Christmas Cross Stitch Ornaments for 2011

I cross stitched a few ornaments for friends and family as part of their Christmas gifts this year. Luckily we had a bit of a staggered Christmas, celebrating with different people at different times throughout December (and even into January!). So it gave me lots of time to get the stitching done.

I've had the Dimensions leaflet for these blue ornaments on my cross stitch bookshelf for quite some time and I'm happy I finally got a chance to use it. The pattern is Martha Edward Glass's Holiday Elegance. I'm pretty sure it's out of print now, but a watchful eye may be able to find it on ebay.

I made a set of four of these for a friend and then made another two to keep for our own tree decorations.

They were stitched on 14 count aida cloth in Ice Blue. I then mounted them on a foam-backed cardboard and used a glue gun to add the hanging ribbon, and decorative shiny blue cording around the edges. The square ones turned out quite good, but I feel like I need a bit more practice mounting circle and oval shaped ornaments. If anyone has any advice on how to work with these rounder shapes, please feel free to share in the comments section.

My other holiday stitching project was a couple sets of Christmas mice, which come from The Best of Margaret Sherry Collection. I made two sets of these, one for a friend and another for my brother-in-law's girlfriend. I also stitched an extra mouse holding a stocking to keep for our own collection.

These mice were stitched over 2 threads on a 32 count Belfast linen in Cream. The frames are tree hanging picture frame ornaments that I found at Michael's. I thought they were cute, and they kind of look like jam jar lids, don't they? Plus, they were easy to mount the cross stitch fabric in - a welcome relief after struggling with my circular foam-backed cardboard ornaments!

Next up, some crochet and some cthulhus!

Waiting For Santa - Free Cross Stitch Chart

 

I'm very excited by the news that Margaret Sherry will be launching a new series of patterns next year. For now, I'll have to satisfy myself with this cute cat waiting for Santa, which she's posted as a free chart on her new site.

Both cats were stitched over two strands on a 32 count Belfast Linen in cream. The stitched area measures about 2.5 by 3.5 inches. The one to the left I've made into a tree ornament and I'm going to be keeping it for myself.  The bottom one, placed in a sparkly red stand-up frame (found on sale at Michael's), will be a stocking stuffer for my mom, who is also a major cat person.

Sorry the second one is looking a little blurry. To get the pictures I set these on my scanner and since the second kitty is recessed a bit in the frame, it comes out a little blurry. I assure you in real life he's quite clear, and adorable!

Oh Christmas Tree - Crafts in Action!

Most years we don't put up a Christmas tree because we go to other family members' homes to celebrate the season. This year we decided we wanted a tree of our own and decided to decorate it with our geeky, non-traditional tastes.

With all the sparkly lights, taking a clear picture of the tree is no easy feat, but the boyfriend did his best. Nestled among the branches you may be able to see a few of the cross stitch ornaments I've posted on Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins before, some beaded ornaments I've made over the years, our Browncoat ornaments and a few other handcrafted items.

Though not hand-made, but just as awesome, our tree is also decked out with a few plastic dinosaurs, a Despicable Me minion, a Farscape Ka D'Argo action figure and of course, our Cookie Monster tree topper.

I've been busy working on homemade gifts for this holiday season which I hope to post on the blog come January, after everyone has received their Christmas presents.

'Til then, I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! Thanks for dropping by!

Browncoat Christmas Ornaments - With Free Patterns!

This holiday season you can show off your Christmas spirit and your Browncoat pride at the same time. I wanted to design a quick and versatile Christmas craft project that would be a good homemade gift for my Firefly loving friends and also a nice piece of subtle geekery to add to my own holiday decorating. After rejecting a couple of other ideas I think these cute little guys sporting their Jayne hats have hit the mark.

Made on 7 mesh plastic canvas these ornaments are about 4 inches tall by 2.5 - 3 inches wide and each one would probably take about 2-4 hours to stitch up, depending on your stitching experience.

They're perfect for hanging on the Christmas tree or attaching to presents as a gift tag. I'm going to post the directions here for how to make the ornaments on plastic canvas, but feel free to take the gridded patterns and let your imaginations run wild. The patterns could also be used to make these little guys in cross stitch, fuse beads, knitting, crochet or anything else you can think of. And if you do come up with a clever way to use the patterns, feel free to send me a picture or a link to somewhere that you've posted your creation online.

(Clicking on the patterns should cause them to open a new window where they will appear somewhat larger on most browsers. Then you can print them or save them to your own hard drive.)

Materials

(Note: While I haven't taken an exact measurement, I would estimate that you will need approximatley 10 metres or less of the dominant colour in each design, and 3-6 metres of the other colours. These take very little yarn and are ideal for leftover bits from previous projects.)

• small amounts of worsted weight yarn in the colours shown in the pattern grid.
• Black embroidery floss (DMC 310)
• White embroidery floss (for Gingerbread man only)
• 7 mesh plastic canvas
• No. 16 or No. 18 tapestry needle (blunt is preferred)
• scissors

Directions

1. Cut the plastic canvas into a smaller rectangle that is 2 squares wider and 2 squares longer than the ornament you're planning to make. (For example, the penguin is 17 squares wide by 28 squares high, so to make him you would cut a piece of plastic canvas that is 19 X 30 squares).
2. For all squares indicated on the graph, cut two pieces of yarn in the appropriate colour and stitch in continental stitch.
3. Begin stitching with the four yellow squares in the centre of the Jayne hat in the centre of the top row on your plastic canvas. Work downward from this central starting point. Weave ends in on back of the piece when changing colours.
4. Once all of the continental stitching is complete, switch to embroidery floss. Cut floss and do not separate into individual strands. Use the 6-strand piece to backstitch the thin black lines on the grid. (Use white floss to backstitch where indicated by thin white lines on the Gingerbread man grid.)
5. Use scissors to trim the ornaments leaving a line of plastic canvas around the outer edge of all your stitches. Refer to top picture to see how ornaments are cut.
6. Cut an 8 inch piece of embroidery floss, separate into individual strands. Thread one strand through top centre of ornament and knot to create loop for hanging.

As always, feel free to post a comment or contact me through the blog's email address if you have any questions about the patterns. I'll do my best to help you out.

Enjoy!

Season's Greetings!

I just wanted to take a moment to say Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone who has stopped by Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins this year. An especially warm thank you to everyone who has taken the time to post comments or send me a picture of something they've made with my patterns. After the holidays I'll display a new batch of Tiny Cthulhu pictures from the crocheters who have sent me photos over the past few months.

Until then, if you're not too tired of crochet Christmas ornaments, check out the wonderful snowflakes available from MYpicot. The ones displayed here and numerous others are available as a free download.

Wishing everyone all the best in 2010, have a wonderful holiday season!

An Alternative to Glass Christmas Tree Ornaments

While we were all snuggled in our beds on Christmas Eve, when I was about five years old, our cat ate all the glass balls off the Christmas tree. We only discovered this the next day when tiny fragments of coloured glass were floating in his water dish. Thankfully he not only survived the experience, but went on to live another eleven years. Seriously, knocking them off the tree and rolling them off the floor I could understand. Eating them? Surely, the cat food we were serving wasn't that bad.

Since then we've always avoided putting anything breakable on the tree. I just spotted this clever stash-busting project courtesy of Etsy seller ZooCrafts, who sells these crocheted Christmas ball ornaments in sets of 4 for $15 U.S. A clever alternative to breakable ornaments for anyone who needs to baby-proof or cat-proof their Christmas tree this holiday season.

Oh Christmas Tree - So cute!

I'll forgive PlanetJune for reminding us all that there are just 7 weeks left until Christmas, but only because she's created this charming little Christmas tree pattern. Only seven weeks...and I haven't done any gift buying yet. Okay, mustn't stress by thinking about that...

Isn't this beautiful? It can stand on its own or be stuffed and turned into a hanging Christmas (tree?) ornament. Should we hang trees on our tree, or is that just redundant?

Anyways, the decorating possibilities are endless. I know the local Michael's store sells miniaturized Christmas tree ornaments for a tiny plastic tree that they sell. I'm thinking those ornaments would look even better on this tree than the one they're offering. Click on the link above to see more pictures of June's latest pattern or purchase a copy for just US $4.50.

More Christmas In July!

I'm still thinking ahead and planning/making gifts for the coming Christmas. Today I thought I'd show another gift from Christmas past as well as one I may consider in the future.

Above is something I made myself. This Snowflake Afghan is a free pattern courtesy of Crochet Pattern Central that I came across and crocheted for my boyfriend's mom last winter. Pictures do not do this one justice, it is absolutely beautiful in real life and I highly recommend it if there's someone in your family you think it would appeal to. You have to crochet each hexagon motif separately and then sew them all together which can be a bit time consuming, but it's well worth it in the end.


I made this one using Bernat Satin in Admiral and Snow. I also reduced the pattern from 59 hexagons to 46. I think if I'd made it with as many as the pattern suggested it would have been big enough to cover a queen size bed and I was aiming for more of a lapghan size blanket.


Next up in my Christmas craft recommendations are these crochet trimmed tree ornaments made from old Christmas cards. These popped up on Craftster a few days ago and were created by panda who was good enough to include a tutorial demonstrating how she'd made them. Not only do they look beautiful, I think this is a great way to preserve cards that may have sentimental value or that you find are just too pretty to throw away. I haven't had a chance to try these yet. They look pretty simple though so I may have to pull out my stash of saved cards some night and give this a try.

Merry, Moe and Flurry Cross Stitch

Lately when I have some free time for crafty stuff I've been getting a head start on Christmas presents for the coming winter. It's been fun, but the downside is I can't show off what I've been making on the blog because many of the friends and family who will be receiving the homemade items are regular readers of Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins. I'd hate to ruin the surprise for them.

So instead, I thought I'd show off an item from Christmas past today. This is Merry, Moe and Flurry designed by Pam Kellogg, a cross stitch pattern that incorporates both beads and blending filaments. Back when I got this pattern it was available as a free pamphlet and the ad for it appeared in a variety of cross stitch magazines. Just cut out the ad and send in a SASE and Kreinik sent you the pamphlet. A great deal.

Now the pattern is only available directly from Kreinik (click the link given above) and is sold for $17.49 along with the six 11-meter spools of braid filament that you need for the pattern. You still have to buy the fabric, embroidery floss and beads separately, but I'd say this is still a pretty good deal. Blending filament is often quite expensive in local craft stores, and at least in my area, it's often hard to find places that carry all the colours you need.

I can't remember how many of these I made. I think it was somewhere between six and nine and I still had plenty of braid left on the spools afterward to make more. These little guys look absolutely beautiful in person (click the photo for a larger view) and they're quick to stitch up. Plus, they're versatile. You can make them into tree ornaments like I have, bookmarks, coasters, or even stitch all three of them in a row horizontally or vertically and frame them as a Christmas wall hanging. If you've never worked with blending filaments or beads before I highly recommend this pattern as a starting point. The snowflakes are small and will give you a good chance to practice these new techniques without taking up too much money or time.