New Adventures in Cross-Stitching

After additional research, I can confidently say that, yes, I do in fact love cross-stitch. I've now completed my third project and have thoroughly enjoyed each of them. I finally made it to the thrift store yesterday and picked up some cheap (but cute!) frames for them. My very first project from a few weeks ago, the Hearts in a Heart pattern from Leah Lintz's book Cross-Stitch to Calm, found its way into a little ceramic frame of white scroll work.

My second completed project was a new wreath-esque decoration for our front door. The ruffled winter wreath was still hanging in hopes that winter was not truly over yet, but alas, I have given up waiting for snow. It's just not going to happen this year. Time to enjoy the lovely spring weather before the inevitable summer heat descends upon us. And what better way to greet our guests than with a friendly gnome on the door?

I found the gnome here (but it's apparently from the Frosted Pumpkin originally), and I tweaked it a little. I bought a bit of burlap from the fabric store and used scraps of worsted weight yarn from my stash and a big darning needle. I left it in the embroidery hoop for that round wreath-ish-ness. Like our No Soliciting sign? Me too! I got it on Etsy.

And finally, the pièce de résistance... The project I teased at the end of my earlier post... My proudest cross-stitching accomplishment to date! (Not that that's saying much I suppose) Behold, this ridiculously awesome birth announcement (2.5 years late) for our dogther, with her full title and birthdate! That's pronounced "LI-kuh li-NAY-uh" in case you're wondering.

I charted this up using some free alpha-numeric cross-stitch fonts I found online, with the help of my knitting design software, which, as it turns out, works quite well for cross-stitch too. I even worked in a new skill: back-stitching! The frame is a really cool black one with silver filigree around the edges.

If you look very closely, you can actually see her questioning my sanity.

The thrift shop provided lots more frames, too, for future projects. I can't wait to fill them all with handmade goodness and make a crazy, mis-matched collage on my wall!