Home
Where haberdashery and geekdom combine
Recent Entries 
This is a community to share your cross stitch works with other interested people. We're also here to help with any embroidery questions you have!

The moderators for this community are [info]bekki_n, [info]cathouse_blues and [info]emohdee - please be aware that you can contact any of us by emailing bekki_n and cathouse_blues at livejournal dot com and siran underscore drauka at yahoo dot com

Although this community is dedicated to cross-stitch, please don't feel that you have to stick to cross stitch! Other types of embroidery or similar crafts are welcomed.

Please however, go to the LJ FAQ for all Livejournal questions.

************

There are only a few rules here: Cut Tag any pictures, don't advertise things and don't share copyrighted material.

Pictures of your work are welcome, however I do ask that you use lj cut tags (go to the FAQ and livejournal specific tags section for help).

Don't advertise things includes advertising your auctions. If you want to advertise a community, use LJ's official page at [info]community_promo. If you'd like to organise a swap, please feel free and if you're giving stuff away, please only request payment for postage. Failure to follow these rules will result in your post being removed.

Don't share copyright material: Most, though not all, kits, charts and patterns have a statement reading something like "permission granted to copy/photocopy for personal use." "Personal use" means so you can write on it, mark it up, use highlighter, whatever – usually so you don't damage the original – but it does not mean you can give away or sell photocopies, scans, electronic files or other copies of the product for someone else's "personal use".

It's fine to post an image of the product (behind an lj-cut), or a link on where to find it, but please do not post that you will share a chart or pattern, nor links to "sharing sites". The moderators will remove such posts or comments, and those who post them will receive a warning the first time. Repeated offense will result in banning from [info]cross_stitch.

NOTE: Please be kind to your fellow members who may be under eighteen or who may read the community at work and restrict your icons to a "G" rating. If you have any question about where your icon might fall, please feel free to contact a moderator.
************

If you have any questions about the community, feel free to email me, and put cross-stitch community as the subject.

If you'd like to see any of the tags used by the community, and what has been posted under them, click here

Tips!
A tip from buffalogal: Got a dimensions kit, and run out of a colour? Go to dimensions-crafts and request the colour you need. Or, if you want to convert your dimensions colours to DMC, [info]innocentxv suggests this site

From midnightsangelc: How to make a pillow for a different way of finishing your work

Thanks to [info]l8ntmthrnr: Some tips on using metallic thread, or blending filament

From [info]hanael: Framing tips

From [info]tersa: Tips on travelling with your sewing, in the US (check the comments for links to British rules) - also try Transporting Knitting Needles & Needlepoint (in the USA) located here

Thanks to [info]l8ntmthrnr: A fantastic site for all kinds of x-stitch tips is here (Thanks [info]galyndean for the updated again link)

Thanks to [info]closetblonde: Unsure what your pattern will look like on different materials? Check here to see how it'll look!
19th-Jul-2008 08:57 pm - Baby Blanket Week 1
Flack guardian angel
So this is my other project, the one I'm alternating with the House-Mouse design I'm doing. And here's my progress for week one of the alphabet baby blanket.

Pics! )
19th-Jul-2008 01:52 pm - Back stitching before or after stretching to proper shape?
Fractal
Hello all!

I'm the new member Jenn. I've done cross-stitching, crochet, knitting, and a few other "needle and string" crafts. My current project is needlework, which my aunt gave to me about eight, maybe nine years ago. Initially she had it on a frame, although the frame was too wide for it, so it really wasn't on a frame. At first the frame idea was great, but the cumbersomeness of it made me ditch the frame. Because of the frame and the fact that I've worked on and off it for years (some of the colours could only be determined in sunlight!), the pattern became skewed. However, I continued to work on it, stitching in the coloured threads.

The poor out-of-shape piece )

I've come across the thought that I should shape the project before outlining back stitching. But then I wondered if it would make a difference. Why not outlining back stitching, then shape? All of my other projects (cross-stitch) did miss-shape like this, so what do I do? Can I re-shape it the way it should be? What is involved? Washing? Ironing? Leaving on a proper frame until it's "set" right? Or just continue onward, do the outline and then arrange it on a backing so that it looks right and immediately frame?

Suggestions and helpful hints?
19th-Jul-2008 10:34 pm - Thanks, found it!
I am one stitch away from having page 1/42 complete on my HAED "World Tree"... but somewhere I have misplaced my 704 thread, and I would really like to be able to say page one is complete! I can probably get a new skein within a week... but for one little stitch I thought I might substitute something...

Update... I found the missing colour! I looked for the 4th time in with another UFO and it was there... whew, so now page 1/42 is done! And I started on page 2. HAPPY DANCE!!!

Here )
19th-Jul-2008 07:04 am - just like all the rest.... I'm new

My latest obsession is that there's a lady at work who doesn't go front to back with her sewing. She does all her stitching from the front of the work, and I don't see how she can do it without spliting her stitches. But she says that her work goes so much faster for not having to go front to back. Anyone have an opinion on this? Anyone do it her way that could attest to the method?
19th-Jul-2008 09:54 am
Murderous
For the first time of my life, I use martial arts to calm down from.... stitching...
Or rather UNSTITCHING!!!
Because I realized that despite double checking, I managed to make DOZENS of points instead of half points and when I try to unstitch them they just... get stuck in the fabric or decide the next thread is a nice place to stitck to....
I needed to say it, thank you for reading, now I'll go to the nearest town (I'm "relaxing" in the country) to buy something to cut many stitches at once.
19th-Jul-2008 01:01 am - Cirque Update du Jour
stitchery
I'm changing the colors a bit from the reference photo I'm using. The flowers in the right-hand motif are actually two different shades of pink. It's a subtle look that doesn't fare so well with the camera, but I love it.

Just two. )

Cross-posted to [info]waya
18th-Jul-2008 05:33 pm - Yay dragons!
dragon cross stitch
My mother finished this project quite a while ago, but I only just got it framed. I am tickled! It's adorable! I've been a good influence on her. (Mom didn't start counted cross stitching until I bought her a "my first counted cross stitch kit" as a joke!)

:)

My Stash is Full of Treasures from Dragon Dreams )
18th-Jul-2008 01:27 pm - Framed update
Yes???
Hi all!! I thought I'd post an update from my first post now that it's been framed.  :)  I'm quite proud of how it turned out!!!  This was my first project to be framed. 


Thanks for everyone's kind words when I first posted this.  I really feel welcomed here, as opposed to some of the other craft forums I've been to.  ;)
18th-Jul-2008 11:23 am - an intro from a beginner
i rock!
Just 'cause everyone else is doing it. )
18th-Jul-2008 01:02 pm - Intro post
Cuddles!
Um...I guess I'll add my own intro post to the lot...

Click here if you want to read about me! )
18th-Jul-2008 01:05 pm - updates!
bead porn
A finish and a wip -- first, a little piece I made from a Dimensions kit for my sister's birthday

serenity )

And an update on my BAP (although I'm not sure it's really that huge...a BP? a MAP? I'll stop mutilating acronyms now.

garden )
18th-Jul-2008 11:53 am
rainbow threads
I was looking through a friend's wedding album last night (she got married in 1981) and she pointed out her ringbearer's pillow which had been cross stitched by her matron of honor. She said, "See she cross stitched that for me, cross stitch was big back back then."

I said, "It's big now! I cross stitched three hours last night!"
18th-Jul-2008 11:42 am - The Intro...
Rain
Seeing as how I forgot to post an intro and was reminded of it this morning. I will post one now.

Intro. :D )
18th-Jul-2008 07:41 pm - Whoops...
Baby max
I just realised I started posting without an intro back around December/January, and have been posting madly since then...
17th-Jul-2008 09:35 pm - Reversible Cross Stitch Tutorial
stitch
 A reader of my last post asked me to explain reversible cross stitch.  I created a one page step-by- step tutorial to answer the question.  I am making this tutorial available to all with the understanding it will be used for your own personal reference only.

Please see this post for access to the tutorial.
17th-Jul-2008 10:18 pm - Being a parent...
Yeah right
... means making fun of your kid's things.

For example:

Tonight, Victor wanted to sing songs. So we sang our ABCs, The Entsy-Wentsy Spider, Hickory Dickory Dock, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Mary Mary Quite Contrary.

Then this came into my head:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does Napoleon go?
The little man, his horse's butt
Made of little x-es all in a row.

And wouldn't you know, [info]emohdee updated Napoleon tonight!
http://community.livejournal.com/cross_stitch/2224355.html

x-posted to [info]cross_stitch and me
17th-Jul-2008 10:12 pm - Napoleon Update: Page 34!
Napoleon
Hell is green, everyone. That's all I have by way of an introduction.

Page 34 of Napoleon! )

The Napoleon FAQ

Happy stitching, everyone!

- A very tired Mary
17th-Jul-2008 02:44 pm
rainbow threads
I got a chance to put in about another 7 hours on my Shamrock Sampler.

pictures )
17th-Jul-2008 10:08 am - ARG!
Nooooo!
I'm currently working on a Dimensions kit for a friend's wedding in three weeks. The center of the design has two Japanese characters, with a sea of white half-cross stitches around it. So, of course, I nearly finish the sea of white and discover I've shifted the entire thing to one side by one row. My husband, darling that he is, insisted that he couldn't see it, and to just go with it.

I finish the sea of white, and discover that one of the corners of the bottom character is now sticking out of the sea of white. Yeah, no way to avoid it - time to frog the WHOLE sea of white.

ACK! Sorry, just needed to vent somewhere where I knew people would understand. *grumbles, begins frogging and thanking heavens that they're only half-stitches*
17th-Jul-2008 12:33 pm - 127.0.0.1 Sweet 127.0.0.1
Default
It occurred to me last night that a modern "welcome friends" sampler should include the host's wireless network password. To make it easy to change, should it become necessary, the WEP key would be numerical charms. While I'm working on that idea, have another geek welcome:

Home Sweet Home )

ETA: Apple tree version )

X-posted to my own LJ.
17th-Jul-2008 11:15 am - Help - Pattern Hunt
Hermione & Luna - OoTP
Hey Guys,

I have a friend in need, she's starting cross stitching again and wants to create some for her grandkids and great-grandkids.

Is there a site out there that has any free nursery rhyme patterns? Or any nursery rhyme patterns at all?

Thanks so much in advance from the two of us!

Tams
16th-Jul-2008 11:07 am - OT:Punch Needling
KD
Someone had asked about punch needling in a seperate post and instead of letting my beautiful photos end up hidden in a comment somewhere, I decided to share my pictures here. Under a cut of course (shown in chronological order)!


ETA: For those of you who are not familiar with punch needling... It is a special tool that looks like a pen but has a hollow needle at the end. You feed the thread through the tool. You work from the back of the fabric and punch loops of thread through the fabric. Kits usually look like a coloring book page on fabric and you fill in the different sections with different colors (like the wedding sampler that I posted above). Or if you freehand you can blend the colors together (like the Georgia O'Keefe piece I posted above).
16th-Jul-2008 10:56 am - Looking for a chart
x-files chantilly lace

I was hoping someone on here might want to trade for or sell me a copy of the birth announcement "What's Your Sign Baby" from Witches' Stitches?
The only retailer I found that sold their charts after they went out of business has run out of that particular chart.
Help!

16th-Jul-2008 09:27 am - Elemental Cosmos Help
Cookie

Copyright question-
When the design company has gone out of business and the chart is out of print is it then okay to re-use a chart, or photocopy it?

I have googled my little heart out,  I've checked e-bay (again and again), I've emailed and I've called those who have had it listed for sale on their sites,  but I cannot find a copy of Elemental Cosmos from Witches Stitches.  I have had this piece on my wishlist for so very long and I think my search is a futile one.   

Anyone?  

*cricket chirp*

Cookie?

 

x-posted to my journal

 

16th-Jul-2008 08:46 am - off topic---

So, I love cross stitch and have been stitching like a madwoman lately.. but I am curious,  have any of you tried punch needle? I was checking out some kits at Ac Moore this weekend and they look relativley easy.  I thought I might try some for christmas gifts this year.. is it difficult??

16th-Jul-2008 04:54 pm - I had to share this:
Baby max

Anyone have a spare $1500AU?

Just 10kg of material and floss for sale... nothing too big at all :P

Unfortunately I just don't have a spare $1500....

16th-Jul-2008 12:26 am - Stitching finish: Poppy bookmark
stitch
 I have finished another bookmark as part of my break from the BAP.  

Photo and commentary here.
16th-Jul-2008 02:27 pm - One wip and two framed
fiddle
Here be pictures )
16th-Jul-2008 10:37 am - Excited & nervous
Legolas - One smile to rule them all
So I've placed an order for a lap frame and its on its way to me as I type this. And the first project I'll work on it will be a BAP that I've left aside for a long long time, simply because the size of it alone has made me wonder what madness drove me to attempt it, lol.

The culprit in question is Solstice & Equinox from Heaven & Earth Designs.

Don't you just love the heady airy feeling you get when you start on a new project? I certainly do, and can't wait to see how this one turns out! It'd be my first time trying out a lap frame for this as well, so it's double the excitement!

Time to stop by the LNS today after work to get materials! ^-^v
15th-Jul-2008 09:19 pm - I am an update addict.
stitchery
If I update too often, just let me know. I just love seeing other people's progress and so I try to do updates fairly often myself on big WIPs. Cirque des Cercles is going to divide itself nicely into sections, which is going to make it easy to break up updates a little. This picture shows the colors of the fabric a little better. You can see the variations better.

Cut! )
This page was loaded Jul 20th 2008, 6:53 am GMT.