Mr. Rogers cross stitch pattern

So I was thinking about Mister Rogers lessons of kindness and encouragement to be yourself, and decided this would make a good cross stitch design. I did the design, made my computer stitched version (I haven't stitched it yet in real life) and posted that version to my Facebook page. A lot of people liked it.

Here's the pattern for that- it stitches up to 9 inches wide and 7 inches tall on 14 count, takes only 4 colors of thread, and can be framed in a standard 8x10 frame. Click for a larger version, print on landscape mode.

My son saw me working on it, and suggested I do a Steve Rogers (Captain America) version, TG saw it, and gave it her approval. I didn't change the text, but added a bit of stars and stripes and a captain insignia. 

Here's the digitally stitched version of that one. 

Banned Books cross stitch bookmark pattern

It's Banned Books week! You can find out more about banned and challenged books at the American Library Association site here or by checking out Banned Books Week.

I excerpted part of a quote from President Kennedy on this pattern.

If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all — except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.

-John F. Kennedy, Saturday Review (29 October 1960)

This is designed to be stitched on 18 count fabric, and will fit a bookmark at least 1 3/4s inch wide and 7 inches long that's 18 count. Use a single strand for the back stitch. Click on the image for a larger version to print!

Superwholock First Rule cross stitch

I had another plan for today. But this idea tickled me. The above is a digital rendering of the cross stitch pattern below.

Superwholock is a name for that cross section of fandoms that love Supernatural, Doctor Who and Sherlock (BBC)-which would mean my whole family. We watch all 3 shows together, and get into long conversations about the shows and the characters. Yeah, we are a bunch of geeks. Happily so!

The pattern is 100 dpi, and I didn't make color suggestions because it's only 5 colors. Black, grey, blue, light blue and yellow. I think a metallic blending filament would be nice for the chrome on the Metallicar (fandom name for the Impala that Dean drives on Supernatural)

The first rule of Supernatural  is
Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole. (my husband has the teeshirt!)

The first rule of Doctor Who is
The Doctor lies. (TG has the teeshirt!)

And finished off with the quote from Sherlock Holmes-
How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

Click the image below for a larger version to print and use as a pattern. If you're a Superwholock fan, you didn't need the above to explain!
1 is black
2 is TARDIS blue (TARDIS)
3 is light blue (bee wings)
4 is yellow (bee stripes)
5 is grey (chrome on Metallicar)

Picking the season for Doctor Who was hard! Christopher Eccleston is my daughter's first Doctor. For lots of great geeky pins, crafty and humor, check out The Amazing Turnip Girl's board. It's my account, but she does all the pinning for that folder, and it's a geekfest. 10,000 pins and counting, she spends hours scouring the net and Pinterest for the best fandom nerd things out there.

Graph Comparison- Transformers in bead, knit and cross stitch charts

I was going through a lot of old files today looking for the graph for a purse I made a few years back. Still haven't found that, but did find these old graphs, done to compare graph types.

Beads- the most popular stitches are brick and peyote. The most popular beads are Delica size 11 cylinder beads. So that's how I planned these graphs. Delicas are slightly smaller from hole to hole then from outside edge to outside edge. When you're working in peyote stitch, generally the holes will line up vertically. Peyote is also offset by half. These graphs are original size, so they don't need to be clicked. Shown shaded and I have no idea now what my reasoning behind that was. Because of the aspect ratio, these are 39 beads wide and 36 beads tall.

Knit stitches, working up from a cast on edge instead side to side, are shorter than they are wide. So if you graph something on a square graph, it might work. But more likely it's going to come out squashed. It varies some, but generally, the ratio is close enough to Delica type beads that a knitting graph will work on loom or square stitch for beads. Click on the images for larger versions. These are meant to be used for smaller washcloths. (but would also look awesome at the bottom of a scarf!) 40 stitches across and 57 rows tall.

Cross stitch is done a straight squared graph, which makes it the easiest. Pixel art works well for cross stitch and that's probably how these were designed. Click on the images for larger versions. 60x60 (roughly, since apparently I didn't square off this graph properly)

I have no idea if that's helpful to anyone, but it was fun finding them! There are tons of different kinds of graph paper available for free on my old classic webpage here.
Oh, this is the purse that got me searching. As soon as I find the graphs, I'll post them!

Snailiad Love Cross Stitch

Snailiad  is a Metroid-like game designed by a friend of mine. It's all very retro, Auriplane likes pixel graphics and 8 bit music. With her kind permission, I snagged some of the graphics from the game to turn into a cross stitch pattern. I adapted her original game graphics into this little piece of pixel art.

Sized at 70 pixels wide by 49 pixels high, it will stitch up to 5 inches wide and 3.5 inches high on 14 count fabric. Click on the image below to print the chart.

I used the RGB DMC chart available here to work out the colors.

Snailiad is free to play, and has gotten good reviews from various game sites. Auriplane is currently working on the sequel. She made the game using all free utilities to prove that a game could be created without buying expensive programs. Her art is used with permission. 

Currently working on...

An e-book of cross stitch patterns and a crocheted wrap bracelet. The bracelet pattern will be posted tomorrow.

Hopefully you are all planning a wonderful weekend!
Here's a sneak peek at the Kindle book I'm working on. It will be a collection of cross stitch patterns for words I really like with definitions. The charts will be 49x70 stitches, or just the right size to fit in a 3.5x5 inch card opening or frame. They are formatted for K2 screens and e-ink. Click on the image for the larger chart.

Tattarrattat is also both a palindrome and onomatopoeia which means that it's spelled the same backward and forward, and the word sounds like what it is.  

Book Quote Cross Stitch Pattern

"There is no such thing as too many books. However, there is such a thing as not enough room"

William said that one day when I was talking about going out book shopping. My husband said "Don't you have them all?" And I said "NO! and there is no such thing as too many books!"
I told my son it should be a cross stitch pattern. So it is! I based it off an old pixel bookshelf that I made years ago. Click on the image for a larger version. Print to fit page. It's 140x140- so 10x10 inches in 14 count.

Snowflake Cross Stitch Pattern

Mrs. P, of Sew Phat said that she would add quarter stitches for the more detailed lines anyway to a basic cross stitch pattern and that I should probably use whole stitches. I'm not giving color suggestions for this pattern because it's only 4 colors and a geometric design. I do think that it would look lovely in DMC Light Effects Pearlescent colors.
On 14 count, this design works up to 10x10 inches
11 count just shy of 13x13 inches
18 count just shy of 8x8 inches
Print at fit to page settings. Click on the image for the larger version.

In other news, I'm out of ink! Rather than buying ink this week, I'm going to be switching out printers.

I have almost all my holiday stuff done, except the hat I'm making for my husband (which hasn't even been started yet! eeek!) I'm going to try cables on it and have never knitted cables before. So he might get it for Valentine's Day instead.

Mandala design to color 12-04-11

Another mandala that's made from a pattern with both the pattern and mandala to color. I hope you enjoy it. Click on the images for the larger versions. The color pattern below is 8x10 to use as paper if you'd like for a project.

I've been experimenting with some cross stitch designs. I graphed this one recently, but it has a lot of quarter stitches in it. If you xstitch, do you prefer designs with the quarter stitch details or full cross stitches and outline stitches only?

Flying Panda Cross Stitch Patterns

After posting the flying panda story, someone said they liked the pattern but they didn't do brick stitch. She does however do bead point. So with that in mind, I graphed a flying panda for bead point.

 

I think it's very cute. I also decided cross stitchers needed flying panda love.

  

I also did it with the squares completely filled in, just lighter for the cross stitches then for the back stitch.

  

Flying pandas make me very happy. 

Click on the images for the full sized versions.