cross stitch and embroidery

How time flies! August is here! I hope you guys made some progress on your projects. And if not, that's okay! Life happens.

I progressed through the fourth planting of the Greenhouse of Oddities and working towards the fifth! I know I'm about a month behind but it's not a race and I had a lot of fun with the carnivorous plants!

I also snuck a few hundred stitches in the secret project for November (My SO's birthday). It's starting to gain shape!

I ran out of dmc 938 but thankfully I found a very similar color dmc 898. It's very close look at the stairs of the desert temple and you can kind of notice it.

Just an update for anyone like me who is new to cross stitching and were as confused about this as I was lol. Here are a few things I've figured out from tips I got here and things I've researched:

As you can seen the whole needle is black now except for the tip and the eye.

Cleaning did not help. I think it actually made it corrode faster.

As several people have said, once it corrodes it becomes more difficult to use as it doesn't glide at all anymore. It's not terrible with 14 count Aida, but anything smaller would probably be a real pain to use it with.

Gold plate needles will NOT fix this issue. In fact, everything I've read online says they will actually corrode much faster. There are good reasons to pay for gold plated needles, but this is not one of them.

I did find a company online that sells stainless steel non corrosive cross stitch needles, but they cost almost NINE US DOLLARS PER NEEDLE... 😭😭😭

So ultimately it seems if your needle turns black, your best bet is to just keep using it until it becomes difficult to do so, then just throw it out/repurpose it, and use a new one!

After 8 years lusting over this pattern, Garden Cat is finally complete!

This was the first pattern I ever really had my eye on when I was just a newbling, and now after restarting it last year, it's done. I'm so happy, and as you can see way too overexcited to iron it properly before posting.

p.s. people on Lemmy this post has two pics attached so let's see how those display (if at all) on your side. Yay science!

@lemmy_stitch #CrossStitch #Xstitch #SatsumaStreet

My proudest cross stitch so far, a big hommage to Sailor Moon and the anime's incredible and timeless art direction

#crossstitch #needlecraft #diy #crafting #embroidery #sailormoon @lemmy_stitch

I made good progress with the Greenhouse of oddities SAL 3rd planting. Only one shade of green left, as well as the backstitch, before moving on to the 4th planting.

Also I felt compelled to post a pic of my needle after about 3 weeks of work. this set came as a compliment from Cross-stitch corner but same happens with the cheapo needles included in the kits. More "premium" needles (at 20-30¢ a piece) seem to oxidize as well but much slower!

I'm about 1/3 of the way done after over a year of breaks and other projects. If looking closely you can see my skill progression.

24 hours spent stitching from Friday-Monday.

3833 stitches.

3.81% closer to finishing the project! 😅

I've been using the same one for a few weeks now and just noticed it was turning black. I tried to clean it but that did nothing. Is this something that happens with cheap needles? Is there a particular brand I should get?

24HOCS starting point!

I've decided to work on my full coverage project for #24HoursOfCrossStitch, as this one hasn't had any love for a couple weeks so it'll feel good to get some progress.

Of course, at 2 over 1 on 28ct fabric, 24 hours is often less visible progress than you might think 😅

The pattern is "Autumn Stories" from Paine Free Crafts, and for reference I'm currently at 25.26% complete!

Good luck to anyone else taking part. I believe in you!

#CrossStitch #24HOCS @lemmy_stitch

I think it was only the second time I've sat down to stitch this year so have a bit of catching up to do! Pattern is A Crazy Wonderful Owl Family by HAED.

It's been a calm week with lots of free time. I made a lot of progress on my secret present project which went from 50 stitches to 600 in the matter of three days (actually two as I can only work on it every other day). The November deadline is more than feasible and by the looks of it it might be done by mid August, September if we count the frame order.

The Greenhouse of Oddities SAL is coming along nicely. I stitched most of Maria Merian, as well as the butterflies she's painting. The brown blob on the top right is going to be an elf owl once I'm done with the backstitching. Speaking of backstitching, I'm going to work on it as soon as I finish this part of the pattern which is actually 3 parts in one, each part meant to be stitched in a week. I'm definitely having fun with it!

Obligatory progress pics!

Unformatted link as Jerboa doesn't like the formatted one for some reason https://catbox.moe/c/wh8o6d

Who's gearing up for 24 Hours of Cross Stitch this weekend?

For once I've actually remembered its happening, so to celebrate maybe I'll actually take part! Not sure I can really manage 24 whole hours but maybe if I make it a long weekend and fudge the numbers slightly 😅

Only problem is I'm supposed to be #sewing this weekend as well...hmm this is gonna be a busy few days!

Who else is in?

#CrossStitch #24HOCS #24HoursOfCrossStitch

@lemmy_stitch

I can embroider even while enjoying a day at the beach. This a new pattern I'm starting by cozybluehandmade.

I used to be a "one project at a time" kind of stitcher but lately I get sidetracked by other projects that I give out as presents so it's always at least two at a time. Now it gets kind of difficult when I have a deadline for one but I also have to do it in secret... While living with that person and spending a good chunk of my free time hanging out with them! So for the past two weeks I ended up making...about 100 stitches in total 😅

Throwback post to the Steotchalone 2020 (or however you spell it). I don't normally take part in any time-intensive or team events because frankly I wouldn't be able to keep up, but during the lockdown they ran a version designed for solo participation and I signed up on a total whim.

Our instructions were to basically pick a palette of six shades with suitable contrast, then await the pattern!

Thoroughly enjoyed this stitch. It was amazing seeing it come together with so few colours involved, and the texture of the hair and beard is really cool.

You can tell I'm proud of it because I basically never FFO anything otherwise. I ironed this and everything! 😄

What’s everyone using for inventory tracking?

I’m about to have 200+ colors and lots of fabric without an easy overview.

I’m starting a new 60 color project and it’s hard to get an overview if I have all the right colors.

Pattern by Lola Crow

Loved the cute happy cloud I saw while browsing pictures ^-^ decided to draw the image and punch needle on top!

Loved the cute happy cloud I saw while browsing pictures ^-^ decided to draw the image and punch needle on top!

Really just posting this hoping for some solidarity.

I've been working on stitching up Garden Cat since last year. But actually, I'd stitched some of it previously and ended up picking out the whole thing and starting again due to what we'll just call "poor creative choices".

So, last week I finished the garden part and genuinely thought I was done. Got all celebrationy. Took it out of the q-snap and unrolled it to see the full glory....and realised I was just confused from having stitched the sky parts once already but I hadn't redone them yet this time around🤦‍♀️

So that's been my stitching this week. How about you?

I know this side is supposed to be the back but I like ut so much more ^-^

Pattern is by CutePatternsbyMaria on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1057534691/

Edit: Trying to figure out how to get photos to show up on my Lemmy feed without having to click to an external link. I think this works?

Edit2: Tried making the images in the body clickable since they're not very large, at least on my screen.

Edit3: Fixed the spacing between my edits. Still learning Lemmy!

Sorry for the crappy video screengrab, but this is already back in the q-snap now and as per usual I forgot to take proper photos first...

Anyway! This is my project Autumn Stories, based on art by Marine Loup and available from Paine Free Crafts either as a kit or just the PDF. I've been stitching on it for about a year and a half I think, and have just recently hit the 25% mark according to Pattern Keeper! Pattern image below for reference:

Posting this today partly because we might have new people finding us from the Reddit migration in which case hello newbies! But also because before I started this, full coverage terrified me, but in reality not only is it no more difficult than regular cross stitch it's actually extremely relaxing and satisfying too.

So if you've ever found yourself eyeing up a full coverage project, I hereby enable you to go for it!

In fact this technically isn't cross stitch. I'm super cheap and realised that if I stitched it all in tent stitch over 1 on 28ct, I could use half the floss and be done in half the time as compared to full cross stitch over 2! It's obviously going to turn out half the size but I love it so far, consider that a lifeprotip lol.

Since it was my first time I've still not really settled on a technique. Tried working in the 10x10 blocks and parking, tried doing cross country one pattern page at a time, now I'm doing a sort of weird hybrid. Basically making it up as I go.

Do you have any long term full coverage projects to share? What's your favourite technique for approaching them? Any tips for recovering emotionally after 3 months of stitching solid beigey background?

Send cake.