Kornelis

After I had stitched up Nemo and Keesje, I wanted to stitch Kornelis. Kornelis is the Siamese cat of my friends N. and M, and since they both celebrated their birthdays recently, I wanted to give them their cat in cross stiches. Luckily, my 35 cats pattern also had some Siamese cats to choose from, and there was one that really looked like him.

They really loved the little gift, but I forgot to take pictures after I had finished, so I asked N, who is great at photographing to take some pictures of my finished product so I could make a blogpost about it. He did, and I love the endresult. Maybe he will be the main photographer for my blog from now on, if I can lure him into that job ;). 

As you can see, the design really does look like him, and the blue of the fabric matches the blue of his eyes quite nicely (which was a total accident, because I stitch most of my designs on the same blue fabric). I am very pleased with the end result. If you look closely at the detailed picture of the design, you can see that my x's don't face the same way. This is something I have trouble with, I had been stitching for about 4 years until someone told me you were supposed to do that. I had never thought about it. And old habits die hard. On my Cat in Window project, I am trying to have them all face the same way, and succeeding so far, but on little projects like this, I just keep turning the fabric and forgetting about my resolutions to do so.

Stitchy questionnaire

1. When and why did you start stitching?
I don't remember exactly, but I believe it was when I was ill and bored one day, and asked my mom to bring home a cross stitch kit. It was around the time I was 15. It was out of boredom. When I was really young, I did some stamped cross-stitching with wool, just a children's craft.

2. Who taught you to stitch?
I guess my mother did, but she doesn't really do it herself. I am not a very neat stitcher, which stems from being mostly self taught. Both my grandmothers were really avid cross stitchers, but they both died before I got a passion for it, so I never really shared it with them.

3. What was your first finish?
I am not really sure, but it was a small Winnie the Pooh kit with Piglet next to a letter.

I think it looked a bit like this, but it was just something quick my mom picked up for me, and I 

wasn't really impressed by the end result so it got lost, I don´t have it anymore.

4. Which type, colour, etc, of fabric do you prefer?

As I am a self-taught stitcher, I do not have any idea of what fabrics are good. So far, I have only stitched small things from patterns without kits, so I have bought fabric only twice. And I just asked the shoplady, and she gave me advice. I bought blue fabric a few years ago, and I still really like how cross stitched items look on that, I think I have enough blue fabric left to do at least 3 more small projects on.

5. Do you prefer large or small designs?

Large, but I am getting more into small things because I love gifting something homemade, but it is pretty hard to gift a project that took you several years.

6. Do you like designs with lots of colours, or a small selection of colours?

Lots of colours, because I like everything colourful. My wardrobe, my food, my home decor. 

7. What is your favourite/least favourite specialty stitch?

I do not have that much experience with specialty stitching, but doing two half stitches of different color with backstitching over it can be a real pain.

8. Are there any particular techniques you use when stitching, or do you have any handy tips?

I always mark my larger patterns with a neon marker, to keep track of what was stitched. I usually put that marker between my boobs when stitching, to make sure it doesn't roll away. Haha.

9. What size and type of needle do you use?

I don't really care, I usually use the first one I find, and very often it is not a needle for stitching but a regular sewing needle.

10. What type of hoop(s) and/or frame(s) do you use?

I only use wooden hoops for now. It suits me just fine.

11. How do you store your stitching and accessories?

For my current project, I use a tote my mom made for me. My floss and all other stuff is crammed into a box, my collection is small enough to fit into one box.

12. Do you like stitching particular objects, such as bookmarks, cards, tablecloths, pictures for tuck cushions - or do you prefer to frame your pieces?

I have never made anything that wasn't meant to be hung in the wall. I don't own a sewing machine, so it is hard to make different objects.

13. Who is your favourite/least favourite designer and why?

I bought a pattern from Stitchrovia on Etsy, and it was very nice. Most cross stitching doesn't really fit my taste, because I find it a bit old fashioned. I don't think I will ever stitch a fairy or a dragon. I see things by Lizzy Kate on other stitching blogs that are definately not for me. Also HAED designs has nice things, but I do not really love the end results, I miss the backstitching. 

14. What is your favourite/least favourite theme?

I am not religious, so I do not like religious pieces. I do not like Halloween pieces that much either, as Halloween is not celebrated in Holland, and I would never stitch as much christmas stuff as some people do. It takes me too long to stitch to dedicate all that work to something so seasonal.

I do really love stitching cats <3.

15. What have you completed most recently?

An electric guitar. I made it for a friend and will show it very soon.

16. How many pieces have you completed?

I would say, around 10-15.

17. What are you currently working on?

Cat in the window by dimensions, that I showed in my last blogpost.

18. What will you be working on next?

I have some small things in mind I want to stitch, a half finished present for a friend, and a card to celebrate a birth.

19. How many UFO's do you have?

2 or 3, because I am not sure if I still have one I started a long time ago. I might have tossed it, with only around 50 stitches left to go :(.

20. How many kits and charts do you have waiting to be done?

Kits, none. Charts, a few, and many freebies I've downloaded.

21. What kit or chart are you planning on buying next?

I might want to buy another chart from Stitchrovia on Etsy, because I love her designs. Other than that, I do not have an idea now. 

22. What is your favourite part of stitching a design? (E.g. Starting, watching the picture building up, finishing, getting it framed?)

I truely love all aspects, but finishing a certain part of a design always feels nice. Or reaching the outer edges of a design after starting in the center. Those little achievements in between.

My current BAP

I can't seem to find this kit for sale online anymore, but 3 years ago I started on my current BAP. It is by Dimensions, and is a full kit. I was looking online for a nice kit, that was both nice to stitch, and pretty enough to hang on my walls, because for my previous BAP (which will be shown soon), I loved the colors and stitching it, but didn't love the end result too much, It just didn't go with my decor.

After careful searching, I found this kit. It is called "Cat in Window", by Dimensions.

This picture doesn't really do it justice, since it has a more subtle color-scheme, and I thought it would fit my Alphonse Mucha piece shown in my last blogpost very nicely. 

I think I started stitching it in the summer of 2012, or the summer of 2011, but I am not quite sure :D. I know I bought it and started stitching straight away, because I loved it that much. I watched all episodes of my favorite TV-show QI while stitching, and got pretty far straight away. I started in the center, as is recommended for big pieces, which means I started with the background behind the cat. That consists of all half-stitches, which makes it a pretty quick job. Here is a picture of the beginning.

This is a picture of how it looked at the end of that summer. 

I lost my interest in stitching pretty soon after, went into crocheting, and stopped doing crafts all together. But throughout the years I stitched some here and there, until I finished the entire background yesterday (there was about four hours of stitching left on that when I picked it back up last week). 

Now I have to figure out what to do next. I think it would be wise to start on backstitching this background, because there is a lot of backstitching to do still, and I would be very annoyed to do this all in the end. But backstitching is a bit boring, and I really want to start working with some different colors than all these pastels. So I am still debating, maybe do an hour of backstitch, and then an hour of stitching the cat. I still really love this piece and I think it would be very beautiful in the end.

My cats

I am the proud owner of two cats. Well, that is not actually true, since one cat is officially my flatmate's, but she still feels like she is mine. My cat is a 6-year old black tuxedo cat named Nemo, hers is a tortoise print cat named Keesje. Keesje is about 1,5 years old.

This is them, the front one is Keesje, the back one is Nemo.

A few years ago, I bought a pattern with several cat patterns and all the DMC colors for it at a Dutch creative fair called 'de Kreadoe'. I wanted to stitch these patterns for a long time, but I never really found a good method to stitch without it being a kit, it just was a hassle. I've figured out how to do that since, and thought it was time to stitch my babies. 

The pattern I used to stitch my cats.

I started by stitching Keesje because for the life of me, I couldn't find my black DMC 310 floss, and I started on a saturday evening so there was no way to get it somewhere. I figured Keesje could be stitched by substituting black for very dark brown, but Nemo really had to be black.

This is how Keesje looks all by herself.

I bought black floss the first moment I could. There was a perfect Nemo-like tuxedo cat on the pattern, but he was facing the same way as Keesje, and I wanted them to face each other, so I stitched the pattern the other way. This was doable, since it was so small, but for a bigger pattern, I would 

copy and mirror the pattern, because sometimes I really had to count out several times to see if I was doing it right. 

The end result

I am very happy with the end result. As you can see, I am a very careless stitcher and leave my needles in my work after I am done with it. I will make a blogpost about my stitching methods soon, I guess. I hope to find a small frame for this pattern soon, so I can hang it in our shared hallway. And I plan to stitch Nemo again for my parents, because they would like this on their wall as well. Or a different tuxedo cat pattern.

First big finish

When I was younger, I did some small projects. I remember I once made a mouse-pattern, and a Winnie the Pooh piece. But I didn't like those patterns, but didn't know where to get nicer ones. Then I moved out when I was 18, to a place without internet. Suddenly I had all this time on my hands, and I found a great kit that I made in the two years that I lived there.

My parents had it framed for me and it still hangs proudly in my room to this day. The kit is made by Lanarte, and it is an adaptation of a painting by Alphonse Mucha. There is a second pattern to accompany it, but I dresd making that one, because it is so similar. Maybe I will some day, because a long time has passed since stitching this one. It is my favorite thing that I have stitched so far, both in stitching it, and the end-result.

Welcome

Welcome to my Cross Stitch blog. I am a 20-something stitcher from the Netherlands. I have been stitching since I've been about 15, and have had the bug on and off again ever since.

I have caught the cross stitch vibe again recentst, and found out there is a lovely community of cross stitchers that blog all around, so I decided to open up a cross stitching blog of my own. I will soon show my old finishes, my recent finishes and my WIPs here, and maybe tell a little bit more about myself.