Hey Cross Stitchers!

Just wanted to let you all know that at www.patternsonline.com they have a really cute kitty pattern as their freebie Pattern of the Month. It is called Happy Whatever and it is by Janette Crews, who is the designer behind the Cattitudes books. It is 6 kitties adorning various holiday items so it fits all year long. I believe that membership is free, they just need a valid email address. It is downloadable patterns that can be opened with a free downloadable viewer version of PC Stitch (or obviously with the full version of the software that you can purchase).

I LOVE this pattern, and had actually been desperately searching for it in the stores for a couple years now. Of course, I bought the pattern as soon as I saw it was available on Patterns Online, and now it's free. Oh well, I have it.

I'm going to try to remote link to the picture of it:

OMG...that's just the cutest thing ever! Too bad I don't do cross stitch!

thanks so much that page is amazing!!!

Shell you were reading my mind

But it is really cute

I have a question for all you cross stitchers out there.
I have a friend who is an artist when it comes to cross stitching.
She has been doing really beautyful pictures that hang on her wall like paintings, and actually you think they are paintings when you stand a bit far from them.
No she really wants to find something in the next level, and do something really hard and complicated, something that is really really big, even to fill a wall, or allmost.
Can you tell me where to look for something like that?
Thanx!

Originally posted by Pollyanna
INo she really wants to find something in the next level, and do something really hard and complicated, something that is really really big, even to fill a wall, or allmost.
Can you tell me where to look for something like that?
Thanx!

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Is she looking for something tapestry size? I know that you can buy cross-stitch cloth by the yard, so she would be limited by the width of the available fabric. I have never seen a pattern for something that is HUGE. She may need to find a painting/picture that she likes, have it scanned and use PC Stitch to create her own pattern.

Another idea is to do various picture within what I'll call quilt blocks - have x-stitch patterns done within squares, then assemble . connect those squares with borders.

I'm impressed! I love to cross-stitch but never find the time these days.

I'm sure she's already done some by her, but as far as I can tell, Teresa Wentzler is one of the more difficult designers, and her designs are amazing. www.twdesignworks.com

Originally posted by Pollyanna
I have a question for all you cross stitchers out there.
I have a friend who is an artist when it comes to cross stitching.
She has been doing really beautyful pictures that hang on her wall like paintings, and actually you think they are paintings when you stand a bit far from them.
No she really wants to find something in the next level, and do something really hard and complicated, something that is really really big, even to fill a wall, or allmost.
Can you tell me where to look for something like that?
Thanx!

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You know the pictures that are made of little tiny pictures of other things? You stand away from it and it looks like, say a tiger, and when close up you can see little pictures of other things like buildings and other animals. (I hope someone out there knows what I'm talking about.)

She could try one of those. I reckon that would be challenging but I don't know of anyone who does designs for them.

Thanx for you advises!

Heidi, I send her the Teresa Wentzler link (and the patternsonline.com link, but that was more for fun, thats more something for me, not to big projects ), but havent talked to her yet so see if she found something.

Amy, the quilt idea is really nice, and the one with a fav. painting.

Originally posted by a_loveless_gem
You know the pictures that are made of little tiny pictures of other things? You stand away from it and it looks like, say a tiger, and when close up you can see little pictures of other things like buildings and other animals. (I hope someone out there knows what I'm talking about.)

She could try one of those. I reckon that would be challenging but I don't know of anyone who does designs for them.

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I know what you mean, I have seen jigsaw puzzles like that. I´m sure thats very challenging to do, does anyone know where to find a pattern of that kind?

Heidi, if I remember correctly, you were talking about a program that made your own photos into a cross stitch pattern a while ago. Do you remember the name of the program and where to reach it?
Thanx

It's PC Stitch, and you can get the information at http://www.pcstitch.com/

I have it and it's a great program. You can make the pattern as big as you would like, and include as many colors as you would like. You can make it with DMC or Anchor floss. It's really a nice program.

Thanx!
Through the years I have done a bit of cross stitching, nothing big though, just some Christmas cards and little Christmas pictures and other small pictures. When I was younger I made a lot of pillows (with bigger stitches though), but I really like doing this. I just seem to shift between the different things, some years I do a lot of knitting some a lot of crochei...
Anyway, recently I finally found out that my eyesight has gotten much worse, wich explaines my unpatience with all needlework lately
So, now I´ve got better lenses and I look forward to do something again, and never having looked at cross stitch websites before, I´we been hanging on there for hours, of course wanting to do everthing I see

Right, I had a question!
I just checked a kit I have (something to hang on the wall, to measure heights of children), and the tread is marked "Anchor". What is the difference between Anchor and DMC? Where is the best place to buy tread online? (I guess that would be a much cheaper way for me, so I thought I´d try)
Are there many kinds of threads, or just those 2?

There's a lot of specialty threads out there, like Kreinik has metallic and silk threads, but DMC and Anchor are the two main producers of the basic colored threads. From what I understand, DMC is the main thread used in the US and in US patterns, and Anchor is used more often outside of the US.

For where to buy, I would have suggested www.cyberstitchcafe.com but I just went there and they are going out of business. Although it may be a great time to get patterns and supplies a bit cheaper than usual. To get a feel for how many cross stitch sites there are out there, go to http://www.topcrossstitchsites.com/ which is a list of TONS of links to cross stitching sites. Some are by designers, some are retailers, some are better than others but they are all fun. You could spend HOURS looking at these sites! I know I have!

Originally posted by valanhb
You could spend HOURS looking at these sites! I know I have!

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Yeah, I agree! My s/o is working, there is nothing on tv on this saturday night, and for once I am just happy about that, I have so many cross stitches to look at!

One more question:
When you buy patterns online, do you buy books, or are just the particular patterns sent for you to download on your computer?
If you get them to your computer, how do you know which colour no. of thread to use? These questions might sound stupid, but I have only done things from a kit, except a few christmas cards that I did, after having done the same pattern from a kit

It depends on where you buy from. A lot of the retailers just mail you the pattern/book that you purchase, other places like Patterns Online you download the pattern that you print out yourself. All of the patterns come with a color key, just like the kits do. You just have to go out and purchase the thread and material separate. Other than that it's the same as doing a kit.

The pattern should be marked with different symbols for each color and the color legend listed by the pattern. I only did a pre-stamped kit once and only buy books or individual patterns. I like the way the picture develops on the blank fabric.

I would suggest that if you can get the book or pattern in hand, get a hardcopy of it rather than an e-mail unless you have a good printer. I've never bought online so can't offer an ideas on that.

I also have an old version of PC Stitch and when I did cross stitch, loved it!

A friend of mine once did an entire quilt of cross-stitch pictures. She loved Precious Moments, so did about 15 individual patterns and bound them with cotton quilting fabric. It was gorgeous when done.

I was reading the part about your friend wanting to move to something big....I just wondered if she's tried coming up with her own patterns for something like that. I rarely cross stitch by one set pattern...I just put my pieces together in my head and stitch them or plan them out a bit maybe on some graph paper or something. Btw...cute pattern, I think I'm going to try it out.

Originally posted by TheDreamKat
I was reading the part about your friend wanting to move to something big....I just wondered if she's tried coming up with her own patterns for something like that. I rarely cross stitch by one set pattern...I just put my pieces together in my head and stitch them or plan them out a bit maybe on some graph paper or something. Btw...cute pattern, I think I'm going to try it out.

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Do you take pieces of different patterns and mix them to one big pattern, or do you make your own totally from scratch? I could imagine that way was a huge amount of work!

Just depends on how much of a challenge i feel like. I have huge binders filled with different patterns and pieces of patterns and just random things. I have a section with jsut different butterflies, or cats, letters, etc. I'm some what of a craft-a-holic, when I have the time. I do cross stitch, bead work, and just any number of crafts I decide to do. I'm really bad about watching a craft show on tv and then saying "hey I can do that". But they all make great presents lol

Originally posted by TheDreamKat
But they all make great presents lol

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Thats right! I love getting something people have made, and love giving something I have made.

I have been looking at some DMC products online, and quess what I saw:
"DMC products are available for sale and purchase only within the United States and cannot be purchased, sold or shipped outside the United States."
I wonder why! I would think whose kind of product wouldn´t be harmful, even if shipped to other countries