Cross Stitch Update

I’m so glad that I started doing regular cross-stitch updates.  It’s made me do some crazy things…like this week.  I actually fully finished TWO things!!!

Check out my two little pillows…no matter that they aren’t in season.  I’m just thorough happy that they are finished.

A crazy thing happens to me.  When I know I have to make a cross-stitch post on Fridays and I know I don’t stitch anything very quickly, I know I need to come up with something that will make the blog post a little more interesting…so, I finished these as my “a little bit more interesting” item this week.

Normally I would have let these sit for a long time and probably would have even forgotten about them.  Not this time.  I just tackled them.

I put it off because I want it to be perfect and I know I’m not one who can do it perfectly.  So things sit.  Last week I watched a floss tube of The Proper Stitcher.  She was saying finished is better than perfect.  Me, my philosophy has always been it’s better in the drawer so I don’t have to fret over how not perfect it is…

I decided to take her advice and just finished the two pieces.

These were both stitched in DMC floss which is supposed to be colorfast.  I looked a the bottom of my iron. It looked clean so…

I just ironed it.

I stitched these on a piece of leftover linen.  It was Vintage Country Mocha 40 count.  I buy linen online and typically buy a fat quarter’s worth.  After stitching my sampler, this was cut off and was leftover.  I found some small freebie designs and stitched them on it.

I revamped this design.  It had a year where I put the initials…mine and Kramer’s.

Making pillows was my plan.  My idea was different fabrics on the top and bottom and a different one for the backing.

I trimmed around it 3/4″ away from the stitching but later went back and trimmed it to 1/2″ away from the stitching.

I sewed a piece on the top and bottom.  I made the bottom one a little wider.

Right sides together I sewed them leaving an opening at the bottom.

I trimmed and stuffed the pillow.

Then sewed the opening up.

I did something similar with the Valentine pillow only this one got fabric attached to the sides.

Here they are all finished.  Love Never Fails got a ribbon bow (ribbon from Hobby Lobby) and a heart button.  Valentine got a fabric bow, gourd pin (HERE from Amazon), and buttons.

I’m very please with them.  If you are wanting to try cross stitch these are both free charts and would be great pieces to use to give it a try.

Love Never Fails can be found HERE.
Valentine can be found HERE.

Both patterns are from The Primitive Hare.  It’s so sweet that so many designers offer a few free patterns.

Being I got my small Valentine piece stitched, I decided I needed something else that would be super easy to stitch while I sat by a little one over naptime to get them to fall asleep.  I really was tempted to pull something little out, but I didn’t have the time to find something, find the floss, and find the linen so I decided I was going to pull my Heaven and Nature sampler instead.  I didn’t get a lot of progress but I’m taking something over nothing.  See the addition on the house to the left.  I finished filling that in.  Oh, I’d love to be able to stitch on this more but…As soon as my kiddo falls asleep, I have to be done stitching.  There are dishes to do and things to get ahead on before the kiddos wake up.  I’m going to be thankful for the 10 minutes I get.  Who else can cross-stitch during their work??  Right??

I worked really hard on my Anniversaries of the Heart.  Remember last week I did all of the ripping out.  This week, I built a house!  I actually worked on this extra this week as my goal was to get the September house done by the 15th.  I wasn’t sure I would make it so on Sunday, in the middle of the afternoon I sat down and stitched for a little bit.  I NEVER do that so this was very unusual.  Without that time, I don’t know if I would have finished by the 15th.  It was only an extra hour that afternoon but it was enough to meet my goal.

I had all of the stitching done by Tuesday except for the names.  It takes a bit of work to count and figure out how they will layout.  You can see my calculations.

I got the stitching done that had to be in the piece…It seemed a little blank on the bottom left after the names.

So I pulled a couple of previously used motifs and added them in.

Nothing fancy but I’m content with it.  Originally I was going to not include the moth at the top and put the names there.  I’m so glad I left that in the design.

Here is the original design…

Here’s a better picture.  This is for our daughter Kayla, her husband Spencer, and the “J” is for Jasper.  The design happened to have a dog in the lower-left corner.  I made sure the dog was yellowish for their dog Bruce.  They are a yellow lab family so the piece was perfect to have a yellow lab.

Here it is so far.  I have two of the rows completely finished. YAHOO!!

From there I went on and started the next block.  I was going to drop down and do the big bonus block that is last but I like things in order so I moved over and started the October block.   Starting a block starts with pulling all of the thread!

I am really hoping I can get this one done yet in September but I’m okay if I don’t…half-finished for sure though.

If you remember, I told you that the last row consists of an October, November, December, and a double bonus block at the end.  If I’m going to get all of this complete by January 1st, I need to keep stitching and get ahead.  My dream come true would be to actually have it finished by December 14th…my birthday, and my present to myself would be to send it off to the framers.  That would be a big goal though.

While I had the floss out I found a free pattern online for a small freebie.

You can find the free pattern HERE.

My hope is that this would be stitched and made into a little pillow.  I’m actually thinking I might pull stuff for a winter one.  Chances are I won’t get this one finished in time for Autumn.

I try to make these small ones freebies if I can.  Throwing in a freebie helps it all be more affordable.

Next, I worked on A Changed World.  I didn’t anticipate getting a lot done as my focus was to stitch Anniversaries of the Heart but I squeezed in a little time.  I don’t want this to end up with no progress at all.

If you look on the right-hand side, I moved the zig-zag border down a bit.  I also got quite a bit done on the lower band.

Sadly it looks better than it actually is.  See the four green triangles to the left?  They all have to be pulled out.  UGH.  They are one stitch too close to the others.  I’m glad I caught it.  Rather than rip out everything to the right, I’ll be ripping out the triangle and the whole design will shift one stitch to the left.  It won’t be noticeable.

I’m really pleased with how my cross stitch came out this week.  If I could get a few more weeks like this, I’d really be in a good spot with all of my pieces.

That’s it for this week.  Don’t forget to check out the progress of Judy and Denise…you can find their blogs here.
Judy at Patchwork Times
Denise at Just Quiltin