Give Thanks

Thanksgiving may be over but there is always a reason to Give Thanks!  I finally fully finished the Lizzie Kate cross stitch piece in which, oh my goodness, I stitched last year!  Well, I just couldn't figure out the finishing last month but here it is:

It's a little fabric piece cut to approximately a 9" x 9" square that could be a wall hanging or other type of display.  The fabric is a fat quarter I purchased from Walmart a year or two ago and I knew when I saw it that I wanted to use it for some type of Thanksgiving decor.  I cut an opening to fit the design and sewed it down.  I then cut a piece of brown fabric for the backing and sewed the two pieces with right sides together and flipped them out.  To highlight the stitched design, I used fabric fusion to glue down strips of brown bias binding which also covers up the stitches from sewing the Aida cloth to the fabric.  For the final finishing touches, I glued on a ribbon bow as well as some leaves and a flower from my craft stash.

Give Thanks cross stitch

My most recent cross stitch project is the Lizzie Kate freebie Give Thanks.  I stitched it twice switching up placement of a few of the colors.  The first piece I finished a few weeks ago and it's stitched on Loops & Threads 14 count Oatmeal Aida cloth that is 51% polyester, 36% cotton and 13% linen.  The pattern calls for Weeks Dye Works floss which I don't own so I pulled some DMC colors that looked close to the colors in the picture of the pattern.  The floss colors I used were 3363 (green leaf & pumpkin leaf), 3862 (stems and quote), 3820 (yellow leaf, bird beak and feet), 938 (acorn bottom), 310 (bird) and 3776 (pumpkin).  The pattern has two colors shown for the pumpkin which I did stitch but didn't like the look so I changed it to just one color.

 
Also, after I finished stitching this piece, I thought the quote was a little too light so I wanted to stitch it in the darker brown, color 938.  This was also a good opportunity for me to give a try at stitching on one of the 6x6 Aida canvas squares which I bought at Michaels a few months ago.

It's by Loops & Threads, is 100% cotton, and comes in a 3 pack in the oatmeal color and also in white.  I wasn't sure of the size (not listed on the package) but it turns out that it's also 14 count.  I had counted/marked out the area on the canvas square to fit a 60x60 stitch count design that wouldn't interfere with the frame sides.  I also couldn't decide which of the patterns to try first but as soon as I saw this Lizzie Kate pattern, I knew it was the one!  The oatmeal background with the fall colors and a stitch count that is smaller than 60x60 made it the perfect design size to test out stitching on the square.  It turned out nice and I covered the opening on the backside with a piece of brown felt.

Here's a side by side comparison of the two finishes.

Happy stitching!