Month: May 2019

Posted in Uncategorized

Top 10 Crafty Things I’m Crushing On Right Now

Posted on by Kristen Gawronski

As I’m writing this post, it’s a long weekend in Canberra and the weather is finally going to start feeling like winter. In preparation for the cold change – however long it may last – here is my list of crafty things that I can’t wait to get my mitts on. These are the things I’m crushing on right now…

10. Kaisercraft. This weekend they had a 50% off sale on many of their items and I couldn’t help but splurge a little. In a few days time the package will arrive and I’m keen to have some fun!

9. Creating my own patterns. Using inspiring quotes I’ve found on the Internet, I’ve had a lot of fun turning them into patterns for me to stitch using some software on my laptop. Such quotes include:

Image from Pinterest
Quote from Alice in Wonderland – Image from Pinterest
Image from Pinterest

8. Pinterest. Broadly speaking I love all of the different images people have posted and are sharing. I’m also loving the ability to organise my boards in a way that I can have a broad topic on cross stitch and then categorise them to patterns or pictures I want to stitch, urban cross stitch and finishes I want to try out.

7. Digital patterns. There are so many awesome and amazing patterns out there that I would love to stitch. The challenge is to find the time for them all! Some of the patterns I’ve discovered this morning are:

Pattern available from mybobbin.com – image found on Pinterest
Image from quilted-with-love.blogspot.com.au that had been shared on Pinterest
Fight Like a Girl pattern from etsy.com – Image from Pinterest

6. Finishing my first country quilt. I’m really wanting to finish this off. Last week I talked briefly about my last endeavours with the quilt, when I had last paid it some attention in April. One of the things that’s holding me back is finishing off the border on the bottom of the quilt. Because of the way that I’ve attached the back of the quilt to the front, I’ve not made it easy for myself. So I’ve been procrastinating for nearly a month…

Note the bottom of the quilt. This is what I need to crash tackle and finish.

5. Blogging and being creative. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved writing – especially stories. Many years ago, I remember my sister admitting that she would sneak into my room and have a peak around to see if she could find any of my notebooks, to see if there were any stories and other things she could read that I’d written. Now days, I’m loving the freedom that blogging brings and the creativity that can come from it. I also get a kick out of the notifications of new people following this blog and seeing if there are any comments or likes with any of the posts.

4. My current projects. At the moment I’m rotating through 3 projects – the Four Seasons Kittens, a project I’ve dubbed Jingle Bells and the HAED Fairy. As I pause one project and move onto the next, I try to pause and take in the pleasure of how far I’ve progressed and the thrill of what it will look like at the end.

3. Potential finishes. Like the digital patterns I talked about in number 7, I love how creative people are with their cross stitch finishes and I can’t wait to be able to try out similar finishes on my own projects. Such finishes include…

The Halloween Pillow by Stitching Dreams – image found on Pinterest
15 sided biscornu from Etsy.com – image from Pinterest
Book cover as shown on La Risa’s blog site blog.larisa.org.ua – image found on Pinterest

2. Stitching while the weather is rotten outside. I’m loving the prospect of this. The down side of this is I’m potentially going to go a little stir crazy and I’ll want to either brave the weather and walk down the road to the gym or buzz madly around the house doing some house work to get rid of the extra energy, to then justify or make up for me sitting on my bum for most of the day!

1.Multi-media cross stitch. Aside from cross stitch and quilting, I like to try my hand at card making and scrapbooking. In recent months I’ve purchased some things that could be used for scrapbooking or card making. However, when I was at the Craft Alive Fair in Canberra last year, one of the vendors gave me a great idea for potentially new patterns. By inking up some of the stamps that are traditionally used for card making or scrapbooking, and stamping them onto Aida or evenweave fabric, I could then use them to make some quick and easy cards or other gifts for family and friends!

Posted in Uncategorized

Are you a consistently inconsistent stitcher?

Posted on by Kristen Gawronski

Have you ever found yourself stitching one block of 10 stitches row by row then the next block cross country style? Alternatively, have you started a project with the aim of using the parking method, only to find that you’re getting bored and are jumping all over the place with your colours? Are you then finding that the way that you’re stitching your crosses varies from one area of the pattern to the next? For example, for one colour you may stitch it row by row like the diagram below, and then the next colour you stitch it one cross at a time like the second image below?

As I’ve been stitching Dimensions Four Seasons Kittens (pictured below), the phrase ‘consistently inconsistent’ has come to my mind quite a lot. It stems from a variety of things in the pattern. For example, some areas call for three threads of one colour to be stitched as half stitch (aka tent stitch), while other half or full cross stitches may have one white thread and one light green thread. The brilliant thing is that this works! It adds a brilliant texture to the overall picture and highlights different areas that the traditional two stranded half or full crosses wouldn’t normally provide.

Four Seasons Kittens as of 14 April 2019
Autumn kittens are complete on the left hand side and the winter kittens are making progress. At the moment it's quite clear that there will be two kittens looking out the window because of the snow. They are framed by the window, holly and some birds.
Four Seasons Kittens as of 25 October 2019

However, I have increasingly found myself stitching the full crosses or half stitches in a variety of ways to see if it makes any difference with the way the stitches sit on the fabric. This is where I’ve started thinking more and more about the way that I stitch and the impact it may be having on the final picture.

To show you what I mean, Dana from Peacock and Fig posted a YouTube clip on 4 April 2017, showing us the English and Danish methods of cross stitch. Until now, I’ve been unknowing using both methods interchangeably throughout all of my cross stitch projects:

Following this clip by Peacock and Fig, below is close up of an area of the Four Seasons Kittens (front and back) where I’ve used used the Danish and English style of cross stitch interchangeably:

Image highlights sections of the cross stitch project where I have used the Danish and English style of cross stitch.
Back view of the project
Image highlights sections of the cross stitch project where I have used the Danish and English style of cross stitch.
Front view of the project

The more I’ve thought about being consistently inconsistent and looking into what it means, I’ve found that as far as cross stitch is concerned, it’s okay to be regularly mixing things up. Because I’m still doing cross stitch, it just happens to be that the way I do my stitches may be a little inconsistent to the norm. But it keeps things interesting for me. For the most part, I’m able to keep the motivation going and trying to keep the crosses as uniformed (shape wise) as possible.

What are you wanting to achieve?

As part of reading up on being consistently inconsistent, it has led me to wonder what I’ve wanted to achieve as part of my style of stitching (let alone other areas of my life that are like this)? As I’ve touched on earlier, my aim is to stitch my stitches whichever way works best for me, whilst trying to ensure that they are as uniformed as I can make them. Additionally, I just like stitching and I’m going do continue to do it in a way that works best for me!

Consistently inconsistent or boredom?

I have wondered if the consistently inconsistency has anything to do with boredom or the inability to focus on one project for an extended period of time? Additionally, I appreciate the phrase ‘consistently inconsistent’ seems redundant and strange to say considering what cross stitch is all about! I do however, find that I get bored with a project after a while and lose my focus and my eyes start to wander. I start thinking about the other projects I have in my collection and what I want to do with them. It’s not just boredom though. I’ve found that it can be seasonal. For example, when I know that someone’s birthday is coming up or an event such as Christmas, I’m thinking about presents and cards for people.

Flosstube has a huge influence as well! Some of the projects that people are working on look awesome! This is my inspiration at times to continue working on existing projects or purchase/start a new one.

I guess that at the end of the day, the important thing is to keep stitching, regardless of which way you go about it and how many projects you have on rotation!

Until next time, happy stitching!

Posted in Uncategorized

Top 5 Cross Stitch Things to Perfect (and 5 I may never)

Posted on by Kristen Gawronski

This post reminds me that mistakes are a good thing, as it means that I’m still learning and that I have the ability to do what I love and share these things with like-minded people. I also accept that I may never perfect these top 5 or they may be replaced with a new 5!

5. Keeping track of needles and pencils

Prior to receiving a needle minder as a birthday gift, I was regularly dropping needles and jumping up from the couch or chair to look for the needle amongst the cushions and dust and dirt on the floor. I would be doing a similar thing with the lead pencils when the couch would eat them or I’d accidentally drop them on the floor.

4. Counting Crosses

Every so often I joke with family and friends that I need to go back to school and learn how to count and get my eyes checked. This is based around me miscounting how many stitches I need to do and tracking where I am in the pattern when I’m tired or distracted, resulting in me needing to unpick parts of the picture and re-stitch it. I’ve also been clever enough to mark off parts of the pattern that I’ve not even stitched yet!

3. Getting my measurements right

If you’re anything like me, you’ll love to make the most out of your fabric stores that have been built up from trimming up other cross-stitch projects. This means that at times I come up a bit short when I’m trying to find the right amount of fabric for a project I’m working on or I have just completely misread the measurements at the front of the pattern.

White Horse

This has often left me stressing as I’m stitching, whether or not I’ll have enough fabric to fit the design on it. I’ve even made the mistake of stitching a picture around the wrong way! This happened when I first started the picture and didn’t pay enough attention to which way I had the fabric in the hoop. Which meant that I stitched a landscape picture in a portrait view and I give full credit to the professional framers who framed up this picture for me. They have done an amazing job with the product I gave them.

“Catch of the Day” by Bryan Moon – published/distributed by Dimensions

2. French Knots

When done well, French knots can really add that extra bit of detail to a picture that other types of stitches may not. It is also the one type of detail/stitch that I’ve never mastered! Admittedly, I’ve not practiced them much to help my cause. If anything, I’ve either avoided or delayed stitching some patterns that have this stitch or I’ve used beads in their place.

One of the things that I love about living in this day and age, is having IT devices and an internet connection at my finger tips and being able to look up anything that I need to. Which means that I can watch numerous YouTube clips on how to do French Knots. I’m also able to purchase a variety of needle minders and related tools to help me keep track of my lead pencils. I also love that technology enables me to have digital cross stitch patterns and digitally mark off the areas that I’ve stitched.

1. Cutting/Sewing Straight

For many years I’ve joked with family, friends and colleagues that if I can’t walk straight when I’m sober, then so help me when I’m drunk! This inability to walk straight extends into my ability to cut straight, sew straight and draw a straight line. This is causing me headaches, as I’m attempting to make a quilt out of the various country themed cross stitch pictures I’ve stitched over the years. I’m not following a specific pattern or plan which is adding to the fun of trying to cut and sew straight! Instead, the images below are what I have in my mind of how I want the quilt to look – both images I came across on Pinterest.

With these two images in mind, below is progress to date for my country quilt and you’ll see that sewing or cutting straight really isn’t my thing!

Country quilt progress as of April 2019

What I’m really excited about with this quilt is that I’m getting closer to finishing it. Also, by not strictly following a pattern, I’ve been able to problem solve on the go and talk with a variety of people to try and figure out how I can get past my creative blocks. Which means, watch this space to see how I fix the blue borders around the cross stitch pics!

Until next time, happy stitching everyone!

Posted in Uncategorized

Some of My Favourite Stitchy Places and Things

Posted on by Kristen Gawronski

Hi Everyone

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something and the last few posts have been a bit intense and not the usual light-hearted posts I’ve shared posted before. So my aim for this post is to bring back that light-hearted vibe that I hope you all enjoy, by talking about some of my favourite places to stitch and things I use while I’m stitching.

To kick things off, I’m writing this post at the coast (Malua Bay, NSW, Australia) and the weather is absolutely beautiful! Even if the weather wasn’t beautiful, I would still be really happy to be here. The house is located in short walking distance to two beaches, the local shops that has a fantastic butcher who also makes amazing coffee to warm the soul and local lawn bowls club that serves really yummy Chinese food. The two hard parts are walking back up the hills and going back home and back to reality. To me there’s something about the relaxed lifestyle of being at the coast and so close to the beaches that I love. Additionally, the coast is my third home (the second being my parents place in the country-side). For school holidays when I was growing up through to long weekends or short weekends away, the coast has always been the go-to place where a lot of my memories are from. Also, I’m very much an introvert and alone time is important to me. To escape from people and re-charge my batteries – especially before I moved out of home to my own place. Meanwhile, we’ve just had a new entertainment unit delivered to the house which is going to make it a lot easier for technology improvements and changes and accessing the power points that are behind the unit. Especially as televisions continue to get bigger, gaming consoles are updated and our tastes in movies and television shows change. Which will mean that I have yet another reason to sit down and do some cross stitch! **Sigh** First world problems ‘ay!

If the weather happens to be bad outside and I’m unable to be out there enjoying by sitting on the balcony (if I’m at the coast – see images below) or going for runs or walks, having the television on in the background while I’m stitching is one of the things I love to do. If this is the case, I’ve found having a movie or television show on that has a similar genre to the project I’m working on a real motivator.

Balcony View 1 – slight water view
Balcony View 2
Balcony View 3

For example, when I was stitching the Palamino by Country Threads or Midnight Glow by Dyan Allaire for Kustom Krafts (see below), I was regularly watching Heartland or McLeod’s Daughters.

Completed Palamino. I have used this as part of a country/outback/Australiana themed quilt. I've used a navy blue trim around it with lime green or avacado green fabric to connect it to other cross stitch pictures.
Palamino by Country Threads
Three quarters of this image has been stitched. The nose and remaining part of the mane of the horse needs to be stitched. I may not have enough fabric to be able to stitch it all.
Work in progress – Midnight Glow – Design by Deanne Allaire for Kustom Krafts

If I’m not down at the coast, I’m definitely chilling out at home with cross stitch in hand and television in the background. If it happens to be a nice day outside, I’ll try and make the most of it by being out at the patio. Which is where I’ll have my earphones on and I’ll be listening to music or an audio book or something from Youtube like Flosstube!

I have considered taking my stitching public – e.g. going to a park or cafe and stitching whilst drinking a coffee or hot chocolate or even going to the library. I’ve been a bit nervous about it. Scared even! In my introverted way, I’ve been fearful of the fabric getting dirty or spilling something on it. But mostly fearful of what others might say – especially if I’m stitching at a cafe on my own and the staff getting annoyed that I’m sitting at one of their tables for hours on end and only drinking a coffee or hot chocolate, when they could have many people sitting at that table ordering drinks and/or food. Then there’s the sharp object thing in a public space that isn’t a knife if I’m at a cafe. I’d like to think that it shouldn’t be a big deal stitching in public – especially since there are knitting and crochet groups who catch up in my local area!

What about you? Are you a home body as well or do you recharge your batteries through your social interactions or being out amongst nature? Where do you like to stitch? Do you need peace and quiet or something noisy in the background?

I love needle minders!

Meanwhile, if I haven’t mentioned it before in my other posts, I’ll mention it here and quite probably in future posts too…I looooove my needle minder! I can’t believe I’ve been stitching so long without one! It has made the world of difference for reducing the amount of times I jump up from the couch cursing and swearing that I’ve dropped my needle and need to find it before anyone steps on it or sits on it. I love it so much that a few weeks ago at the Canberra leg of the Craft Alive Fair, I bought a few more and I wish I had them with me so that I could share pictures of them with you. Hopefully I’ll remember and share them with you in my next post!

Old school paper patterns

I’m old enough to remember very well the cassette and VHS tapes and the joys of batteries dying in diskman’s and walkman’s and the transition from cassettes to CD’s and VHS to DVD’s to streaming music and movies online. I’m also young enough to be championing the use of digital patterns, spreadsheets and apps on my phone or laptop to keep track of my threads, patterns, fabric and cross stitch related things. But there’s something about the physical marking off of an area of a pattern with a lead pencil that I can’t shake. I have purchased a digital pattern and I have briefly had the intention of trying to keep it digital as I stitch but I couldn’t do it. I had to print it off.

A comfy chair with my legs stretched out

Unfortunately I’ve managed to do something to my side of the recliner couch and I miss being able to have the foot rest up while I’m stitching. It was sooo comfy and it gave my legs a good work out when I needed to put the foot rest back into position. The couch still is comfy and I enjoy being able to sink into it while I’m chilling out. I just need to figure out how to re-establish the tension for the wire that normally enables the foot rest to go out/come out.

So these are just a few of my favourite stitchy places and things. I’d love to hear about your favourite stitchy places and things.

Until next time…Happy Stitching!

Posted in Uncategorized

Cross Stitch – Perfection vs Close Enough is Good Enough. Does it really matter?

Posted on by Kristen Gawronski

In life and death situations, perfectionism all the way. Unless you’re going Bear Grylls style out in the wild and have limited supplies. Also, we expect near perfectionism when we’re paying professionals for their advice or to do a job for us that we can’t do for ourselves.

What about our private lives? When we’re playing video games, being healthy and active, cooking for our loved ones, crafting and interacting with our family and friends are we wanting things to be perfect?

The Need for Perfection

For some stitcher’s, there is the desire to have stitches as flat and neat as possible and no visibly stray threads – to the point where the stitches are re-stitched until they are exactly the way they want them done.

Clip by Isolath Creations – published on YouTube on 14 February 2016

Then there’s the need for the tension to be right whilst stitching and then having the tension right when the project is being framed – if it gets framed! There are so many different options for finishing a project that the pressure to find the right finishing option for the right project and person can be overwhelming.

When near enough is good enough

Quote by Moumita Ray on 8 August 2018. Image obtained from website http://www.yourquote.in on 4 May 2019

With cross stitch, it is important for the crosses to be uniform and being stitched in the same direction. Once we’ve mastered the basics, for many of us – including myself – use the close enough is good enough approach. For example, I’m stitching a Heaven and Earth Design that has a lot of confetti in it. On the first page I had done some serious muck ups where I had lost track of where I’m stitching on the fabric in comparison to the pattern. Mostly because I had crossed off parts that I hadn’t stitched yet and I thought I would get back to that section to update it, but never did. Which left me with the following choices:

  1. I could use an eraser to rub out where I’d accidentally marked off and stitch the section then and there;
  2. Leave it as is and stitch the area I had accidentally marked off on the pattern; or
  3. Leave it as is and stitch the area using similar colours to what would be used in that area.

I chose to use some creative licence and I left the areas on the pattern marked off and used colours that have been used throughout the page. I also used my own judgement for the amount of stitches for each colour that I thought was appropriate for the area I was working on and for the pattern broadly speaking. Thankfully, the area I was stitching wasn’t too close to the edge of the page so it wouldn’t have an adverse affect on the adjoining pages!

Another example is when I’ve accidentally stitched one too many stitches on a line or two for a long line – e.g. 50 crosses. Rather than unpicking all of it to fix the error, I’ve adjusted the other stitches around the mistake to bring the picture back into alignment.

Creative Licence and Cross Stitch

There have also been times when I have used some creative licence to change or update a pattern because of preference for certain colours and fabric types. Spruce Crafts for example, discuss this very topic and provide guidance on changing fabric counts to suit patterns you want to stitch. I’ve also talked about changing a couple of colours in the pattern I call Jingle Bells, because I didn’t have the colour the pattern called for and I’ve used a metallic thread to give the picture some texture and make it unique.

Image obtained from Shimbo Pottery site on 4 May 2019 –
http://shimbopottery.com/art-and-copyright-law/

One thing I need to make very clear, is the importance of respecting copyright where it’s due. I’m not a lawyer. I understand what I need to and aim here is not to provide any legal advice, but to advocate for the continual respect for copyright and how it affects the artists and those around them. At the end of this post, I have included some links to some creative commons sites and copyright sites for anyone who would like to know more.

The awesome thing I have noticed about the cross-stitch/embroidery community is that the majority of us understand this and respect it. I’ve noticed this with the way people talk about the patterns they are working on via Flosstube. They willingly share the details of who the artist/creator/designer is and where they got the pattern/kit from and encourage the rest of the community to shop local where possible – especially the small local shops that aren’t part of the large chains.

Mistakes happen

For many of us, it can be hard to accept that mistakes happen and to bounce back from them. As a stitcher, mistakes tend to range from miscounting, causing lines to be out of balance by one or more stitches through to stitching sections in the wrong colour. All the while we curse and grumble about lost time, wasted floss, that we need to get our eyes checked and learn how to count again while we’re frogging a section we’ve just stitched.

Milsey’s clip on Frogging a cross stitch project – Posted on 30 January 2018

Embracing the middle ground and flaws in our stitching

It’s clear in this post that I’m advocating the acceptance of near enough is good enough whilst taking pride in our projects and how they look when finished. What I want to know now is what you think. Are you a perfectionist when it comes to your stitching? Alternatively, is near enough good enough for you?
What lengths have you gone to, to ensure your project looks the way that you want it?

Related topics and links: