New Russian Doll pdf cross stitch pattern

Short & Sweet.......

I have just listed this one as a pattern as well as a finished piece of stitching!

Embroidery Hoop Art

Hello to all my lovely new followers!

Apologies for the lack of posts lately but we haved moved house and with 2 kids under 2 unpacking has taken forever.

I have however squeezed in some time for stitching. I have had lots of enquiries lately asking if I sell any completed embroideries so I have begun a series of Embroidery Hoop Art.

Here is the first one....

A cute Russian Doll cross stitched on aida and framed in a 6" hoop. It is available here in my Etsy store.

And for something a bit different....

A trio of beautiful butterflies cross stitched on aida and in 4" hoops. Available here.

I am busy working on lots of different designs and hope to have more listed soon.

How to mount Cross stitch onto a canvas

Still procrastinating about packing (the moving truck arrives in 3 days!) so I thought I would frame up my cross stitch before it gets buried in a box. Here is what I did...

These are all my bits ready to go. I have chosen a canvas with a nice thick edge and have my trusty staple gun - I love using this!

I decided to put a bit of padding behind the cross stitch as the fabric I stitched on is quite thin. I think they call this Pellum (please correct me if I am wrong) and it is used in quilting. I have cut it to the same size as the canvas.

After taking the plastic wrap off the canvas(!) I used fabric glue to stick the padding on. Just enough to secure it place really.

Then I place the cross stitch of the canvas and basically eyeballed the correct position. The I flipped it over very carefully and placed a staple on either side.

Then I flipped it back over and made sure it was still in the right spot, flipped it back and stapled at top and bottom. I then repeated this process of adding a staple and flipping it back to ensure it stayed where I wanted it. I pulled the fabric tightish as I stapled but not too tight.

I would have added more photos of this process but my stapler was spitting out 2 staples at a time and it didn't look so pretty. But hey its at the back so nobody will see it!

Then I tucked in the fabric to make neatish corners. At this point I thought it was all looking a bit to white so decided to jazz it up with some lovely grosgrain polka dot ribbon.

I measured around to make sure I had enough to overlap slightly.

I backed the ribbon with double sided tape....

I peeled back a little and then just floded the end of the ribbon over. Then starting a the bottom left corner of the canvas I peeled and stuck as I went around. It is much easier to peel as you go rather than peel all the tape of and then stick as it can get a little messy!

At the end I tucked the end of the ribbon under the ribbon where I had started - does that make sense?

I had a bit of ribbon left over so I decided to make a flat bow and add it to the top!

As you can tell from this photo I should have spent a bit more time ironing the finished piece before I started mounting it - oops.

You can find the pdf pattern to stitch these 9 Russian dolls in my etsy store.

Happy stitching!

Kim xxx

Babushka pattern complete & a giveaway

Finally I have finished!!!!
I feel like I have been stitching for months (probably because I have!).

So here is my new completed Babushka Sampler design.....

I would like to say I have been very efficient and whipped out the sewing machine to make it into a cushion but I would be lying! I have just (not so) artfully draped it over a cushion to look like it is one!

Eventually I think it would make a nice cushion or maybe I will stretch it over a canvas....

Anyway the pattern is tried and tested and ready to go and you can find it in my Etsy store here.

But I thought after all my hard work and to thank all my lovely readers that a giveaway was in order.

So I will be giving away the Babushka Cross Stitch pattern to 3 lucky readers. Just leave a comment on how/what/why or where you love to stitch and you will go into the random draw. The pattern is in pdf form so the prizes will be emailed to you which means anyone in the world can enter.

There is one catch however..... I am not drawing the winners until 50 comments have been placed. So round up all your stitching friends and get commenting to be in to win!

Project Update: New Babushka cross stitch pattern

Yes I am still stitching my new Babushka cross stitch pattern - it seems to have been going on forever. But of course I have abandoned it many times to do other crafty projects which I promised myself I wouldn't. Lets face it I can't just do one project at a time - the more the merrier.

Anyway here it is (I am stitching on waste canvas onto a teatowel).....

Just have to add the final doll and finish the two dolls at the bottom. Had a nightmare with the one on the bottom right - not a good idea to stitch at night when sleep deprived. Had to unpick heaps and of course it has left nasty little holes in my fine fabric...oh well hopefully it will look OK.

So I am hoping to have it finished and listed in my Etsy & Felt stores sometime soon.

Project Update: Short & Sweet

Just to remind you this is last weeks progress photo.....

...and this week, well....

.....not much difference really and that could possibly be that I started a new project (oops!).
Well technically finished an old one so its not really cheating.

Check out my next post to find out more.