Cross-Stitch For Life

Shockingly enough, I cross-stitch. I'm not as good as my mother or my aunt, but I get by. I've been doing it on and off for a few years now, more than I'll actually admit to, but I've never really progressed beyond the intermediate stage.

I've been stitching a lot more lately, and I've found some patterns online that are amazing. Carrie Luhmann Pieniozek maintains a site, Free Patterns Online, that offers a nice variety of free and relatively simple-to-use cross-stitch patterns. I've printed a lot of hers out, and are using them this Christmas.

For now, though, I'm sharing some of the projects I've actually finished stitching.




Santa Hanger is from Carrie's pattern, in fact, on 22-count Antique White Aida with 2-strand DMC stitching and 1-strand backstitching, mounted on red felt with Thermoweb Peel-N-Stick

My second Christmas project came from the Prairie Schooler and is a snowman. I made mine into a small stuffed pillow-slash-ornament.

Done on 18-count dk. green Aida with 2-strand DMC stitching and mounted on green and red felt with Thermoweb Peel-N-Stick

The third Christmas project I'd like to share is obviously unfinished. I stitched it intending to make several faces, and give them to my family as presents, however, as you can tell, it didn't get that far. I'm not sure I actually like this little fella, which is why he's unfinished.


Done on 14-count white Aida with 2-strand DMC stitching and 1-strand back-stitching.

This one I made for my Mom's birthday, which I gave to her a few days early.

Done on 14-count white Aida with 2-strand DMC stitching and 1-strand backstitching.
The mounting was a two-step process; the first part was mounting the piece to the pink fabric, which was just a cloth remnant I picked up at Mary Jo's Cloth Store ages ago, and then I mounted that onto the denim pieces, which I had pre-stitched to form the pillow. Once I stuffed it with Poly-fil, I used a strip of Peel-N-Stick to seal it up.

This last one was initially a kit that I inherited from my mother; she'd already stitched the design once, and I inherited the pattern and the leftover floss. So I've stitched it two or three times for various friends or family members that have gotten hitched, and it's a really nice design. This is just an extra I have kicking around.


Done on 14-count white Aida with 2-strand DMC stitching and 1-strand backstitching. It's easy to personalize with initials under the doves or the rings, which is why I really like it.