Tag: satsuma street

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

On the second day of Craftmas…

wittychild

…my true love gave to me: two doves of indeterminate species.

If swapping (see my previous post) lets me make things I would never normally make and didn’t even know I wanted to make, then this is pretty much the polar opposite. As soon as I saw Satsuma Street’s “Holiday Glow” design on their social media, I knew I had to stitch it. At the time, it was an exclusive to the Jingle Ball, which meant I was out of luck. But patience is a virtue, and about a year later it appeared on their website, and with a discount code to boot.

There are a few things that stitchers love to complain about. Backstitch and French knots come to mind (the tedium!…although secretly, I kind of like French knots, and there’s no denying the definition provided by backstitch), but black or navy Aida cloth is a strong contender. No problem, I thought, this uses red Aida.

It turns out that even a relatively bright red Aida cloth can be a bit of a nightmare to stitch on and see the holes properly. Once I had a few stitches in place it was a little bit easier, but there was a lot of stitching by feel involved. And the metallics! I originally started out using DMC diamant for the gold and silver but switched to Petite Treasure Braid by Rainbow Gallery, and this may have been the single best decision I made all year.

(Note: I’m not sponsored by Rainbow Gallery; I just really, really love their Petite Treasure Braid. They’ll completely change your view of metallic threads.)

For all my moaning and apparent sudden-onset red blindness, the finished product was 100% worth it.

I found a 9″ x 7″ flexible hoop in a pale red at my local needlework shop and bought it on a whim. It’s not a perfect match to the fabric, but the colour works well with the thread shades and it doesn’t overwhelm the design.

My favourite part to stitch was the rays around the candle flames. Who knew a few straight stitches in gold and silver would add the perfect finishing touch?

Thanks for looking! 🙂

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

So mush fun!

wittychild

When I was gifted a set of four Satsuma Street Halloween ornament kits a few years back, I jumped (ha!) on Hoppy Halloween, and followed it up with Eye Scream and Haunted Hearse. (The latter’s wordplay messes with my brain, and I can’t hear it without thinking, “Ermagerd, hernted [haunted] hearse!”) That left Fun Guy, whose only crime was being a skull. I like my Halloween cutesy, and anything that reminds me of dead bodies – blood and gore, skeletons, zombies – doesn’t do it for me. That old Disney cartoon with the skeletons scared the bejesus out of me as a kid.

And then, out of nowhere*, a Halloween tree appeared in the front room. A Halloween miracle! This was on par with the Great Pumpkin showing up, and I decided that Fun Guy should join his friends on it.

Despite my usual mumblings and grousings about working on black perforated paper, he came along nicely and before long was identifiable as a skull. Then, the mushrooms started filling in, and suddenly he was alive with colour.

If he looked fun (of course) once the stitching was done, the beads and sequins took him right over the edge.

I trimmed him to size, backed him with some black glittery felt, and added a shiny hanging loop.

Isn’t he a great addition?

This is not the first of these ornament kits where I’ve run out of a given colour of floss (white, in this case) and had to raid my stash to finish off the design, but since this was the last of the kits I currently had, I’m not going to get upset about it.

Thanks for looking! 🙂

*She bought it at Michaels. – Ed.

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

On the first day of craftmas…

wittychild

…my true love gave to me: a flock of birds to hang on the tree!

Every year, Satsuma Street releases a new entry in the “12 Days of Christmas” ornament series, and every year I buy the pattern but don’t get around to stitching it until the following year. I’ve got enough stuff going on by the time the holiday season rolls around without trying to race through another project. All this to say: while this pattern was released last year, it’s new-to-me for this year.

Calling birds…get it? I love a good pun.

I think my favourite detail on the ornament is the rotary dial on the phone:

…although I wonder how that works with only eight buttons (finger holes?).

Along with the previous three ornaments:

Gosh darn, there are a lot of birds in that song. Didn’t Alfred Hitchcock make a movie about dense ornithological populations? At least they’re cheery-looking.

Thanks for looking! 🙂

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

We all scream for…

wittychild

…Halloween, of course! I’ve been having fun getting my annual fix of Bobby “Boris” Pickett, sending Halloween-themed happy mail, and fitting in a bit of spooky stitching!

First up, “Eye Scream” (get it? Get it?):

That poor pumpkin looks so upset…but then, I think I’d be, too.

Ermahgerd! It’s a haunted hearse!

Both ornaments are from Satsuma Street kits I got as a gift. I didn’t think to take pictures of the backs, but I used black glitter felt to finish them off so they’ll sparkle from either side as they hang from my (strictly hypothetical) Halloween tree. The hanging loops are glow-in-the-dark Kreinik fine braid, because I love me some glow-in-the-dark.

Happy Halloween, everyone – stay safe! 🙂

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

On the third day of Craftmas…

wittychild

…my true love gave to me: a French hen to go with my two turtle doves and partridge in a pear tree!

By the time Satsuma Street released their holiday designs last year, I was done with taking on last-minute crafting projects. (Excuse me while I snicker behind my hand.) That didn’t stop me from buying the charts, though: one of them was the third installment in the 12 Days of Christmas series, and since I had stitched the first two last year it was a given I had to do this one as well.

Mon dieu! A French hen!

I didn’t think to take a picture of the back, but once I was finished stitching and attaching the beads and sequins, I glued it to glittery white felt so it will shimmer no matter how the lights catch it.

The four calling birds have been released, so I’ve got at least one project for next year lined up already.

Thanks for looking! 🙂

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

On the second day of Craftmas…

wittychild

…my true love gave to me: two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree!

“Wait, wait, that’s not how this works! You’re just supposed to use the format of the song to talk about what you’ve made, not rip it off word-for-word. You know better than that! Now, what did you actually make? OK…two…turtledoves and…a partridge in a pear tree? Really? Uh, carry on, then, I guess.”

I don’t collect much anymore. Sure, my tsundoku spiralled out of control during the pandemic, but books don’t count, right? One soft spot I have, though, is cross-stitched interpretations of “The 12 Days of Christmas”. I’ve probably got no fewer than six or eight different patterns, not to be stitched (yet!), but to be admired and the possibilities dreamt of.

Late last year, I was delighted to see that Satsuma Street had been offering, for the last two years, an ornament pattern for the first two days. Not only do I *heart* Satsuma Street, but stitching a single 3″x4″-ish ornament felt much more achievable than the entire 12 days at once – although I also own that pattern of theirs.

Anything that starts with colours like this has to be good right?

I worked on these at a nice, leisurely pace, occasionally setting them aside if something more pressing came along, but got the beads and sequins added in time for them to go on the tree this year.

I backed them with white felt for a little extra stability, and used an iridescent white metallic thread for the hanging loops.

She already has a French hen in this year’s ornament collection, so I’m sure you can guess what’s going in my virtual cart. I’m hoping she continues with this series, because I’d love to be able to display all twelve days, eventually…just nine more years to go, at the current rate!

Thanks for looking! 🙂

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Yo ho ho and a bottle of…milk

wittychild

Just a short blast for today, because there’s haunting to do…

I love Halloween. I love cats. So cats dressed up for Halloween feels like a no-brainer, especially if I can work a Satsuma Street design into the mix.

One-Eyed Jack is one of their new Halloween ornament designs for 2021. I was too impatient to order and wait for the kit, so I purchased the PDF pattern from her Etsy shop and printed it out at home so I could start stitching right away.

And you know what they say, kids…if life gives you white perforated paper in your stash when a pattern calls for black, grab a Sharpie and make it so (or “sew”). 😉

I altered the pattern slightly to make his markings look a bit more like my parents’ cat, and I left the plumage off his hat, but definitely added all the sparkly beads and sequins as prescribed.

Because I apparently have too much time on my hands, I created (another!) stop-motion video of the process:

He was a big hit, and is currently affixed to my parents’ refrigerator door via the magic of magnets, keeping watch over any tasty treasures that might get put in there.

Thanks for looking – Happy Halloween! 🙂

Cross-stitch and Embroidery

Creepy? Nah. Kooky? Sure!

wittychild

It’s no secret that I love Satsuma Street design, like this one and this one. This year, I bought Mister Cat after ogling it for what feels like ages. On Etsy, you can buy either the PDF pattern or the kit; I bought the kit from 123Stitch since I already had an order going.

What I liked:

  • it’s a Halloween cat, duh
  • her designs are always so colourful and fun
  • the kit came with black perforated paper, so I didn’t have to buy a whole package of it

What I didn’t like:

  • the black perforated paper was a bit of a pain to see (like black aida cloth, so no surprise there)
  • I ran short of three – count ’em, three – colours of the threads included. I am not a novice stitcher who has no idea how to get the most out of her materials, and I didn’t have to unpick and waste any thread, so WTH, people? One, I might understand, but three?

And because I’m a masochistic weirdo, I documented my progress in a series of photographs and turned them into a stop-motion video:

I’m pretty happy with how he came out, despite my issues with the kit. I might have to leave him out year-round just to enjoy him.

Thanks for looking – Happy Halloween! 🙂

craftmas, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

On the fourth day of Craftmas…

wittychild

…my true love gave to me: a whirlwind tour of Germany! (Cheaper than a plane ticket, and more fun than lost luggage and boorish seatmates.)

Yes, it’s January, but as far as I’m concerned it’s still the holiday season – so here’s the final installment of Craftmas 2018! Superstition says that whatever you’re doing as the clock strikes midnight on January 1 is a harbinger of what you’ll be doing that year. I was asleep at the time, but this is still pretty darned close…my way of starting off 2019 with a bang.

One of my nearest and dearest is of German descent, and when I saw “Pretty Little Berlin” by Satsuma Street, I knew I had to stitch it for him. He’s actually been there, albeit when there was still a wall down the centre, and this seemed like a fun way to document his travels.

This was such a fun stitch! The pattern didn’t include the city name – I charted that myself and added it in – but it did include a handy guide to the spots included in the piece, and I can now pick out, say, the Brandenburg Gate or the Television Tower (which I had previously thought of as only das große, spitze Gebäude) from a photograph. It’s always a good day if I can say I’ve learned something!

I framed it in a 9″ square shadowbox. I had originally contemplated painting the frame yellow to match the train and the Beetle, but I think the white offers a contemporary sleekness.

Because I’m kind of weird, I took pictures of my progress and turned them into a stop-motion video:

(Make sure your sound is on!)

The lucky recipient was really pleased with the finished product – and as for me, I’m just glad to be finished stitching it.

As always, thank you for looking, and for hanging out with me all year. Cheers to a great 2019! 🙂