Cross Stitch: Tool and Scissor holders

Scissor Holder

Tool holder- some of the colors are not right in these pictures.  The borders should be dark green and the vines should be in dark green-not red

Here are two designs for scissor and tool holders.  The fronts and backs are shown.  The design is based on a border from "Creating with a full deck, Border design charts for counted cross stitch" by Bucilla.  It is a 52 card playing deck with cross stitch designs on the cards.

I got the ideas for these holders from a magazine called "Gift of Stitching"  which is a downloadable pdf magazine.  Excellant magazine with plenty of projects.  http://www.thegiftofstitching.com.au/  They have the type of projects or style of projects I like.  They are not the "Precious Moments", pink style that I don't like.  They also have instructions on how to finish the project.  And that's how I learned to make these holders.

The third item on the bottom right is a counter.  Two needles are attached to a pillow.  The needles can be kept in the pillow while not in use.  The two needles are used as hopscotching counters while you work on your cross stitch.

Happy Blogging!

Stained Glass: The kitchen cabinets

This is my biggest stained glass project I have made.  These are cabinet doors in my brother's house.  They wanted clear see-through glass with no colors at all.  And they wanted simple lines.  Well you have to do what the customer wants. 

I had great trouble doing these doors because of the bipolar and the depression.  I had no confidence of being able to make these panels.  One thing I did to make life easier was to have the center glass cut for me by an expert- who by the way closed his store.  I made the border pieces and assembled the panels on my own.  The reason I did not cut the center pieces is because I do not really know how to cut large straight edges.

The glass is clear german antique.  The expensive stuff acording to the store owner. 

The panels came out straight and beautiful.  They fit perfectly into the cut outs in the back of the door.  I am a mechanical engineer and know pretty well how to dimension things to get them to fit.

These doors were made with the copper foil tape method.  I used 1/4 wide tape to make them stronger.  I did not use any other form of reinforcement that I can remember.

I am very upset right now as my brother is looking for a new house and who knows what will happen to these doors.  It is very upsetting.  I can just see them getting ripped out and chucked.  But maybe most people will just think they are factory installed and leave them thinking they belong there.  How many people would commission new stained glass doors.

It is hard to believe that I was entrusted to make such a grand project with the little experience I have.

I gave these as a gift and did not get payed for them at my request.  I have a hard time with having people pay me for things I make.  I give them as gifts.  The only thing I recieved money for is polymer clay.  When my camera batteries are charged I will start taking pictures of my clay items.

Happy blogging!

Cross Stitch: Sherlock Holmes

This is a design I made from importing an image into Digistitch 2000.  This was also designed with the intent to make "small is better" instead of large and detailed.  This design required a lot of cartooning of the image to make it look like something.  It came out really well and is one of my favorites.

I framed this one myself.  It looks pretty good and straight.  The matting came with the frame.  I have not started doing mats yet but have a mat cutter.  I don't know why I bought it.  Impulse buy.  I believe there are many people who frame their own work.  Are you one of them?

This was done on linen over two with DMC floss.

Happy blogging!

Cross Stitch: Lord of the Rings

This is a design my friend made from a coloring book. I wish I had a copy of this coloring book. But I have Star Trek ones instead. She did a great job with this thing. I believe it was graph paper tracing paper that she used. No computers back then. Although I don't think she would use a computer program now to design something.

She made this and I had to have one so she gave me the design and I made one for myself. We argued about what Frodo's hair color is since she thinks he is fair haired and I think he is brown haired. I especially love the round gold frame to represent the ring.

I seem to be posting all my fravorite projects first.

This was done on 14 count aida with DMC floss.

Happy blogging!

Cross Stitch: 73 Keller Ave

Here is a design made on Jane Greenoff version software. This is my house- a large version and a small version. I would like to put these in a pattern with a house in it to personalize it.

I put the dogs and the snowball bush/tree in the front. The dogs are a Westie and a Keeshond.

I hope this inspires you to make your own house and add it to a Home Sweet Home cross stitch.

Happy Blogging!

Stained Glass: Leaded

This is my first leaded stained glass project. In the past I have made many "foiled" stained glass projects. Foiling is a process in which you put copper foil tape around the edge of the glass and then solder the edges together holding the parts together. The tape has a sticky side and a copper side. The leaded method uses metal came that is I- shaped or U- shaped to insert the glass edge into. The edges are soldered and the glass is held together.

Leading was a fun process compared to copper foil tape. It was like putting a puzzle together. Foil tape is tedious because the tape has to be centered on the edge of the glass then folded over onto the front and back of the glass, then it has to be burnished down to stick to the glass.

This project was easy to do. I picked a pattern that had simple lines and large pieces. This makes it easier to bend the came around the shape. I believe I pulled this pattern out of a catalog by enlarging a picture.

I did not patina the came afterwards which saves several steps. And I can't remember if I even polished it. Polishing helps prevent the solder from corroding.

Happy blogging!

Cross Stitch: Lonely Mountain

Here is a close up of Lonely Mountain from the Hobbit


Here is an in progress picture of the Mountian



Here is a picture with the lettering and the dragon complete

Here is a closeup of the lettering under the mountain

Here is the progress of the border.

Close up of the border

Finished

Chart of the border runes

This is a chart of the runes around the border of the map. The runes came from the front cover of the leather bound "The Hobbit". The runes can be translated. "The Hobbit or there and back again being the record of a years journey of bilbo baggins compiled from his memoirs"


I have always wanted to make a map cross stitch. But I have not found a design I like. I wanted it old world with sea serpents and monsters on it. I also really wanted to do something Tolkien-ish. The only thing in my mind to do was to take one of his maps and convert it into a cross stitch. Appeasing two desires at once. The easiest map to make was the Lonely Mountain. Even this portion of the map is not complete- it is a portion of the original.

I used cross stitch software, Digistitch 2000, to help convert the image. It needed extensive editing to get clean lines. I would say the sizing is always the hardest since the smaller you make it , it loses detail. But if you make it too big the cross stitch finished product would be enormous and take a year to stitch. I sized it to about an eight and a half by eleven inch paper. I completely redrew the lettering and details.

I also chose to make it sepia colored monotone to replicate a parchment drawing. The border has color in it, a dark green.

The border was never completely charted. Just the corner. I did the rest simply by looking at the book cover. I am too impatient to do all of that charting work.

It came out great and I love it. Next I have to get it framed.

Has anyone else had any experience with designing cross stitch? Was it hard to chose a size and level of detail?

This was done on linen over two with DMC floss.

Happy blogging!