As President Obama wins the US election and embarks on his second term, this seems like the perfect moment to celebrate, crack out the sepia-tone embroidery threads and create this masterpiece.
Courtesy of the UK’s Cross Stitcher magazine, here is President Obama in cross stitch chart form.
If the magazine was up for election, they’d definitely get my vote. Just stunning.
Cross stitch may not be the coolest handicraft on offer – I refer to those autumnal-coloured images of bird houses, flower arrangements and pictorial alphabets spotted most commonly on the walls of generation upon generation of grandma – but it’s simple, effective and something to do to pass the time. And it’s quite fun.
I’ve recently finished stitching this colourful cupcake stand design found in May 2011′s edition of Cross Stitcher magazine. The colours are so cheerful that from a distance it almost looks like the real thing. Or at least like a painting by numbers rather than a cross stitch.
The chart is by a lady named Lucie Heaton – her website can be found here - which has some lovely free patterns to download or those to buy.
Originally I planned to frame the end result, but instead I’ve decided to attach the finished piece to one of my wall art canvases. Read more about that ongoing project here and here. Good enough to eat - I think so.
A couple of weeks ago I received, in the post, a beautiful invitation to my friend’s wedding. In Washington. I would absolutely love to attend but, alas, I cannot. Instead I’ve decided to create the bride and groom a lovely little home-made wedding present.
Enter stage left – 1x cross stitched London skyline.
The pattern came out of Cross Stitcher magazine (August 2011) and is intended to be made into a purse. I’ve made a few modifications to the design – instead of writing London I’ve put England (my friend, the groom, used to live over here so I thought it’d be a nice memento of our time together). I added in the royal guard myself too – the pattern and materials for this came free with the same edition of the magazine. I’m also planning on making it into a small cushion rather than a purse.
The overall project took me about 2 weeks (and 6 episodes of Dexter, 4 Project Runways, 2 White Collars, 4 Mad Men and a couple of films) to complete. Persistence really is key with cross stitch!
In other news, I also had another go at making a felt animal out of my Felt Friends From Japan book – see my review here. This time I chose a little felt puppy (even more adorable than the felt elephant?). He took me a couple of hours to stitch together and passed an otherwise uneventful Sunday morning. He is now residing at my lovely friend’s house – what a lucky guy
First of all – Happy Easter! Today is Easter Sunday, and so far I have 3 chocolate eggs. Not too bad considering my family don’t classify me as ‘one of the kids’ anymore. Oh to be 7 years old again. This little guy spent the whole of Easter Saturday perched on my till at work, hopefully he’s not been poached and will still be there for tomorrow… but for now, back to the sewing:
If you love (or even just like a tiny bit) cross stitch, then Cross Stitcher magazine is definitely something you need to look into. First of all, commit this web page to memory – or at least add it to your favourites.
FREE patterns are what people like me live for, so this page ticks ALL the right boxes. The little cherry, strawberry and ice lolly motifs pictured here are my favourites, which you can download with a simple click of a button here.
I’ve also finished sewing the cherry blossom inspired flowers I started the other day. Now they’re complete with greenery, I think even Kate Middleton would be proud to have them in her bouquet. I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to do with them – but for now they’re stuck up on my wall looking pretty. Let’s hope the sunny weather continues to provide me with inspiration to stitch even more!
My grandad heard on the grapevine that I had made my sister some oven gloves for university, and so put in an order for a pair right away!
I used the same pattern out of Cath Kidston’s Sew! book (where else?) and found them a lot easier to make second time round. I used a vintage blue floral cotton for the main glove, with batting in between to absorb the heat from the oven. The binding around the edge is cream cotton that I meticulously pressed into long straight pieces and then stitched all the way around on both sides. It took forever, I really should buy some more bias binding at some point. I also put a little hook at the mid-point so he can hang them up when not in use.
On a seperate note – I bought the latest issue of Cross Stitcher magazine (April 2011) this week and can’t wait to make some little monster emblems I spotted. Watch this space!
