Horror Icons Cross Stitch

I'm pretty excited that I can finally show this, I've been making it in secret over the last few weeks as a surprise for a friend of mine. I saw she liked the pattern on Etsy, and as a horror movie fan I thought it was too good not to make.

The piece is based on 6 iconic horror movie characters, with a quote from Candyman.

From L-R: Michael Myers (Halloween), Ghostface (Scream), Jigsaw (Saw), Freddy Kreuger (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs), and Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th Part III and onwards)

Some better detail shots of the characters (click to enlarge):

Even if you're not a horror fan you should check out PixelPower Design on Etsy, there is a huge range of pop culture themed cartoon style cross stitch patterns.

Community "Digital Estate Planning" WIP (Cont.)

(10 Apr 2013) Here's a quick shot of where I'm at - Troy is done, almost time to start on my absolute favourite - Britta! 

(19 Feb 2013) I've made some decent progress on this over the few months considering how much time I've spent away or otherwise occupied. I'm currently sitting at 48% completion! I aim to be halfway by the end of the week, which is a pretty achievable goal.

So we have one-and-a-half new characters since I last posted an update which is super exciting! 

Back to windows today, which is less exciting, but repetitive in a relaxing way. But first - it's getting a good iron today to get it back into a reasonable shape as the hoop is really taking its toll. 

There goes October

All quiet on the blog front lately huh? Seems I've been busy, though looking at what I've done  craft-wise in the last 6 weeks it really doesn't seem like much!

I think my problem is my growing nail polish addiction - wet nails are not really conducive to getting things done. This morning 6 new Essie polishes arrived at my door, I scored them for $7 a pop! Bargain!

I did complete one new project in October - revamp of an old unloved corkboard with a splash of paint and bonus features.

It is now our 'life organisation board', with a menu, mini whiteboard shopping list, calendar, and regular old corkboard space for bills and other reminders.

The headers were done with paint on foam stamps and the menu/calendar sheets are ink stamps (I think I developed a thing for stamping after making this bag), the calendar weeks are mounted on magnetic strips and can move at my will.

I'm planning on making up for my October laziness though - Lincraft were having 30% off storewide this weekend so I stocked up on some DMC floss and picked up some flocking powder and a glue gun. All of that only cost me $40! I just need to find a reason to try out that glue gun...

I haven't used flocking powder before, but I hear it's used for scrapbooking and creating a velvety texture on surfaces. My interest purely stems from this post on xojane - textured nails! If I hadn't just done a new design this morning I would be getting straight into it, but I'll just have to be patient.






Aaaand finally, an update on my Community cross stitch - Jeff Winger complete! Finishing another character has totally renewed my enthusiasm for this piece (not to mention a recent rewatch of Season 3) so I'm hoping to show you all Annie Edison soon. Until then, here's the current progress:

Welcome, Pierce Hawthorne!

Community Digital Estate Planning cross stitch returns! Finally, a character! 

My progress up to today:

• 12909 stitches done
• 44691 remain
• 22.41% complete
• 1 character done!

Community WIP

See my new WIP post!

Update (1 Dec 12): It's been a while since I've updated (again), but I'm making some good progress. Two characters complete so far, 22,000 odd stitches done! 

Update (1 Oct 12): Terrible news everyone! The computer my pattern was on died last week, so I've been slowed down somewhat. Hoping it can be repaired next week as I (stupidly) don't have a backup. I have been able to make some progress working on the repetitive bits like the horrible, horrible carpet, which breaks my brain if I work on it for too long.

So, fingers crossed for me please that I get my pattern back soon. I swear to make a backup if I get it back!

Update (9 Aug 12): Moving the stitching down the left hand side of the study room window - taking the fast track to start on Pierce. Only just over 1100 stitches til I can start on my first character! Sounds like a lot, right? Well so far I've completed approximately 10500 stitches... that's now 18% complete!

For reference, what I have left to do!

Update (23 Jul 12): Finally on to the study room window, 14% complete! Moving a bit slower than I'd like - hoping to get to 20% by the end of the month.

Quick update on my Community 'Digital Estate Planning' stitch :D The wall of the Greendale study room is ever so slowly expanding, almost time to move on and start on the window. Doing the characters seems so far away at the moment!
Currently at just over 5% completion.

Community 'Digital Estate Planning' Cross Stitch

(see my current progress here)

As soon as I saw the first screen cap of the pixelated study group from Community online several weeks ago, my first thought was I have to stitch this!

A couple of days after the episode aired I picked through some hi res screen caps, and created my ultimate Community cross stitch. I cheated a little and manually added Pierce in - I really wanted the Greendale Seven all together in the study room.

In total, 57600 stitches. My last major project of under 40000 stitches took me 9 months - here's hoping this doesn't take as long! An up to date progress shot is coming soon, meanwhile here's a .gif of my progress as of about a week ago.

Russell Crowe's band

This idea popped into my head one day after checking out Subversive Cross Stitch. I found a random cross stitch lettering generator online and got my text, and designed the 'shit' myself. (Not often you can claim you've 'designed' a shit, right?)

The quote is from the Frenzal Rhomb song 'Russell Crowe's Band'. I stitched it off and on for ages and ended up finishing in time for the birthday of a friend who is a big Frenzal Rhomb fan, so I've sent it off and am hoping she loves it!

Hyperbole and a Half

Seems I just keep finding completed projects, here is my stitched Alot.

From Hyperbole and a Half, "The Alot is an imaginary creature that I made up to help me deal with my compulsive need to correct other people's grammar.  It kind of looks like a cross between a bear, a yak and a pug".

I love this Alot. I made the pattern myself but obviously the artwork is not mine. Follow the link above to Hyperbole and a Half for more awesome and strange drawings and stories.

Pop culture stitching

A couple of random pop culture stitches - I loved the idea of stitching Robot Unicorn, and once someone made this awesome pattern, I had to make it!

I saw somewhere online someone had made up a Futurama inspired wall hanging, and thought it would be  a cool quick project. I'm definitely not the first person to stitch this, but I just kinda winged it on the text and didn't follow any pattern.

Smaller projects

So during the 9 months of creating my amazing SMB3 World map, I stitched this little framed piece for my Nana's birthday. I made the pattern, but didn't design the flower myself - I think it was from a bit of Googling.

These little bows were made... just because I wanted to see if I could do it! I don't have a sewing machine, so the bows are all hand stitched (not that much is required), made from recycled upholstery samples from Reverse Garbage. The non-headbanded bow is a brooch :)

These little mini magnets were stitched on plastic canvas as breaks from the SMB3 map - Tetris didn't really require a pattern, and I can't remember where I got the Angry Birds patterns from - they took me forever to find though!

Super Mario Bros 3 World 1 Map

Feeling like a complete hero after cross stitching a grand total of two projects, I was compelled to start something big. Of course, a 37000+ stitch project is the natural progression.

My proudest moment was completing this map. It was my figurative baby, taking around 9 months to complete. The pattern was found here - there are patterns for all eight worlds! I've been toying with the idea of starting another one, but have a couple of WIP's I really need to finish - and the knowledge that the repetition is super frustrating at times. After something like 50 cactus, I was groaning every time it was time to do another.

I really need to give this the respect it deserves and finish it off more than just a wash, iron and mount, but custom framing is a bit too pricey for me at the moment. Anyone got ideas of what to do other than framing?

Pacman bookmark

Project #2 was again from Sprite Stitch, pattern is here. I've made a couple of these, the first one on linen (as pictured) with metallic thread was a nightmare! Attempt #2 on regular aida cloth was a dream to make in comparison. Both are now in use as bookmarks somewhere, backed with black felt.

My first project

Gonna get things rolling with a photo dump of all the projects I've completed since deciding to be an adventurous crafter a couple of years ago. My first ever project (and many subsequent projects) were courtesy of Sprite Stitch and the awesome forums

This is the first project I ever completed, sometime around Spring 2010. The idea/pattern was from here