Create Every Day cross stitch

My recent crafty creation is the fully finish of my Create Every Day cross stitch piece.    This is a freebie pattern designed by Teresa Kogut and can be found on her website here or also on the Fat Quarter Shop website here.

 

I stitched this design in 2020, set it aside, and last month finally had an idea on how to finish it.  The finishing piece is a wooden hanging plaque from Michaels that I painted using Folk Art wicker white acrylic paint.  I covered the plaque backing piece with fabric called Spools Allover Blue, from the Sew Little Time collection by Danielle Leone (Wilmington Prints).  I fused a piece of interfacing behind the stitching, backed it with a piece of chipboard and laced it up before gluing to the plaque.  Other details:

Fabric

14 count white Aida

Floss 

words - Sullivans 45226 (similar to DMC 825) (Note: lots of stitches-used almost the whole skein)

needle - Sullivans 45090 (similar to DMC 414)

thread details - Sulky petite 12 wt. blendable color 4030

Happy creating!

 

Sweet Summer cross stitch (Cherry Hill Stitchery)

Well, summer may be winding down but it was time for me to fully finish a cross stitch project I completed last September.  It's the Sweet Summer pattern by Cherry Hill Stitchery. 

The easy part of the process was picking a wall decor sign from my supply collection to use as the display piece, and painting it white.  However, it took me many days to decide on the materials and layout for this finish.  I auditioned several different fabric options for the backdrop and didn't like any at all so I thought well let me look through my collection of scrapbook paper.  Well that was it!  I found two pieces of coordinating paper by My Mind's Eye that complimented the colors in the stitched piece!  I cut the green polka dot paper for the bottom layer and the coral colored polka dot for the top paper layer.  After those were adhered to the sign base, I was then able to complete a final layout with added embellishments to display this project!  Following are the details of the supplies used.

Cross stitch fabric: 14 ct. Beautiful Beige Aida cloth

Floss:

Sullivans 45339 (substitution for CC Ladybug)

Sullivans 45279 (substitution for Steamed Broccoli)

Sullivans 45002 (substitution for DMC B5200)

DMC 729

DMC 310 

Other:

wall decor sign

white acrylic paint

rick rack

My Mind's Eye patterned paper

ribbon

Happy finishing!

 

Yarn pumpkins and acorns

Over the last several months I had been admiring pictures of various Autumn decor items and recently made these knit and crochet pumpkins and acorns.  In the picture, the knit items are on the left and crochet on the right.

 

Pumpkins:  I watched multiple crochet pumpkin videos and winged it using a few techniques from those videos to make my own version (I chained 21 and used a half double crochet stitch).  After I finished it, I was very motivated and I searched for a knit pumpkin pattern.  I found this pumpkin pattern by Studio Knit and followed the instructions for the medium size.  The circumference of the pumpkins are approximately 16" for the crochet and 15" for the knit and a height of about 5-5 1/2".  For the stem of the knit pumpkin, I knit two 5 stitch I-cords and sewed together for a bit more thickness.  I used Lily Sugar'n Cream yarn in the colors hot orange and warm brown.  I added a bow made from a piece of the Lily Sugar'n Cream ecru yarn to bring in the color from the acorns. 

Acorns: Even more motivated I thought a few acorns would be fun to add to the collection.  I followed the Little Acorn Crochet Pattern video by Jayda in Stitches and the How to Knit Acorns video by Studio Knit. Also, instead of adding a hanging string on the crochet acorn, I finished the top just like the knit acorn.  The finished acorn sizes are 2" (crochet) and 3" (knit).  I used Lily Sugar'n Cream yarn in the colors ecru and warm brown.

Happy crafting!

One Stitch at a Time

My latest fully finished cross stitch project is the One Stitch at a Time pattern by Tiny Modernist.  I completed the stitching in July and periodically I would think of finishing ideas and recently I finally came up with this clean and simple finish.

Here are the stitching supplies and  details:

Fabric - 16 ct. white Aida cloth

Finished stitched size - approx. 4" x 4"

Floss

Blues - Sullivans 45444 and 45442 (the DMC equivalents are 3846 and 3844)

Yellow - Sullivans 45171 (the DMC equivalent is 726)

Grays - Sullivans 45483 and 45089 (the DMC equivalents are 168 and 413)

Greens - DMC 906 and 907

Corals - Sullivans 45075 and 45076 (the DMC equivalents are 351 and 352)

Brown - Sullivans 45097 (the DMC equivalent is 436)

 

Finishing details:

 

I purchased an ArtMinds wood plaque from Michaels and painted the sides and part of the interior with Folk Art's Wicker White acrylic paint.  I measured, cut and adhered some blue fabric to the plaque interior for the backdrop to showcase the design.  I adhered the stitched design to a piece of chipboard and pondered on how to make it pop off the background.  I like the look of rick rack and also wanted to use cording so I looked through my supplies to see what would work.  I decided on some nice 100% cotton jumbo rick rack (purchased from Sew Vintagely on Etsy) and figured out the placement, glued it down to the background fabric and then adhered the stitched design on top.  Next, I considered either purchasing a tool to make cording or trying a DIY method.  Well, I referred back to this video by Lolly Palooza that I watched several months ago and using some yarn to practice, I was successful in producing some cording!  I wasn't sure what color to use for the cording and was thinking of using the 45442 floss but as I was looking through some of my supplies, I discovered I had some DMC Perle cotton size 5 in a complimentary color.  Well, I never realized there was a color number on the Perle floss and guess what? As I peeled off the label, I saw number 352.  Wow, no wonder it was a great match to a color I used, LOL!  Sullivans 45076 is equivalent to DMC 352!  So, with 4 strands of the Perle cotton, I made some cording and adhered it to the perimeter of the design; a nice addition to finish the look!

 

Happy stitching!

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.

Welcome to Our Haunted Home

It's October which means Halloween will soon be here!  I stitched the Welcome to Our Haunted Home design found in the Just CrossStitch 2019 Special Collector's Issue for Halloween and finished it as a home decor piece.  It's a design by Linda Medina of Medina Originals.  I started it in 2019 and finished it this past January.  The only change I made to the design was omitting the stitches around the words Welcome and Home; I just wanted the focus on Haunted.  There were minimal floss colors

needed for the design; DMC 310 and 721, and Kreinik 152V.  The word Haunted was to be a blend of the Kreinik and DMC 721 but I used what I had in my stash and stitched it only in 721 and that was fine for me.  My choice of fabric was a 100% 14 ct. natural Aida by Charles Craft Gold Standard.  I loved stitching on it and the color is great too!  I had seen the black wreath at Michaels last year and the finishing idea popped up in my head!  When I went back to check for Halloween clearance they were sold out however, I did purchase a pick with the 3 skeleton hands.  So a few months ago I was happy to find the wreath was back in stock so I could create this Halloween finish!  The orange and green berries and the skeleton head I purchased from A.C. Moore during their closing sale last year.  I used a 12" round cake board (Lori from Once Upon a Stitch had mentioned this in one of her videos as an idea to use as a base for a circular finish!) from my cake decorating stash for the circular base, adhered two layers of batting on top for padding and then hot glued the stitched piece, corners only (the stitched piece is a square), onto the covered board.  I then used wire to wrap around the piece and weave it through the wreath to hold.  Instead of using glue, I also attached all the other embellishments with wire to complete the finish!  I have it hanging on the inside of my front door so I can enjoy it! (I got that hanging idea from a Helen D. home tour video!)

 

Chicken Joy cross stitch

Well, I didn't stitch as much as I wanted to so I only have one finished Christmas cross stitch project to share.  It is a pattern designed by Priscilla and Chelsea, aka the Real Housewives of Cross Stitch on Flosstube. The pattern is named Chicken Joy and can be found here on Priscilla's blog.  It is such a cute and fun pattern with the chicken!  My maternal grandparents had chickens and also a rooster and it brings back memories of my childhood!  I remember watching my grandfather get eggs out of the coop and hearing the rooster crowing in the early mornings!  Anywho, for the project, I used the called for DMC colors and my choice of fabric was 14 count black Aida.  

As I was getting closer to finishing the stitching, I had a few finishing ideas but when I was perusing the local craft store, A.C. Moore (sadly it's closing - boo hoo!), I saw some red buffalo check fat quarters and knew I had to incorporate it into the finishing!  I mean it's a Priscilla and Chelsea design, LOL!  I also bought two other fat quarters in a striped design (green/white and black/white) to incorporate into the finish.  To make the final finish, I found a 6 1/2 inch wooden circle in my craft stash and laced up the Aida to it.  I then cut the green/white striped fabric into strips to make a ruffle and then adhered it to the back of the Aida circle.  I then cut a larger circle out of cardboard (something a little heavier such as chip board, mat board, self-stick mounting board etc., probably would be better) because it was the first thing I pulled out of my stash bag so I went with it because I was too lazy to look through all my stash, but hey it still works, LOL!  I adhered the buffalo check to the cardboard and then glued the two circles together.  Next was the final finishing touches.  I decided to make it a hanging project so I pulled some coordinating colored ribbon from my ribbon stash.  I made a loop with black and white grosgrain ribbon, adhered it to the back of the buffalo check circle and covered the back with a piece of black felt.  I then tied a green ribbon bow around the black and white ribbon to pull in more of that color.  Finally, I didn't like how much space was between the bottom of the Aida and the edge of the circle so I added a little embellishment.  I cut a piece of white shrinky dink plastic with a Cuttlebug tag die and before heating, I wrote the year using a black permanent marker.  After it shrunk, I took two strands of the red DMC floss, used in the stitching, to tie a bow onto the tag before adhering to the Aida to finish off the project!

 

Happy New Year and snowflake decor

Happy New Year 2019!

I have a cute home decor item I made a few weeks ago that I wanted to share.  It's a wooden snowflake that I picked up at the dollar store because I wanted to make a home decor item for the winter season.  The snowman face, intended to decorated a paper bag, is from a foam kit that I got from the craft store.  I wanted to use the face for the center of the snowflake.  I covered the bare snowflake with 2 coats of white acrylic paint on the front (only one coat on the back) and once dried, I took a cue from the foam kit and painted a blue square as the backdrop for the snowman face.  Then, I took some white glitter and sprinkled onto the snowflake after spraying it with spray adhesive.  Once dried, I assembled the snowman, used hot glue to adhere it to the snowflake and its done!  I found a piece of multicolored blue ribbon from my stash to use for hanging.