Help Topic Which Turned Into a Cross Stitch Topic :) - Non tea related

Thank you very much :)

Okay the first photo is Xingfu, fuku, so left to right happiness, good fortune or wealth and luck/good journey. The ancestral forms, really all I can make out is gift from the heavens and maybe people (overgrown weeds became people over time, lots of children etc.). The character over the lotus is like handwriting, I can’t really make it out, tranquility maybe? The second photo, the kanji is too blurry for me, my kanji reading is rudimentary at best.

They are big! The first one is 34 × 19 inches and is sewn onto 11 count Aida so it shouldn’t take too long to sew.

The second one is 41 × 21 inches and is also sewn onto 11 count Aida.

I got the kits for a very good price on eBay so now I’m awaiting for them to arrive, they come with tracking though so that’s a plus. The first kit arrived in London yesterday so it should only be a few more days until it’s received. Hopefully the quality is alright. :)

I would be tempted to switch the Aida out for linen.

I may do that to be honest, either way it will have to wait as I’m currently sewing ‘Captivating Castle’ by Maria Diaz. Got a couple of months work ahead of me :)

Pictures please! You are almost inspiring me to start stitching again.

Here is the design (It’s finished as a wall hanging which I will also be doing): http://tinypic.com/r/3007ds6/8

And here is how far I am currently: http://tinypic.com/r/j5f3hv/8

I picked up sewing again a few months ago after many years hiatus. Not sure what got me into it again but I’m really enjoying it, takes my mind off moving house and all those worries :)

I love that! Many years ago when I was in college, I was a professional cross stitcher (don’t laugh!) I used to get paid to make the models they photographed for the front of the pattern books.

I think that’s awesome!

I’ve gone off and on cross-stitching my whole life. I love doing it but am always at a loss what to do with the results. I lost my favourite (a Winnie The Pooh bookmark) and gave the rest to my Mum. Poor Mum. I’ve got a small frog one I started a few months back, maybe I’ll return to it. I really want to make myself a Doctor Who related one – the TARDIS and one of my (many) fave quotes. That I could keep! :)

@Marzipan – Very cool!

Oh confession time. Your post reminded me that there is a piece under my desk. I finished it…15 years ago? Had it blocked about um 10 years ago, and still haven’t framed it. I’m not even sure it’s my taste anymore. But it’s the only time I ever did Hardanger so I keep it.
http://imgur.com/ouH7a1B
http://imgur.com/TUvSBS7
http://imgur.com/LrYK5L2

@Uniquity I have the same issue, when I was younger I would just give my finished projects to my mother (which I assume will be in her attic somewhere). Now I have to sew something I can either gift (and hope the other person appreciates it) or do something I love and could display on my bare walls. I have lots of tea related charts and kits so I hope to sew a few of those at least and place them around my stash.

@Marzipan That’s some beautiful work, you should hang it up :) I have a dog rose to embroider at some point, I haven’t done much of that before so I expect it to be disastrous.

Marzipan – I think it’s awesome that you did hardanger. I have a few table clothes of my grandma’s that have it in the corners. Some how it just fascinates me. Part of me thinks I would like to learn, but then the rest of me is pretty sure I don’t have the patience for it anymore. :))

It has been many years but I still remember being terrified to clip those threads.

This is the eBay shop I bought the kits from, they do auctions too and that is how I got mine so cheap. http://stores.ebay.co.uk/angel-dream88

I am still waiting for them to arrive, the tracking said they were stopped by customs and held for 5 days though I haven’t had to pay a fee. Hopefully they should arrive now on Monday morning.

Thanks! Wow they are huge.

WOW HUGE isn’t the right word MASSIVE is more like it. LOL Beautiful, but wow – that’s a project.

I like that a lot.

It’s beautiful :)

Good gravy, I love it! I’d be tempted to do the Exploding TARDIS from Doctor Who but I love Van Gogh. You’ll have to share progress updates!

My bad..or good :) I too am a fan of Van Gogh and this looks to be a wonderful sew, tricky perhaps but still wonderful. You should post updates of how it’s coming along.

I spent a couple of hours last night highlighting different stitches on the chart. 83 different colors…I didn’t have anywhere near that many highlighters! My husband is going to geek on it and see if he can help electronically.

I went out yesterday and got the floss, but they didn’t have any linen big enough. So I asked my husband to go up in the attic and I found a full yard of 36 ct Belfast linen that I didn’t even know I had (along with tons of other fabric in various colors and sizes).

So I started stitching last night, it’s going to be a challenging chart. Lots of single and double stitches out in the middle of nowhere to start and immediately end off.

How much did all the floss cost (if you don’t mind). Do you have somewhere that you can buy certain lengths or do you have a bunch of each? It’s an admirable project!

I didn’t shop around at all, I went to Michael’s and I think they were .37 each. I was able to use a coupon for 25% off my whole purchase (pulled it up on my smartphone). The total amount was somewhere in the $25ish range. But, I only bought one skein of each color, some will need more.

Wow. I haven’t gone to Michaels (it’s not conveniently located for me at all) but I don’t know that I could get a skein of floss for $0.37 in Nova Scotia. If I can, I really want to get started on some of my dream projects. That’s awesome!

Uni – I don’t know if you have Walmart there, but here they have floss for .30.

Anyway, this chart comes in black and white. I have been coloring on it for a few days but it looks like it will be a BEAST. Not many clusters of the same color stitches. Oh, and this is a picture of one of 15 pages.
http://imgur.com/iSuf4LZ