Stitch - cross stitched on a tapestry canvas

Sometimes it’s just as simple as Stitch, right?

This pattern, a 100% original Stitchalicious design, was first published in the book Anticraft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister and is now available as an individual pattern in my Etsy shop. It uses only full cross stitches and back stitch.

The stitched example model in the photo is the cross stitched onto a painted tapestry canvas. The tapestry itself was not stitched. It used three strands of Anchor floss for the cross stitch and two strands for back stitch. As can be seen, for improved contrast, the outside of the pattern was stitched in blue rather than pink. Painted tapestry canvases can be purchased from almost any shop selling embroidery supplies.

Stitch - cross stitch design

cre8 @ east side gallery

Want an inspirational quote for your wall, but not one of those posters with a photo of a sunset and the word tranquility under it? Don’t you think your cubicle needs something a little more, well, interesting?

The pattern for this bit of sprayer fun is, of course, available at my etsy shop. The design is only full cross stitches, so a great beginners piece, and working it on larger fabric (eg 14 ct Aida or higher) with more threads would make the perfect wall hanging for that cubicle partition.

The pattern is available from my etsy shop, StitchaliciousDesign, in three colourways, or in a discount three-pack containing all. Also included are instructions for beginners and athread key for both DMC and Anchor.

The model in the photo above was stitched on 16 ct black Aida and,, for the curious, has been photographed in front of Berlin’s East Side Gallery (part of the original wall in case you aren’t familiar with it) by Matti Hillig.

Cre8 - green colourway

Cre8 - blue colourway

Cre8 - brown colourway

Cute tag as a cross stitched blanket

Graffiti can’t be cute? Sure it can! And this tag is no exception.

The pattern pdf is available in my etsy shop. The design contains only full cross stitches (no partial stitches, no backstitch, no sneaky french knots) so anyone can start in on it right away. There are three different colourways available, which can be bought individually or as a three-pack for a discount price. Included are instructions for beginner stitchers and a key for both DMC and Anchor floss.

The stitched model in the photo above is the green colourway done on 22 count yellow evenweave over two, using three strands of DMC floss.

Cute - green colourway

Cute - blue colourway

Cute - pink colourway

The first graffiti cross stitch design – Atrocity! (because, well, I always wanted to be one, but was more of a book-lovin’ geek).

The downloadable design comes in three seperate colourways – pink, orange and blue – all of which are in the shop. Pick which one best appeals to you or buy the three-pack containing all colourways for just a fraction more. The design contains only full cross stitches and back stitch, so is perfect for beginners or more advanced stitchers that just want to chill out with some relaxing x’s. The pattern comes with a floss key for both DMC and Anchor threads and includes basic cross stitching instructions.

The stitched model in the photo above is the pink colourway, done on 28 count salmon coloured linen over two, using two threads of DMC floss for both the cross stitches and the back stitch. It was then used to make the bag shown.

Close up of the Atrocity graffiti cross stitch bag

Atrocity - pink colourway

Atrocity - orange colourway

Atrocity - blue colourway

Secondly, I’m going to be playing around with this site in the next few days, so expect things to be a bit odd for a bit. I’m a long way from being any kind of web designer, so it may take a few false starts to get it all running again. It’ll look quite a bit different soon and hopefully a number of the annoying bugs I haven’t had the time or energy to straighten out before will be taken care of.

And with all that, I wish you (as the Germans say) a good slide into the New Year!

The finished piece has a fantastic texture to it, that you can’t fully see from the frontal photo. The two types of strings I used are dramatically different in texture and size, with the lighter, yellower one being significantly thicker and higher.

The greyish string was much softer and more thread-like, which meant it acted quite differently when I couched it down. It was easier to squeeze into the sharp corners than the other string, but also was harder to keep in smooth lines when couching it down, and had a tendency to get squashed or come a little unravelled. As you can see below, some corners were a little tricky and it was difficult to get perfect coverage. From a distance you can’t see these imperfections, but it still annoys me a little that they’re there. I used two different coloured threads to couch down the respective string, and a dark brown to create the portrait. I only used stranded cotton on this project, figuring silk was far to fine and shiny for the effect I was after.

Now for the final conclusion: did I achieve the effect I was after? This whole project began as a vague idea in the back of my mind as to whether I could use the inherent characteristics of Or Nué (the flowing couched lines) to become an integral part of the design itself. The idea formed further when I saw a beautiful photo in a book several years ago of an elderly woman with a face full of laugh lines and wrinkles. The two ideas merged at some point and coalesced into a serious project when I took a photo of my husband’s eighty year old uncle at a family wedding last year.

In the end, I didn’t find a way to fully create what I had in mind: because you need to couch over the string at mostly right angles and I didn’t want to create monstrously thick lines by fully covering the string, I couldn’t quite get the string to create the flow of wrinkles I was after, and still allow me to couch the outline of his face. However, I’m still really happy with how it worked out, slightly different though it is from my original plan, and think it became quite a unique portrait.

I’m so excited to finally announce that seekrit project codenamed Velvet Mocassins (okay, that’s a bit of an in-joke – you really should join the Stitchalicious facebook page ) is out…

(drumroll, please)

A brand new Stitchalicious grafitti design featured on Urban Threads!

It’s my latest greatest tagging work. Atrocity – something I always wanted to be as a teenager, but I was waaay too much of a book geek at the time. I’m doing my best to catch up now.

Get the design as a machine embroidery pattern and stitch it on, well, anything.

Ahh, embroidered grafitti, I love you just so much.

I’m offering a monthly embroidery workshop (in English and German)!

Every first Thursday in the month, I’ll be hosting an embroidery workshop at La Bastellerie from 7pm. It’s 15€ per person (not including materials) and is a freeform workshop, meaning you can come in with your own stuff and some questions, you can grab one of my kits and follow a specific project, or you can just pick up some thread and a scrap of fabric and start stitching! I’ll teach you how to do the kind of embroidery that interests you – from beginner projects like counted cross stitch, to surface work such as crewel, to more advanced techniques like goldwork and stumpwork.

Currently I’m limiting it to 5 people and last month we booked out. So please sign up by emailing La Bastellerie (labastellerie at googlemail dot com) and if you do sign up, please show up or cancel by the day before so that we can offer the place to someone else.

Speaking of the day before… the first Wednesday of each month is the open Bastel Lounge, a Stitch-n-Bitch styled event for hanging out with folk and doing crafty stuff. No cost involved, just bring along your projects and join us (go on, you know you want to).