Cross stitch is one of those things I thought I'd never get into. I remember doing one as a kid, it was this cutesy scene of Amish farmers with their cows I think. Weird thing for a 10 year old to stitch, but I was probably a really weird 10 year old. Anyway, I'd never given it another thought after my great Amish opus, even though I see lots of quilters on IG enjoying it. I didn't think I had the patience or attention span. (I thought the same thing about quilting.)
But then my friend Kara posted a picture of this Forest pattern she was working on, by Jody Rice of Satsuma Street. Love at first sight. I HAD to relearn cross stitch just to make this pattern immediately. (Really, cross stitch is amazing simple- not much to learn) And then a whole bunch of her other patterns. Honestly, if there was no Satsuma Street, I would feel no need to take up this craft. But I'm glad I did.
I promptly made up a zipper pouch for my stitching projects, shown above on the left. It's scraps from a 16 patch quilt top I made around Christmas time last year, and it has room for all my goodies inside.
I didn't get a picture of the finished Forest piece, but I did finish it (in March maybe?) and wrapped it around a canvas and sent it to a good friend.
I was still hooked on stitching Satsuma, so I immediately began this Voyage pattern. This one took even longer to finish, but I loved every stitch. The colors are just so genius! I love how I can stitch while watching evening TV with Nick or while on a picnic with the kids. I also love having an excuse to use these adorable stork scissors from The Fabric Studio here in Nashville.
It's all finished now, but I still haven't decided on what to do with it. I had considered sewing it into a tote, but I usually get tired of bags eventually, and I never want to get tired of looking at this. Plus bags get grungy. Yup, this one needs to hang on the wall, but I don't know if I would rather wrap it on canvas or frame it.
My most recent finish was this phone case. I used some of my favorite colors I already had from other projects and just kinda made up this hexagon design. I found the stitchable case at a craft fair in my Cincinnati neighborhood from a booth set up by the Hoop and Needle. I don't know if you can order it from their online shop, but you can find lots of fun pdf cross stitch patterns with profanity and Big Lebowski quotes and the lyrics to Dayman. (Have to make that one!!) They've also opened up a brick and mortar shop on Main St. in OTR. Definitely go support them if you are local. Can't wait to visit next time I'm in Cincinnati.
Currently I'm working on Arcadia on this happy polar ice blue Aida. This isn't even a quarter of the pattern done, but now that I've joined the ranks of moms in the car pick-up lane, I get some stitching in every afternoon. I think I love her patterns because of how she groups the colors in those large chunks. It speaks to my style much more than Kawaii or those cross stitches that are so detailed they look like paintings. It feels really modern, like a quilt in pretty solids.
And: you can't really tell in the picture, but this one has some metallic threads in it. Oooooh, fancy!
