General Craft & DIY discussion

Does anyone here cross stitch?

I did it once many years ago when I found an old kit & had some time to try it one winter, but that's it. I stitched a signature on the piece with a date of 1988. It hangs in my bedroom stretched over a piece of thin plywood in a frame out of some birch scraps I had from rebuilding a log cabin where I'd used it for window sills.

It looks kind of weird since the kit wasn't complete & the thread was mixed with others. No real color scheme other than odd. It was interesting to do once. Made me appreciate how tough it is to get stitches so precise.

That's neat that you kept it!

Bex wrote: "That's neat that you kept it!"

I'm a pack rat. So tell us about your cross stitch. Are you a beginner or have you been doing it for a while? What do you do with them once done? How big are they usually?

Been stitching at least 10 years and my largest is 14 x 11 inches. I like to do things that I know will fit in frames. I design my own patterns.

I just had a book of patterns published!

Congrats on the book. Can you link it here? I don't see it under your profile, but fully understand why you might not want to be an author on GR.

Do you frame your work or have someone else do it? Do they leave the center open as on a canvas painting or is it stretched over something like plywood?

I wasn't sure if I should put it on my page, or if I even know how. It is called Evil Dead 2: The Book of the Thread and it is fully licensed from the movie studio that the film is linked to.
Evil Dead 2: The Book of the Thread

I stretch my finished work over white, acid-free foam core board, push pins into the sides of the board once it's straight on all sides and then lattice stitch it up the back. Then I put it in the frame without the glass and put the back of the frame back into place. As long as the foam core board is the thinnest possible, I can make everything fit fine. As long as you keep your work out of the sun, your piece won't fade. Use a lint roller every once in a while to keep the dust off of it.

Evil Dead 2! Love it!!! I'm a huge fan of the Evil Dead trilogy & Bruce Campbell.

Great info on displaying your work. I have some friends that embroider. They're mostly in the SCA (Society For Creative Anachronism) http://www.sca.org/

What's the difference between the two?

If you want to be an author on GR, you just have to click on your name in the book title & I think you can find a link for "This is Me" or something like that. If you can't find it, just send the author link to support@goodreads.com & tell them to link it for you.

IF you want. Being an author makes a lot of information public like your birthday (if you put it in) even if it wasn't before or so I found. Your profile page changes & you wind up with 2 sets to deal with. Some groups get huffy about authors commenting, too.

Oh boy. So if you are an author, you can't socialize then? Wow being an author is the pits!

Well, not exactly, but it's definitely a little tougher to deal with than being a regular member.

Gotcha

So what is the difference between cross stitch & embroidery or is there any?

Cross stitch is a type of embroidery stitch. There are many types of different stitches: satin stitch, stem stitch, back stitch, cross stitch, etc. Needle point is made up of half stitches, that is, un-crossed cross stitches. They all go in one directions and are made with heavier strands of floss.

Here is a site explaining some of embroidery stitches: https://idealme.com/tag/easy-embroide...

I also enjoy Blackwork. Blackwork is usually done in all one color. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwork

http://www.blackworkarchives.com/bw_f...

I have this book and it's great for intro to Blackwork
Blackwork

Interesting. No wonder I didn't know the difference. I like the blackwork. Thanks.

I do too. I love its history and incorporating it into designs or just doing a Blackwork pattern for fun.