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unconventionalfanworkexA gift for silveredeye
Design Size: 70 x 60 stitches (Final result measures 10.5 cm x 10 cm)
Materials:
- 8 x 8 inch white 14-count Aida cloth
- 6 inch embroidery hoop (optional)
- DMC Stranded Cotton according to the color chart
Directions:
Find the center of the fabric, then work according to the pattern using two strands of cotton floss. This pattern is done entirely in crosses and half stitches; there are no backstitches.
Download the pattern and color chart as a pdf here.
Feel free to make any changes according to your own preferences, and if you stitch this pattern, I'd love to see it! I am marquisguyun most places except Discord.
I chose the character 陪, meaning 'to accompany,' from the quote 我答应过你要陪你走到最后一日 (I promised you that I would accompany you to the very end) from Episode 54 of Nirvana in Fire. The quote is from the scene where Lin Chen gives Mei Changsu the Bingxu pill, so it matches the elements in my design, but it is also a great summary of their relationship in general! It's not solely about the inevitable end, but the support and friendship along the journey.
My pattern was inspired by a couple of designs from A Cross Stitcher's Oriental Odyssey by Joan Elliot, which I was able to check out from my local library. The "Little Treasures" designs on pages 42-45 all featured a single character, nature elements of some kind, and a circular design, which I liked. The scale of the project was more or less determined by the minimum size I wanted 陪 to be in order to make the character look nice.
I've done some hand sewing and embroidery in the past, but this was my first real attempt at cross stitch. And of course I decided to jump right in by attempting something that is not an entry level project! I ended up reading about cross stitch and designing my pattern before ever trying the actual cross stitch part. Figuring out the best way to design was a learning curve, but I ended up 1) sketching out my design on paper 2) using tracing paper to transfer the design onto a printed cross stitch grid 3) figuring out my first pattern by hand on the grid 4) recreating the pattern on FlossCross.com and adding color 5) refining the pattern 6) stitching a test version 7) more refining.
I knew I might have to make some changes to my pattern after testing it out, but I made more changes than I expected to, in the end. Some I made as I went along, so they are already changed in my test project. Others I noted but did not implement while stitching. The background, however, was deceptively tricky. I borrowed the repetitive pattern from Joan Elliot's design, but I wasn't happy with the way the spacing was interacting with the rest of my design! Some areas looked too crowded while others looked too empty. I started the background over multiple times before I went back to my digital pattern and tried it again from the beginning more than once. I ended up shifting the bottle to the right to balance the design better as well as altering the stems of the Bingxu grass to work better with the background. In the end, the final background that I stitched according to the new background design (but with everything else following the previous design) actually worked pretty well with the grass and bottle, so maybe some of my fiddling wasn't super necessary. I do like the final version, though!
Here is my attempt:
I found The New Cross Stitcher's Bible: The Definitive Manual of Essential Cross Stitch and Counted Thread Techniques by Jane Greenoff to be very helpful! I was also very lucky that my mom used to do cross stitch when she was younger, so I was able to use some of her old supplies and to ask her for advice. I ended up being able to teach her something new that I learned from Jane, though! (If you use one strand folded over instead of two strands, thread your needle onto the end with two separate strands, and start from the back of the cloth, you can start your first cross, pull your thread through the loop when you return to the back of the cloth, and have your floss anchored without a knot. Just be careful not to pull the loop through on your first stitch!)
I really enjoyed the stitching as well! (Except when I had to tear stitches out, which was frustrating.) I finished everything but the background while visiting family, and it was nice to have something to do with my hands while everyone was sitting around and talking. I'd definitely like to design and stitch more patterns in the future... Maybe I can do some cross stitch on my clothes, since I found some waste canvas in my mom's stash!
silveredeyeDesign Size: 70 x 60 stitches (Final result measures 10.5 cm x 10 cm)
Materials:
- 8 x 8 inch white 14-count Aida cloth
- 6 inch embroidery hoop (optional)
- DMC Stranded Cotton according to the color chart
Directions:
Find the center of the fabric, then work according to the pattern using two strands of cotton floss. This pattern is done entirely in crosses and half stitches; there are no backstitches.
Download the pattern and color chart as a pdf here.
Feel free to make any changes according to your own preferences, and if you stitch this pattern, I'd love to see it! I am marquisguyun most places except Discord.
I chose the character 陪, meaning 'to accompany,' from the quote 我答应过你要陪你走到最后一日 (I promised you that I would accompany you to the very end) from Episode 54 of Nirvana in Fire. The quote is from the scene where Lin Chen gives Mei Changsu the Bingxu pill, so it matches the elements in my design, but it is also a great summary of their relationship in general! It's not solely about the inevitable end, but the support and friendship along the journey.
My pattern was inspired by a couple of designs from A Cross Stitcher's Oriental Odyssey by Joan Elliot, which I was able to check out from my local library. The "Little Treasures" designs on pages 42-45 all featured a single character, nature elements of some kind, and a circular design, which I liked. The scale of the project was more or less determined by the minimum size I wanted 陪 to be in order to make the character look nice.
I've done some hand sewing and embroidery in the past, but this was my first real attempt at cross stitch. And of course I decided to jump right in by attempting something that is not an entry level project! I ended up reading about cross stitch and designing my pattern before ever trying the actual cross stitch part. Figuring out the best way to design was a learning curve, but I ended up 1) sketching out my design on paper 2) using tracing paper to transfer the design onto a printed cross stitch grid 3) figuring out my first pattern by hand on the grid 4) recreating the pattern on FlossCross.com and adding color 5) refining the pattern 6) stitching a test version 7) more refining.
I knew I might have to make some changes to my pattern after testing it out, but I made more changes than I expected to, in the end. Some I made as I went along, so they are already changed in my test project. Others I noted but did not implement while stitching. The background, however, was deceptively tricky. I borrowed the repetitive pattern from Joan Elliot's design, but I wasn't happy with the way the spacing was interacting with the rest of my design! Some areas looked too crowded while others looked too empty. I started the background over multiple times before I went back to my digital pattern and tried it again from the beginning more than once. I ended up shifting the bottle to the right to balance the design better as well as altering the stems of the Bingxu grass to work better with the background. In the end, the final background that I stitched according to the new background design (but with everything else following the previous design) actually worked pretty well with the grass and bottle, so maybe some of my fiddling wasn't super necessary. I do like the final version, though!
Here is my attempt:
I found The New Cross Stitcher's Bible: The Definitive Manual of Essential Cross Stitch and Counted Thread Techniques by Jane Greenoff to be very helpful! I was also very lucky that my mom used to do cross stitch when she was younger, so I was able to use some of her old supplies and to ask her for advice. I ended up being able to teach her something new that I learned from Jane, though! (If you use one strand folded over instead of two strands, thread your needle onto the end with two separate strands, and start from the back of the cloth, you can start your first cross, pull your thread through the loop when you return to the back of the cloth, and have your floss anchored without a knot. Just be careful not to pull the loop through on your first stitch!)
I really enjoyed the stitching as well! (Except when I had to tear stitches out, which was frustrating.) I finished everything but the background while visiting family, and it was nice to have something to do with my hands while everyone was sitting around and talking. I'd definitely like to design and stitch more patterns in the future... Maybe I can do some cross stitch on my clothes, since I found some waste canvas in my mom's stash!
