My Completed Cross Stitch Projects this Fall

My Lil' Pony Rainbow Dash Cross Stitch

One of my friends' daughters is having a My Little Pony themed birthday party, so I thought this would make a fun gift for her!

Colors used:

• Extra-Light Blue
• Medium-Light Blue
• Bold dark blue
• Bright Red
• Bright Orange
• Yellow
• Lime Green
• White
• Black
• Fuschia

Fabric used:

• 14-count Almond-colored Aida

Cross Stitch Dala Horse Pattern

Every time I try to use an off-the-shelf pattern, I find things that I'd like to change, and I start to tinker with the pattern. Call me a perfectionist. I look for inspiration from not just cross stitch patterns, but also real-life photos. That is what happened here, leading to the creation of my own original Dala Horse pattern. I think this design works for anyone who has a playful side, not just the Swedish.

DMC colors used:
Green - 910
White - BLANC
Red - 817
Yellow - 726
Blue - 995

Fabric: White 14-count Aida cloth

Finished size: Slightly smaller than 4 x 4 inches

Couple of Birds Sitting on a Branch (Cross Stitch)

This is a pair of birds perching on a branch with three red berries. Note that the beaks are each made with two half-stitches. Be sure to "catch" your longer diagonal stitch with your shorter stitch (the one that goes into the middle of a square) or else your beak won't look tight and crisp (it will look rounded / bulbous). There is also one half-stitch randomly towards the mid-bottom of the left bird.

DMC colors used:

Dark red for berries – To be added later

Light red for berries – To be added later

Dark gray for beaks – To be added later

Blue – To be added later

Brown for branch – To be added later

Fabric used: 14-count white Aida

Small Plane in Cross Stitch

DMC colors used:

Dull purple – 3041 is similar

White (for highlights in the cockpit) – BLANC

Red – 304

Yellow – 972

Fabric used: 14-count white Aida cloth

The finished size for my Christmas ornament was 3.25 inches square.

Small Cross Stitch Train

I'm pretty proud of myself for creating this tiny train pattern from scratch. I turned this design into a 3.25-inch square Christmas ornament using the finishing technique in this post.

DMC colors used:

Red – 304

Yellow – 972

Green – 910 or 699 (similar)

Black for wheels – 310

Fabric used: 14-count white Aida cloth

Tiny, Small Helicopter (Cross Stitch)

Do you know what's surprisingly hard to find online? A cross stitch pattern for a small, ornament-sized plane. But I found one for a helicopter!

DMC colors used:

Red – 304

Yellow – 972

Green – 910 or 699 (similar)

White for window of helicopter – BLANC

Fabric used: 14-count white Aida cloth

Finishing directions for turning this into a Christmas ornament can be found in this post.

Small Red Cottage (Cross Stitch) and Tips for Using Metallic Embroider Floss

I made this small cross stitch item and turned it into a 3.25-inch square Christmas ornament. The metallic floss was difficult to work with (see my tips below). See this post for my mounting / finishing instructions.

DMC colors used:

Red for house – 304

Pearl / iridescent white metallic embroidery floss

Metallic embroidery floss in pewter

White (for windows) – BLANC

Fabric used: 14-count white Aida cloth*
*Note: If I had to do this project again, I would have done it on a colored cloth (maybe tan?) - doing white snow and a white roof on a white cloth background makes little sense.

Tips for working with metallic embroidery floss:

• Work in small sections, using short pieces of floss - longer pieces will tangle
• Work in as large a weave of cloth as you can - I've tried using metallic embroidery floss with 18-count Aida cloth - do. not. do. that. The smaller the weave of your fabric, the more likely it is that your metallic floss will snag and / or get tangled
• Work slowly - rushing will lead to tangles
• Use a hoop - normally, using a hoop for small designs (less than 4"x4") is unnecessary, but because the metallic floss is more stiff and rigid than ordinary floss, you are more likely to need to tug on your floss to get it to do what you want (i.e. to get it to go through your fabric), which could warp and stretch your fabric unevenly if it's not secured in a hoop

Christian Cross with Dark Shadow Detail and Backstitching (Cross Stitch)

I made this ornament - the finished size of my ornament was 3.25 inches square but I had plenty of room on every side (you could easily use this pattern for a 2.75-inch square ornament). The gold outline was done via backstitching at the very end.

DMC colors used:
Metallic pearl in gold
Dark and light purple were both in this pack (#340 light purple and #333 dark purple are similar)

Fabric used: 14-count white Aida cloth

See this post for how I turned this into a Christmas ornament.

Choo-Choo Train Cross Stitch

I made this cute toy choo-choo train ornament using cross stitch. My finished ornament was 3.25 inches square from corner to corner.

DMC colors used:

White for the window – BLANC

Red for train body – 304

Dull purple – 3041 (similar)

Green for stripes – 910 or 699 (similar)

Black for wheel bar – 310

Darker blue for front and back wheel – 3807

Lighter blue for middle wheel – 794

Yellow – 972

Fabric used: 14-count white Aida cloth

See this post for how I turned it into a Christmas ornament.

*Note: for the exact dull purple and green I used, I'm not sure what their DMC numbers were, but the ones provided above are very similar.

Fancy Christian Cross (Cross Stitch)

Here is a Christian Cross. It was kind of hard to find a pattern online since the word "cross" is part of "cross stitch." You may want to try Googling with the words "holy" or "religious" or "Christian," etc. I used this cross stitch to make a Christmas ornament. My finished ornament size including all of the excess cloth was 3.25 inches square.

DMC colors used:

Red – 304

Light blue – 157

Light brown –839

Dark brown – 436

Green – 910 or 699 (similar)

White (in the wreath) – BLANC

Fabric: Aida 14-count in white

See this post for how I mounted it.

Minions Cross Stitch

A couple (boy and girl) of minions. This was a pretty easy project and I think it turned out cute. I used a 3-inch wooden embroidery hoop.

DMC colors used:

Minion yellow – 3822

Black – 310

Blue for overalls – 995

Pink for dress – 602

Pink for cheeks (female) – 605

Gray for around eyeglass – 318

White for eyes – BLANC

Fabric:
14-count Aida, white-colored

Rainbow Colored Christian Cross (Cross Stitch)

This is a very simple Christian Cross shape. My finished ornament was 3.25 inches square, but mine had a lot of excess edge around the cross - you could easily use this pattern for a 2.75-inch square.

DMC colors used:

Red – 817

Yellow – 726

Blue – 995

Fabric used: 14-count Aida in white

Mounting (finishing) directions for my ornament:

I cut press-on mounting board to size using an Exacto knife, a metal ruler, and a self-healing cutting mat (like quilters use). Then I mounted my finished cross stitch design squarely onto the board (by pressing it into place), and lightly hot-glued it to the back (using a hot glue gun). If you don't have press-on mounting board, you could cut mat board to size and use that. Afterwards, I made a loop of yarn, knotted it at the bottom, and glued that to the back of my ornament. Then I glued a piece of felt cut 1/2 inch larger on all sides than my ornament to the back, thus covering the back of my mounting board and my yarn hanger. The back of my ornament was lumpy, but I was okay with that.

All my pretty finished ornaments!

DIY Needlekeep

When I cross stitch, I want a handy small yet noticeable (not easy to lose) place to put my needles. I decided that a "needle keep" (also called a "needle book") would be that place. I tried to buy a DIY kit for this item, but I could not find any such kits. Although normally I hate the results of my DIY efforts and sewing, and normally I prefer buying something ready-made if I can find it at an inexpensive price, I thought it would be artistically disingenuous to be cross stitching by hand while using an item made by a stranger to hold my supplies. So, despite these totally cute needle books on Etsy, I made my own using thread, a sewing needle, and two colors of felt.

Needle books on Etsy, from top left, going clockwise:

Cute Apply Felt Needle Book by Minimanna

Lemon Slide Needle Case by AnneBVinyl

Spring Leaves Felt Needle Book by ThreadsofMagique

Star Needle Book by EnchantedPaisley

Cross Stitch Sunflower

Here is my finished gift. The sunflower was created using a kit. However, I added the lettering using an alphabet I made up (there was not as much horizontal space as most cross stitch alphabets require so I had to improvise) and a purple thread I bought seperately. Over all, this wound up being a somewhat expensive gift because I bought a frame (after spending twelve hours on this I wanted to protect it with a frame). Additionally, I had a lot of trouble with this pattern (as documented via twitter), because of the subtle variations in the colors (I could not always tell them apart) and because of the weird color names (salad dark, salad medium, salad light...). I still have two more cross stitch gifts I need to finish before the end of August!

The Cross Stitch Squirrel

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I committed myself to doing five cross stitch projects before the end of August. One of those was a cute gift for someone's birthday. Here is what I made:

my finished project

ironing the back

my custom details (I modified the pattern)

this is the original design from Etsy shop ChezSucreChez

Cross Stitch Snake Pattern

It is hard to find a snake cross stitch pattern, but since 2013 was the year of the snake, I wanted to. I found one online that seemed to have that friendly nursery vibe I wanted, but I didn't like the colors, so I created my own in Adobe Illustrator with colors that I like better.

How I created this in Illustrator CS5: I set up my project as a 5 x 5 inch document in RGB mode* (File -> Document Color Mode -> RGB Color) with the grid set to major grid lines every 1 inch and 14 minor grid lines per inch (Edit -> Preferences -> Guides and Grid -> grid line every 1 inch and 14 sub-divisions), and snap-to-grid turned on (View -> place check-mark next to Snap to Grid). Obviously, I made sure my grid was visible (View -> place check-mark next to Show Grid). I created each box as a separate square using the Rectangle Tool. To select all of the squares in a given color, I used the Magic Wand Tool.

*Note: If you are creating an image primarily for print copies (from a printer), then choose CMYK mode. I chose RGB mode because I wanted to publish this graphic on the web.

The Caterpillar Continues (Cross Stitch)

As I mentioned in my earlier post on why I cross stitch, I am currently working on a cross stitch caterpillar project as a gift for my SIL when her baby arrives. Here is my progress so far!

Note: The idea of "days" is not strictly literal in my infographic above because each time I sat down to work on my project, I took a photo afterwards. So, if I had two cross stitching sessions during a day, that counts as two "days" in the infographic above.