Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Charity Embroidery

7Days has an article about a charity project involving clothing embroidered with Palestinian cross stitch designs. Unfortunately, there's no photo of the actual embroidery.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Superbowl Sunday Stitchers

The Star Beacon of Ohio has an article about an alternative superbowl party, a stitching get together. 

Friday, February 15, 2008

Floss Toss

Nicole at Carolina Dreams pulled out the threads for a bunch of upcoming projects and shows them off in a grand "floss toss." I love just seeing a pile of threads & fabric like that for some reason.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Anti-Valentine's Designs

Laurasweet at ThisNext found some anti-Valentine's Day designs from Fuzzy Bunny Crafts.

New Stitcher

Danny Sturgess joins the ranks of addicted cross stitchers. Glad to have you!

New Direction

StitchHappy at Cross Stitch Happy is taking a new direction with their blog.

Enrichment Includes Cross Stitch

The Winchester Star (Winchester, Virginia, US) writes about Quarles Elementary School's after school program that's been taking place the last month or so, including a class in cross stitch for second through four

Ecclesiastical Embroidery

EpiscopalLife Online has an article discussing ecclesiastical embroidery, both creation and preserving of embroidered items used by many churches (I know the Episopal, Anglican, and Catholic churches all use embroied vestments at times, for instance). It's an interesting piece, and they talked to many stitchers and sewers who've worked on such items.

There's an idea....

JY at Right Up Your Alley came up with an ingenious way to chart a simple cross stitch design: use a spreadsheet with the cells set to the same square size. Good idea, especially if you don't have any graph paper handy.

Stitching People

The El Paso Times (Texas, USA) has an article about Leonor Lozada, a lady who stitches designs of famous & not-so-famous people. Many of her designs are on display at a local coffee shop. 

*Giggle*

Lorezo's a dachsaund at El Diaro De Lorenzo whose mother is starting a stitching project. He's bored. Dog's can't stitch!

TIF Sampler

Mary Corbet at Needle'nThread is participating in the TIF Challenge by making a needlepoint sampler.

Seducing a Knitter

Imbrium from Nerd Knits, usually a knitter, is being seduced by the "evil" cross stitch. :)  She shows off two of her knitting WIPs in addition to her cross stitch one. 

Make Love Not Wor

Ok, I don't actually get the pun (I didn't play a lot of arcade games as a kid; I preferred pinball), but Sprite Stitch does, and shows off this design from kidmissle.

BAP in Progress

Smarty Mags is debating what to do with their big projects and shows off one in progress, an Eva Rosenstand design.

Vintage Puppy

Tipnut has a cute puppy for their latest vintage design. It looks like you'll need to flip the design if you want it to say "Tuesday." It appears it was originally part of a series of designs for the chores assigned to each day. 

Decisions

Kathryn at Threads of Desire discusses her upcoming projects.

Stitching Inspiration

The Redditch Advertiser (UK) has an article about Gordon Wright, a stroke victim who thought he had loss his creative outlet until he started cross stitching. Now, he's giving an exhibition of his work at the Redditch library, and he hopes it will inspire others not to give up in the face of a stroke.

Cross Stitch Connections

Taneya at Taneya's Geneology Blog connected some relatives with the help of her former hobby, cross stitch.

Rob's RR

Von at Hello Neighbor! finished up their portion of Rob's Round Robin, a lighthouse.

Geek Cross Stitch

Spwug has an article about the geek side of cross stitch.

I actually find it interesting how computer games are becoming a popular motif. Fantasy images (fairies, unicorns, dragons) have been popular cross stitch designs for awhile now, so I don't think there's anything new about "geeks" being interested in cross stitch. But, this is a new genre for the hobby.

Also, this article is yet another mention of Dark Lilac's chart generator. If you haven't checked it out yet, and you're interesed in creating your own designs from photos and other graphics, you really should take a peak at it. 

Be Mine Finish

Sharon at Sharon's Cross Stitch Obsession finished her Be Mine as a pinkeep and posted some pictures.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Finishing Ideas

Emily at The Floss Box shows off a whole bunch of finishing ideas for smaller pieces.

Names of God

Connie W at Simply Quilted shows off an older bit of counted cross stitch she did before she took up quilting. It's a religious design, of many of the names of God.

Valentine's Finish

YummY! Down on This finished a bit of Valentine's stitching for an exchange.

Mrs Stitches

The Daily Record (New Jersey, USA) profiled a needlepoint and counted cross stitch shop named Mrs Stitches, located in Mendham, NJ. 

Creating Your Own Design

Maggie Greene at Kotaku has an excellent article titled, "Krafting With Kotaku: Final Fantasy to Bioshock," that starts with "Why not mix cross stitch with your favorite computer game?" (Kotaku is a gaming site) and takes you through designing your own stitching project and then actually stitching it. It's a wonderfully complete piece.

Feminist Cross Stitch Kit

Kakariki from Radical Cross Stitch has a new design kitted up and for sale. 
It's a flowery sampler, with 
a simple, feminist expression, typical of her blend of cross stitch and 
activism. :)

Houses WIP

Carol of Garden of Stitches has a WIP to show off of her Houses of Hawkrun Hallow, as well as a bit of recent stash enhancement.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Needleroll Finishing Class

Focus on Finishing has an online class teaching how to make a needleroll.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Back to Cross Stitch

Lynn at Knots in a Row has picked up her cross stitching again and made a nice start of it, jumping right in to working on linen.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Overlord Embroidery

Thanks to the Ottawa Citizen's article about the 10 Best Canadian Military Memorial Sites, I discovered this interesting item: 

"9. D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery, Portsmouth, England: Telling the story of Operation Overlord from its origins in the dark days of 1940 to victory in Normandy in 1944, the museum features the amazing Overlord Embroidery, a modern-day counterpart to the Bayeux Tapestry."

I had never heard of the Overlord Embroidery, so of course I had to look it up. There's some history about how it was created here. It actually sounds like it's an applique design. The designer, 
Sandra Lawrence, has a site talking about it here, including pictures.

Friday, February 8, 2008

To Hoop or Not to Hoop

Pamela Kellog from Kitty & Me Designs discusses whether or not to use a hoop with your stitching. Also, this is the first time I've seen her blog, so I'll be adding it to the designers' section.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Hip Hop Happy Dance

Lelia at Stitches of Life has a happy dance to show off, Hip Hop from Pine Mountain Designs.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Cross Stitch Leaflet

From the Good Neighbors section of The Birmingham News (AL, USA):

"Cross-stitch leaflet - I would like to replace a lost cross-stitch leaflet that is about 20 years old. This Leisure Arts counted cross-stitch leaflet titled "Hearts and Flowers" contains numerous borders, samplers and "flowers of the month" patterns. Does anyone have this leaflet that I may buy? It is not available from the Leisure Arts Web site. - B.M., Dadeville."

There's an email/snail mail addres if you have the leaflet the author is looking for.