was not really that excited about All The Counting. Off I went to one of my local craft shops to look through their patterns. Counted Cross Stitch must not be as popular right now (at least in our area) as it has been in past times, because usually the main offerings for needleworking are in kit form. I wasn’t sure I wanted to put a large investment of time and money into it, so I looked through the clearance sale bin and found a kit for a Victorian Palm for under $5.

I marked the center lines and started stitching. The kit worked up nicely, certainly better than I’d expected from a small cheap kit. Eventually I will get around to framing it in a pleasing frame (rather than the plastic frame it came with. The tacky plastic frame). The picture included with the kit, and my start of the piece:

And the finished result:

If you are unsure whether you will like needlework, but want to try it, Janlynn Corporation offers free needlecraft kits. Two notes: there is a postage cost (appears to be approx $7) and the offer is limited to online USA customers. Which is good for those of us in the US, but not-so-exciting for those of us elsewhere. The selection varies, and supplies of each kit are limited, but there is almost always something I see that I think “hm, well maybe this time I’ll go ahead and order one!”

Free Patterns Online offers a LOT of free charts. There are some teeny tiny charts perfect for beginners or for those things you just want a little touch of stitching on.
Happy Stitching!

Post from: Blisstree

Bargain kits

Blisstree » finished-piece

Cross stitch finish! ah, Coffee…

Bargain kits