You gotta use your hands

31 🪡 NB they/them🧵 Just wanted a place for my cross stitching projects. Progress and finished photos of pieces and anything else I feel like! Profile art by @barghestblack

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I started cross stitching only a few years ago with one of those mini kits you can get at your local bimart checkout line. It just clicked with me and I immediately became obsessed. I wanted a place to chronicle/blog about my cross stitching! I'll post progress photos of current projects and gradually post all my finished pieces here. 🪡😺🧵

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Now we're getting into shit I really love to make. Nerd stuff 😌 EVA-01 from Neon Genesis Evangelion for my friend's birthday! (Started early 2026, we're getting closer to present time now 😂) We've seen the whole show multiple times and the movies together so this was a super fun piece to work on.

124x125 stitches on 14 count white aida, finished design is 9"x9"

Design by BorealisStitch on etsy! Their video game designs are awesome, I have two more by them that I completed after this one.

Progress under the cut 🫡

I took awful progress photos of this one, I constantly forgot to stop and take a pic before I continued a new section/color. But it was just so easy to keep going, I really had fun with it.

You'll notice I use a fabric pen to mark stitches. I have a hard time keeping count in my head a lot and I frequently space out and will forget to stop stitching when there's nothing to remind me where the thread stops 😂 the pen is heat reactive so any visible marks are erased when I iron it for framing.

Finished and framed! I LOVED making this one. The black outline with the bold blocks of color were satisfying to fill out. I bet it'd look even better on 16 count fabric. Start to finish took about 3 weeks but framing took about 3 months 😂💀

The designer has patterns of some of the other EVAs so I'll probably end up making those too 😂

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In September 2025 I started my biggest project, a calendar as requested by my mom for Christmas that year. Roughly 13"x16.5" and almost 23,000 stitches on 14 count off white aida. I made a lot of mistakes but learned a LOT from this one.

Progress pictures, final photos and my thoughts as I worked through this piece under the read more

I completed the main outer border of the entire design first and about halfway through I realized I should have used a different color other than white for it. I live in a small town and didn't have many options for fabric I could purchase in person and didn't have time to order something online and wait a week to finally start. The original pattern (from AuthorEmbroideDesign on etsy) recommended a dusty blue that would have been great.

The border is still visible but you can clearly see the fabric should be darker or the border something other than white. It's nearly a third of the stitches in the entire design and I did not have the time to undo everything and start again. Just the border took about 3 weeks to complete.

I also started realizing I needed to consider other tools and equipment for holding my bigger projects. I could only hold a 6 or 8 inch (anything bigger was too difficult to hold one handed for long) hoop for so long before my hands start cramping, all the extra fabric hanging off the sides made it difficult to find comfy positions to hold it. Not to mention I disliked having to force the hoop repeatedly over finished stitches as I worked my way down the design.

Beginning of November I got a cross stitching frame! One that's small enough for your lap or can sit on a table. (The shape of it made it very appealing for cats to crawl through 💀) Specifically this one from amazon ( I'm sure you can find similar somewhere else if you want to avoid amazon. I received this one as a gift)

I love using it, it's amazing. You can put it together and break it down easily if you need to travel with it and all the parts fit nicely in my craft box. I got a craft light at the same time and just those two things made it significantly easier to work on my projects.

Beginning of December 2025 I had two month squares to finish. I was really cutting it close but I was really cookin on this. I started it mid September and had it done just in time for Christmas. I was doing a lot of pet sitting at this time to make ends meet and I took this thing everywhere with me.

Here it is, in it's wrinkly but finished glory, my first cross stitch calendar 🎉 (Shot of the back too cause that's always fun.) I finished the entire design literally days before Christmas. I can't believe how close I cut it but still finished in time. I still needed to do some kind of finisher on the edges. I looked around at what other people typically do and decided just to do a simple blanket stitch around the entire edge. I had some nice color gradient threads that added a nice touch to the finished design.

I made it into a hanging scroll, the top and bottom frame clamp on with magnets so I didn't have to do any more modifying to the fabric to finish it. I learned, again, another lesson. Don't cut so much of the excess fabric off the sides 💀 I mismeasured AND wasn't considering the space the scroll frame pieces would need to have a good hold on the fabric 😬

My phone takes awful photos but I prommy it looks very nice in person regardless 🥹 but you can really tell that any white sections disappear right into the white fabric. This decision will forever haunt me 🤦‍♀️ I learned a ton from doing this and it was very fun to do but I doubt I'll ever make anything this large again unless it's for myself. Also being on such a tight deadline was awful 🫠

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Once more another esnupi!!

Snoopy and his Sopwith camel made for my dad for Christmas of 2025. Pattern also by CayenneSunrise on Etsy! I didn't already have all the exact colors the pattern called for so did a lot of color matching with what I did have and it came out very nice. I changed the color of his hat as well, he's shown wearing different colored hats/scarves when he's in his Flying Ace persona and my dad and I are used to the bright green hat and red scarf. Love esnupi 😌

Done on 14 count blue sky printed fabric, dimensions of design are about 7"x6" and framed in a thrifted frame I got for One Whole Dollar

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esnupi. esnupi and his fren 😌

Snoopy and Woodstock for my dad for Father's Day 2025. I think it's in a 6 inch hoop on 14 count printed fabric from JoAnn fabrics before she closed.

They're both separate patterns I put together on one piece.

Patterns by CayenneSunrise on Etsy! They have lots of great Peanuts designs which has been great since my dad loves the Peanuts

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Small break from bigger projects with two more Kikkerland kits and one DMC kit. Kits are so fun and convenient. All are 14 count aida with the Kikkerlands being 4 inch hoops, DMC 6 inches. Done in 2025

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Biggest and most intricate piece to date! This was the largest and had the most colors of any project I had done to this point, summer 2025. I think this was an 8 inch hoop, 14 count aida kit I got at my local JoAnn before she closed RIP queen 😔 this was when I realized a big hoop hurts the hands and I started looking at other cross stitch holding solutions

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Cute ass unicorn after a long ass break from makin anything. Made for my mom for Mother's Day 2025. This was a fun easy one to do in a few days.

14-count, I think the hoop was 6 inches. She was a kit from my local JoAnn crafts before we lost her 😔

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Not even sure if I wanted to post this 😂💀 very ambitious and outside my skill level at this point (made in 2024), plus an embroidery which I was less experienced with. My attempt at recreating a card sized Sabrina's Gengar card for my brother in law. Should have just made it larger 😂

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Miscellaneous embroideries I just did for fun between a bigger project. Just some iron on Stitchers Revolution patterns, cacti and farm animals. I didn't even fill anything in by satin stitch cause I just love doing outlines 😂

Still 2024 but I did finally get a needle minder

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Another one of the random tea towels with patterns already ironed on I received. I do really enjoy doing these simple embroideries, I just have zero confidence when trying to do anything other than outlining. I used a red gradient thread and it came out really nice.

Made in 2024. It was meant for a coworker but she got fired before I could give it to her 💀

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My biggest piece at this point (2024), 10 inch hoop 14 count aida. Wishing I had done it on 16 count. Made a mistake somewhere in the beginning and had to shift parts of the design one stitch over but you can't tell unless you know what to look for 😂 I remember having fun with this one. On initial search I can't find where this pattern is from. I got it from someone who, I thought, bought it on etsy but I couldn't find anything like it there 🤔

I made it for some friends who have a home together with many cats 😺 one partner likes green and the other likes pink!

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I received a couple tea towels with patterns already ironed on so I attempted embroidery for a bit. This was my first non-practice embroidery. I think it was a little advanced for where I was as I tried to recreate my friends' cat. Looking back, I don't think it's as bad as I originally thought 😂 especially considering how new to embroidery I was. My friend liked it and that's all that matters 😺 also I used gradient color thread and that was fun.

Made in 2024, still didn't have a needle minder. You KNOW I was dropping needles in my bed.

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The first, non-Kikkerland kit I did! And the first kit that was bigger than 3 inches 😂 If you google "campfire cross stitch kit" it'll come up. I think I ordered it through Craft Warehouse with some other kits

6 inch hoop with 14 count aida fabric and took about 2 weeks. I didn't even have a needle minder yet, this was back in 2024

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The first pieces I ever made! Some Kikkerland mini kits; the mushroom, sunflower, ladybug and rose. I haven't even done the flamingo one, and I did the little bird much more recently. I did these back in 2024. These are a great way to get started with cross stitching. I got all of them in person at a bimart. The Kikkerland website shows even more designs that I'd love to do. I think these are all 3 inch hoops and 14 count aida cloth.