Happy new year!

Hoping that everyone has a very good new year ahead! I'm looking forward to a year of great stitches and fun.

I picked up this colour 8062 from the Seasons range of Cosmo threads by Lecien. The picture does it no justice, truly a beautiful mix. I'm dying to try it! 80 different colours in the range, but my LNS only carries 5, bah!

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Finish: Unicorn O fridge magnet

I got done with the perforated plastic ornament thingie I was working on some time ago, but I just didn't have time to post about it until now.

I did have a lot of problems with this piece. I was rushing it towards the end, so I miscounted threads on several sections - some of the stitches are done with 4ply instead of 3ply. Ugh. The backstitch was also a real pain to do, and it wasn't until I had packed it up that I realised I had missed two backstitches on the O. I have no idea how I even managed that. In any case... I hope my recipient doesn't notice, or at least can forgive me for it! My excuse (ha) is that I was trying to make deadline for the shipping, on top of finals and packing for coming home... and in the end I missed shipping deadline anyway. Sigh.

Anyway, I finished it as a magnet because I didn't know how to finish it as an ornament. I'm also unhappy with how I snipped it down to size, I will have to practice more on that. In any case, this was an interesting lesson on perforated plastic, I'll be sure to work on this more.

Pattern: Cross Stitch Crazy #167 (Modified from 'Q')

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WIPocalypse 2013

Well, I'm horrible generally with finishing large projects, but WIPocalypse 2013 MIGHT give me some motivation to do some finishes!

As you might have sensed, I am generally into smaller pieces, so my list for WIPocalypse won't be very much different in the sense that I probably will be choosing easier pieces to finish, as compared to some of the huge masterpieces that I've been seeing other stitching bloggers do for 2012.

Well, no matter! Here's my short (but probably growing) list for the year.

1. Lizzie Kate's Sweet Tooth Boxer Jrs
2. Lizzie Kate's Living with Charm Flip-Its
3. Something music related (Haven't quite decided... any suggestions?)
4. Songbird (from CrossStitcher magazine)
5. Something for Halloween!
6. Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's Woodland 2013 sampler

I'm not really sure what else yet, but I'll probably add to this list as I go along!

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Book review: Makoto's cross-stitch super collection

Not lame! Very cool! Japanese designers are right up my alley because most Japanese stitching patterns seem to be small and kawaii. I LOVE SMALL AND KAWAII. (In case you haven't realised yet.)

Makoto Oozu is a cross-stitch designer known for his tiny motifs and great ideas for stitching onto non-conventional items. I've coveted his Japanese books, but finally jumped the gun and bought the English-language release because it was half off on Amazon.

The book is full of great and fun tiny motifs that are super easy to complete and will look great on little buttons. I love also his ideas of stitching onto hats, books and more! He admits himself that he sucks at sewing, so his projects don't involve sewing, but instead go on ready made items. Since the best I can do with a sewing machine is straight lines, I'm perfectly happy with that!

I already have some ideas about what I want to stitch from here, going to have a lot of fun with this great book! I love also that the designs are not in the kawaii style, that means a lot of great designs as presents for the menfolk.

Visit Makoto Oozu at The Mint House. Makoto's cross-stitch super collection should be available at most major bookstores and North Light Books.

 

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Junk Food Motifs

Besides cross-stitching, I'm also fairly obsessed with Black Milk Clothing. Some time ago, they released a print of pixel food, and I found myself irresistibly drawn to plotting the patterns for these little pieces...

 

But after I made them, I realised that they were too small to turn into magnets like my bubble tea guy, so I decided to turn them into... jewellery pieces instead!

Haha, I'm rather amused by them myself. Shall make a mustard bottle to go with my ketchup bottle soon!

 

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Finish: December Cupcake (Creation Point de Croix 21)

Well, I'm done with the cupcake I was working on all month! To be honest it wasn't difficult to do at all, I'm just a huge procrastinator and I tend to leave things just sitting there until I'm ready to continue, which could be very long after.

Here it is with all the whole stitches done, just the backstitching left... By the way, the candy cane was seriously the most irritating part to do - I like to keep the back of my stitching neat, so I try not to cross my threads. So since the candy cane had SO MANY different colours in SMALL bits, I ended up having to switch my threads every 5-10 stitches, which really annoyed me.

 

And as if that wasn't irritating enough, the back stitching on the leaves was horribly difficult to do! I did lose patience with it, so it's not exactly to the pattern, but it's close enough.

And so, the finished product...

And so after looking at the cupcake, I thought it would be nice to sign off on it since this is a gift, so I intelligently decided to do my initials with 1over1 on 32-ct evenweave... *laughs maniacally* I must say that as I was doing it I was thinking to myself that I was really masochistic...

After it relaxed a bit I put it in a little silver frame that I got for this piece. Looks rather pretty, I must say! *proud of self*

Details: 32ct evenweave, DMC threads, pattern from Creation Point de Croix 21

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Perforated Plastic!

Wow, I have no idea how come it took me so long to try out perforated plastic/plastic canvas, but I finally did! Of course it's not for everything, but I think that a new revolution in my stitching is going to happen...

 

I do find myself having to rest a lot more as I have to push the needle harder through the canvas, so my fingers hurt a bit. I used three threads for this piece as per what the package recommends, maybe it will go faster and easier with just two? I will try that for the next tiny motif. I do like that the plastic is stiff, it's easier than working with felt/waste canvas, for sure!

Anyway, I'm working on this piece for a Christmas swap. My recipient likes unicorns and handmade items, so I've chosen to stitch an ornament for her using the fantasy letters from Cross Stitch Crazy #167 (September 2012). Should be quite up her alley! The only worry now is if I can finish this before the deadline!

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French Cupcake

As I got back into cross stitching and had a look at the patterns available, I've found myself more and more drawn into the French style, which seems to be to be more "illustrated" in nature and has that "prettiness" to it which other designs don't seem to have.

I've been stitching this little cupcake from a French magazine, Creation Point de Croix for a Christmas present! The design is from a series of cupcakes that are monthly themed, I've just picked the one for December. I may also do some of the others when I've finished some of my other projects!

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