Category: cross-stitch

Tiny owl charm

I was sure I would be punished for this, but I took an hour out of my workday (or perhaps a little more) the other day to do some cross-stitch. I haven’t done cross-stitch, except as part of a general embroidery project, in a long time. I wanted something small, but fortunately I have a good library of patterns for small images. I ended up with a design modified from one in 2001 Cross Stitch Designs by Better Homes & Gardens.

book picture

When I say small, I mean small. I discovered as soon as I started to stitch that I had made some tactical oversights – in particular, stitching over one strand on 28-count Monaco does not allow for half stitches. However, I made some alterations and omissions on the fly and came up with what I think is rather a nice finished product.

my owl

Simple cross-stitch patterns

I went through a phase some time ago of cross-stitching personalized gifts for people, often with my own designs. Some were in-jokes, some I no longer have the patterns to, and some were not really good enough to share, but I have a couple to show you. The first is an old-fashioned desktop computer:

oh, the majesty

I have the pattern available as a jpg should you want to make one yourself. There are no markings for the solid-color regions; the backstitching and keyboard keys are shown, and the rest is filling in appropriate regions. I wrote a personal message on the screen in backstitch; you can make your message more or less subtle by varying the color contrast. All color numbers are DMC, and of course the selections should be adjusted to your taste.

The one I have to share that I am more proud of, however, is the following.  

camera!

The camera and ticket may be stitched together or separately; the pattern specifies DMC color numbers, but you merely need black and dark yellow of some flavor.