Cross Stitch Craftiness

The following are cross stitch patterns I've done a while ago. The first two are by Told in a Garden, the Lavender and Lace collection. I love the detail in the faces. They're just beautiful. Other companies can do faces all they want, but these are the best I've seen. The last one, I can't remember the name of the company, but by the time I was done, I desperately needed some color in my life! So I started another angel, which isn't quite done, called "The Angel of Autumn". She's from Told in a Garden as well and is so colorful and beautiful. I'll post it when its done.

The first one is called "Heavenly Gifts". This was the first ever cross stitch I had done. The friend that got me started asked me a few times if I really wanted to try something so complex for my first one, but being me, I wasn't about to shrink back from a challenge! The final design is about 16"h x 13"w. It took me about 8 months to finish, working on it everyday. It would have taken a shorter amount of time had I not discovered first, that I was a couple of stitches too far to one side and it eventually would throw everything off in the end. If that wasn't bad enough, I discovered halfway through restitching the blue one, that I had actually gotten the colors mixed up and made the middle one blue instead of brown, and vice versa. I don't know why I didn't just leave it, I could have and no one would've been the wiser, but I just couldn't. So I took all the stitches out and re-did both the middle and right angels in the colors they were suppose to be. Sheesh, why not, I had the time! (rolleyes)

This next one is called "Angel of Spring". This was the first I had done of the Angels of the Seasons collection by Lavender and Lace. As I said above, I'm working on Autumn and I have the patterns for Winter and Summer, just waiting to be put to Aida cloth. However, they're both a bit "white" and I may need something in between with heaps of color.

This one measures about 19"h x 16" wide and has heaps of Mill Hill beads put on with fishing line. The flowers on her dress are so pretty. I don't even remember how long it took me to finish, probably at least a year, since I didn't work on it everyday.

The last one is called "The Fur Cloak", probably because the cloak is made out of Whisper Thread. Its kinda fuzzy thread that you brush up at the end. Its cool stuff and really makes the pattern nice. The original finished design that I saw was only done in blacks and grays. I thought that would drive me crazy so I worked out which stitches I could colorize and used those colors instead of the grays. You probably can't tell in this picture. As I said above, I was seriously ready for some color in the end! Again, I couldn't tell you how long it took me to finish this one. Toward the end I was just over it so I worked on it less and less. I'm really happy with the end result though.

Unfortunately, none of these are framed, and I even had to take a light iron to them so I could take their pictures. They're hanging on a hanger in the closet with plastic over them. I love doing them, but I would hate to try to pay to get them framed. We're talking anywhere from $200-$300 each, at least, depending on how many spacers they have to use. I bet they'd look really nice on the wall though! Oh well, someday.