Week 20 Creative Challenge : Counted Cross-Stitch

Hi. Thank you for checking out what I made last week for the Creative Challenge I set for myself for 2023. If you, too, are trying to stay creative this year, I hope you've been making things you're happy with!

I tried a new-to-me craft last week - Counted Cross-Stitch.

While I have made quite a few Cross-Stitch on Paper projects, which involve very basic patterns, where you first create a grid on paper and then you stitch it, I've never worked with Aida fabric, which has a grid woven right into it, before. Since fabric is much more sturdy than paper, the piece involved a more detailed motif and way tinier stitches and many more of them.

Since I was trying something new and not knowing how it would go, I began with a Mini Kit that I found in the craft section of Dollarama (that's a chain of dollar stores in Canada, where most items cost no more than about $4 Cdn). I imagine they have similar kits in the "whatever currency applies store" where you live.

I must admit that when I picked this kit up a couple of months ago, I didn't really have high hopes for it. While it looked cute, I didn't expect much for the low $1.25 price tag. It had the age recommendation of 5+ on it so it appeared to be for children. Really, I bought the kit for the small sized embroidery hoop which I did, in fact, use for this small embroidery project where I stitched a sprig of clover on a vintage hankie, and it was really helpful for that.

Week 19 Creative Challenge : Strawberries – A Soft Sculpture and Crochet Hot Pad

Hello! I hope you've had a good week. Here's my check-in for the 2023 Weekly  Creative Challenge.

This week I had strawberries on my mind. Our season for local berries doesn't begin for another month here in Ontario, so these handmade ones will do until the real ones get here. Well, of course, they'll only do for the eyes, not the taste-buds!

Week 18 Creative Challenge : A Tulip Cross-Stitch on Paper and Vintage Vignette

Hello. I hope you've had a good week. Here is my post sharing what I made last week for my Creative Challenge for 2023. If you, too, are trying to be more creative this year, I hope you made something you like.

If you haven't already, you can read about all the benefits to our wellbeing that comes from making things, in the post linked above. It doesn't really matter what you make - some ideas include a doodle a day, colouring, writing a poem even if you're the only one who will ever read it, trying a new recipe, painting an old table -- as long as it occupies your mind and eclipses the stressors of your day, it will do you some good.

So, this week, in honour of all the tulips in bloom right now, I did a "Cross-Stitch on Paper" of this charming flower, first working out a simple pattern for it.

Note that, since you do this on paper, which is more fragile than the fabric that is usually used as a base for cross-stitching, you want to choose patterns that are fairly simple. If you check out my post about this craft, you'll find instructions on how to do this and links to all the patterns that I've tested and that worked out well.

Here's the tulip ...

Week 17 Creative Challenge : Growing Flowers, Photography and Card Making

Hi there. I hope you're doing well.

At the moment the flowers in these photographs are weighed down by raindrops and I get the impression that we aren't alone here in Toronto when I say that this has been a particularly wet time. My goodness, the April showers haven't let us down this spring!

It did ease up for one day last week, when I was able to get out into the garden and take some photographs of our bulbs in bloom. As documented on these pages, I began what I called the "Great Tulip Growing Adventure" in 2012, when I planted 30 new bulbs in the garden one autumn and then another 35 the next. Then, each fall afterward, I planted a few more varieties. So, by now, we have plenty of colour in our yard at this time of year. Pretty well all of them still bloom now, over a decade later, and some have multiplied into drifts of flowers. I don't mean to be Bragging Betty but it is very beautiful and we regularly see people stop by the fence to take pictures!

Week 16 Creative Challenge : An Embroidered Piece within a Crocheted Wreath Frame

Hello. I hope you're doing ok and have had a good weekend. Here is the weekly update for my Creative Challenge. I’ve been working on a few projects but none are ready to show here yet, so instead I’ll share two items that I finished last year, which I put together last week, giving each of them a new look.

Firstly, there's the completed embroidery piece from a kit by Julie at Knitted Bliss Stitching, called "In My New Spring Sweater". It's still quite cool here, so a cozy spring sweater is definitely a must for any appropriately dressed bunny!

I previously wrote bout this kit (in this post) when I began working on it last summer. If you'd like to see photos of all the separate items that came with it, there are photos on there.

Julie's embroidery kits have quite detailed images to work on, with lots of different colours of thread. There are also a wide variety of different stitches to try. So, unless you're a really fast stitcher, these are something that you'll pick up and work on over time, enjoying the process as much as you do the finished product.