I start school this fall - and seeing that I will be a "starving student", I've decided for Christmas - I will cross stitch something for Christmas for my family (dad, mom, grandma - nothing major or HUGE) but something I know they will like and hang on the wall. I yet haven't figure out what I will do for all of them - but I've got a few ideas.

At this moment, I'm cross stitching these two cute polar bears with the saying "Cold Noses, Warm Hearts." I know I'm doing a winter theme in the summer but it was just so easy doing this. And I've had that pattern kit for two years and been meaning to get around to them. I got like ten kits that I have not even done yet or even finished.

Recently I just stored out all my cross stitch projects and put them in these nice cool designed shoeboxes that I got from Michaels. It helped me greatly since I had them in plastic bags or in little hand bags and it was just cluttering up the corner.

And I discovered that I don't like gold plated needles. They just give people gold-plated needles because it's like "OOOH I FOUND SHINY GOLD in my project ! Shiny ! Shiny !" Why I do not like gold - plated needles is it seems thicker and harder to get through the holes.

I followed a link here from asrana. I'm a lapsed cross-stitcher but over the weekend I've rescued my sewing basket from under the bed. I'm off out at lunchtime to get new needles and look for a pattern to start me off again.

This might be interesting to some people. It is a tapestry my grandfather made on sacking whilst a POW in WWII. Sorry that the picture is dodgy - I'm not the best photographer.

http://angelarosin.fotopic.net/p6125957.html

Finished another cross stitch this weekend - two in one week! Now I'm going to buckle down and really TRY to finish some other unfinished projects before starting any brand new ones! :D Wish me luck!

Anyway, here are the pix:( Celtic Double Dragons in Variegated Thread )

And because I could, I also scanned the "Thank You" Rose that I posted about earlier, this time in the actual greeting card. It just fit! :D You can't really see the embossing on the card, but it's embossed with ribbons and tiny flowers, white on white.
( Thank You Card )

Now I'm going to work on my Orange Blossoms needlepoint and my set of four Hummingbird coasters. That's the plan, and I'm gonna stick to it as long as I can! XD

Jo-Ann's was having a clearance sale. They are closing the store and moving to another location. There were few items left for cross stitch but they had kits 40% off. I bought This kit, Mendocino Twilight. The picture to me is, eh, take it or leave it, but it was 11 bucks so how could I resist?! I looked at it and thought it didn't look too bad other than all the colors. When I got home I realized it's a bit beyond me. I'm a beginner (I finished a half done x stitch of a horse that was easy and am working on a project now that's going well and have 3 other patterns to work on sitting on the shelf) this pattern has 96 or more colors! When I looked at the pattern I couldn't SEE a picture at all!! I have seen more than a few patterns and always seen pictures, granted I steer clear of hard stuff. I turned the pattern in all directions and stared at it...it took about five min to identify which side was "up" and was this really the pattern to the picture on the box or was this a mistake LOL! This one is going on the shelf till I gain more experience in cross stitch lest I loose my mind. :) My friend said, "duh Wilma, it was originally a $30 kit, the more expensive it is the harder it is most of the time!!" All I thought was "look 10 bucks!!" I'm a beginner!!!

Janlynn is the company, I've never seen their kits in jo ann's before, and never done one of theirs. I was pleased to see they have a DMC color chart on their website and some nice free goodies including a celtic cross by Wentzler (promptly downloaded for "someday"). What do ya'all think of their kits/patterns? I was also interested in this one, Through A Mother's Eye What do you think? *yeah I know that one's complicated*

I just received the chart I ordered for a Christmas stocking. Dragons by the Fire looked nice online, but there was no way to tell from the image just how complex this sucker is. Besides 58 colors of floss, it uses 5 colors of Kreinik metallic threads, 3 types of beads, and the specified cloth is Metallic Gold/Sand Lugana, 25 thread count.

The most frustrating part is trying to FIND all the materials. Michael's was out of several colors of floss and had none of the colors of Kreinik braid I needed. The Makings had the remaining floss colors, the beads, and 4 of the 5 colors of Kreinik. They almost had the fabric, but it was Gold/Mushroom, and 28-count instead of 25. It's an absolutely gorgeous fabric, judging from the slightly-different piece they had, but I'm wondering if white 14-count Aida will work just as well? On one hand, it's a shame to scrimp on plain fabric, when everything else I'm buying is so luxurious. On the other hand, I've already spent almost $40.00 on this project, and the Lugana will be $15.25 more.

What would you do?

I've finally managed to get a third of my cross stitch done!! I started this in March, and worked on it a lot while we were in the usa (58 flying hours makes for looots of stitching time!!) Here's what I've done so far (front and back):

( Read more... )

I specifically chose something eaaaaaaasy to work on, after spending last year working on these and getting far too sick of back stitch and all the other weird stitches. I like *cross-stitch*, not other stitches, that's why I cross-stitch!!