It's a small kit that came with an issue of The World of Cross Stitching magazine. It came with a paper frame, but I probably won't use it because it makes the bookmark too bulky.
Knitcraft released 25 granny squares in July 2023 for a CAL project. I did use some previous years' squares on occasion this time too. Used yarn stash from home (mixing brands...maybe that's why some squares are different sizes? Had to size up quite a few squares). Finished with a shell stitch for the border in 5 different colors.
My favs are: the sloth, the unicorn, the rollers skate, the watermelon, and the butterfly duo.
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 🫠
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.
So, AGES ago, I saw this amazing cross stitch project from @theclueofthebrokenneedle and got really excited. They shared that they were selling the pattern so I promptly bought it. That was *cough* quite some time ago, and *gestures vaguely* you know. Life.
Then I fell in love with diamond art and it occurred to me. Diamonds use DMC colors meaning…
I sourced resin drills (square) and a poured glue canvas. I had a couple of setbacks with my first try, including forgetting the entire background issue and then fucking up my canvas so I had to rebuy it and start over. It took me so long to figure out the correct background color but I’m pretty excited how it turned out!
This is a gift for my husband because we both played Zork in the 1980s (I was so bad at it).
I’m stupid excited about this! (Watch for the surprise!)
Finally finished this bookmark for my sister's birthday, when I started this I didn't realize I would be moving around this time. Normally I would machine stitch the lace on but since my sewing machine is packed I had to go at it by hand. I secured the iron on interfacing first since it's not the sturdiest stuff then I went back with a basic back stitch and applied the lace ribbon. Overall I really like the result.
I made a thing! My kiddo picked out this Stardew Valley pattern from PowerArtandDesign on Etsy. Painted the hoop purple because it's his favorite color!
one of those times when a goodwill frame is just PERFICK for the piece you're stitching. oh-so-relatable quote taken from charles darwin's diary. pattern by Shitpost Sampler
snowghoul
turnnoffyourmind
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
yousharknotpass
tangentwithtanner
titsay
