Category: cross-stitch

Finished Object Friday – 1/10

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This post originally appeared on my Ko-fi page in 2 parts on January 10 and 12, 2025.

When I originally finished the first version of my Biased Marie Sweater, I used the leftover yarn to create a tote bag (of sorts, I’m not exactly up to date in my knowledge of bag styles so let me know if it’s got another name) with a closing flap. I even sewed a lining for it and clipped it in, and then I set it down for a very long time. (You may start noticing a theme of that in these posts…)

A crocheted bag with diagonal stripes of pink, red, purple, blue, and green with a flap over the top and a granny square strap in the same yarn hanging on a white door.

Mostly I set it down because I originally planned to stitch the lining in by machine, but I don’t have a walking foot and it absolutely was not going to work without one. So I was going to have to stitch it in by hand, and I decided that was a job for later me.

The inside of the bag with blue and white gingham fabric with machine-sewn pockets, stitched in my band using black thread and a blanket stitch.

Honestly, it took later me all of maybe 10 minutes to do it. But that seems to be the theme with a lot of these that just need finishing. For next week, I’m planning to sew buttons on a sweater I finished at least a year ago. Probably a 5 minute job, that one.

Part 2: I completely forgot that I actually did finish something else this week: stitching Cookie Monster and framing all four of these.

Four framed cross stitches on black Aida fabric in black square frames. Clockwise from top left: Animal, Stitch, Cookie Monster, Garfield and Odie.

You may notice that I switched Stitch and Cookie Monster in the cover image. That’s because my mom pointed out that Stitch should go under cookie monster like he’s waiting for the crumbs. They are in this orientation because that’s how I stitched them and I’m using this image in a video, but that was too funny to pass up.

A finished cross stitch on black Aida held in a wooden hoop of Cookie Monster holding a cookie.

All of these patterns are by MotoRuxin, and I made them on 14 count Aida. They are in 4×4 photo frames, for a size reference.

On a semi-related note, I’m dusting off my old YouTube channel and adding reels from the past few weeks (basically anything not really time-sensitive that I’ve created in DaVinci Resolve and therefore can easily add YouTube-friendly music to). I’m also now on Bluesky which (at least for the moment) is where I’m probably going to be most active.

Finished Objects – 1/3

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(This post originally appeared on my Ko-Fi page on January 3, 2025.)

I have decided that, for the time being to get through the giant amount of WIPs that have been languishing in my boxes, bags, and drawers, I am going to make myself finish something before starting something new. Considering we are only 3 days into the new year, it’s going pretty well so far. I’ve finished 2 projects this week.

[A crocheted baby dinosaur with pink belly, stripes, and nostrils, gray back, tail, and limbs, and crocheted eyes with three shades of green in the iris and a white highlight sitting on an upside down tan plastic bucket.]

First is yet another Baby Dinosaur by Complicated Knots in the leftover Loops and Threads Soft Classic from my mom’s birthday present. I swear I will take a break from these and make something else for a while, unless someone wants to order a custom one. This one will be listed in the shop next week.

[A cross stitch of the faces of Garfield and Odie on black Aida fabric.]

The other is this cross stitch of Garfield and Odie by Motoruxin. By searching through my Google photos archive, I clearly started this for StitchMaynia in 2020 (the only time I ever attempted it) and then promptly set it down on June 1 with just the yellows and oranges filled in. So I finished it up over the past couple days, and am ready to fill in the last corner of this sheet (even though I am going to cut them apart and frame them individually).

[A square of black Aida fabric with Animal’s face, Stitch sideways with his mouth open toward the sky, and Garfield and Odie with an empty bottom right corner.]

I’ve just grabbed her Cookie Monster pattern because I realized I didn’t have another small pattern to go there.

For now, I’m going to stick to these weekly update styles instead of trying to write full blog posts for every single thing and then getting behind and getting too overwhelmed with the amount of things I need to finish. Especially since I am intending to finish a lot of projects that are just sitting around with minimal work left to finish them.

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Pattern Release – 3 Cross Stitch Patterns

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You may have seen me working on this Tri-Color Rose cross stitch:

A finished and framed cross-stitch of a flower with yellow, pink, and blue petals in a thick black square frame on a table with a green and white striped tablecloth.

And that I was making it several times over in order to figure out what number of stitches in each color would best balance the amount of threads versus retaining the most detail. I settled on version 3 which uses 75 colors, made sure there weren’t symbols that were too much alike in the same area, and it is now listed in my shop.

A finished and framed cross stitch of cascading hearts in rainbow colors in a thick black square frame laying on a wooden table.

While I was preparing to list the rose, I realized I didn’t have two other patterns listed here that I thought I did. The first is this rainbow hearts pattern, which comes in a bundle with the square and circle versions of the chart, both finishing at 4 x 4 inches on 14-count Aida.

A circular version of the rainbow cascading hearts pattern finished in a wooden embroidery hoop with a loop of orange thread at the top for a hanger.

And I wanted to offer this final chart as a little freebie that would make a great last-minute gift as it only uses 4 colors:

A cross stitch of a cartoon line drawing of two hands being held in a heart shape with a red heart outline in a thick black frame laying on a wooden table.

Using so few colors both makes it work up faster, and makes it easy to substitute colors for a unique gift. It’s charted as coming up to 5.3 x 5.2 inches on 14-count Aida, but this example is done on 22-count Aida and came up to 3.5 x 3.3 inches. If you want to change the Aida used for any of these patterns and figure out what size it will be, I would suggest this calculator from Thread-Bare.

If you do pick up any of these patterns, please tag me on Instagram (@caseykayb) because I would love to see your projects. My goal this next year is to release all the patterns I’ve had sitting in a “charts in progress” folder on my desktop for several years, hopefully one a month.

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