Starting out at Cross Stitch

Hi Everyone! As promised I have changed the name of the blog to Minerva's Treasures to better reflect the nature of this blog :)

I hope you all had a good day and you are ready to start setting up your crafting room with me :) I am going to have to go through all of this soon enough since I am changing houses and so far I have only decided that I want to have all the walls in my craft room painted white :)  In today's post we are not going to discuss the physical set up of the room, that will follow when I actually get my hands on it later on this year. Today I want to concentrate of the beginner cross stitcher and what is required to start off.

The first Step!

Firstly you have to decided that you want to try your hand at cross stitching and be resolute about it. It is not a difficult technique but in order to make beautiful pictures you need to go to the more detailed stuff and those take a good deal of time.

Secondly;

After deciding whether this is for you or not, you need to choose a pattern that is suitable for a newbie, which consists of just whole cross stitches and a little back stitch. I have designed my own pattern and made it available in my Etsy shop here.

Three - Supplies

With the pattern in hand you need to shop for your supplies which consist of the colours of thread that the pattern specifies, a tapestry needle, a pair of small sharp scissors, a hoop or frame, and the Aida fabric. If you want to do Patches, you will need 14 count Aida fabric in Baby Blue or in any colour you prefer. I went for Blue because the pattern was designed with my son in mind and I also wanted the white part to show up.

Four - Test stitches

Next you need to practice your stitches before starting off working on your pattern. Take a piece of scrap fabric and follow the instructions as explained in this video below:

This is a very clear video with very simple and good explanations of how to do the basic cross stitch. I haven't filmed my tutorial yet so instead of sending you blindly looking up a video that is good enough, I did the research myself. And for the back stitch which is a little easier you can follow the video below:

This video will explain a little bit more the basics of cross stitch to make things simpler.

So after stocking up on your requirements and purchasing the kitty cat, you are ready to start! My finished piece is featured further up in the post. I would love to see your pictures of Patches!

Don't get frustrated, always remember that practice makes perfect!

I hope you enjoyed today's post and will see you later with another crafty post :) Happy Stitchy Weekend Everyone!!!! 

Pauline

MinervasTreasures

Hello everyone! It has been a really long while since I posted here. Time was not wasted though and I finally reached two milestones in life :)  

Firstly I have finalised all I needed so that I can move from the penthouse to a Maisonette with my own private door... no more common parts and having to climb or take a lift to the 4th floor! And I finally have a front porch, even though it consists of a flight of stairs to my front door, I can still have some potted plants on the boundary walls :)  This change means that I shall be over busy packing up everything in time for the eventual Big Move which is due this July in less than 18 weeks! My creative spirit is going to be slowed down quite a bit. In fact I already packed up most of my stitching and crafting resources and left only the cross stitch library available.

Secondly, I managed to finally finish stitching Patches the Cat which is a self-designed cross stitch pattern which I created for my little baby boy. I fine tuned it as I went along and now there is the pattern available for sale in my New Etsy Shop called MinervasTreasures :) I am linking the pattern down below. I really hope that it will be appreciated! You can click on the picture to shop the pattern :)

I have this idea, now that I have produced a very simple cross stitch pattern of a cute Kitty Cat, I was thinking on going around the stitching room and creating stuff that is useful and cute, keeping in mind a newbie who has just decided they wanted to start cross stitching.  With this in mind, here is the first pattern to use and learn how to cross stitch and it is cute enough, not just simple coloured boxes!

So I thought of changing the blog's name to Minervas Treasures to match up with my store and I will be posting blogs on how to set things up in your crafty room :) Stay tuned for the first post later on today :)

Pauline

Festive Monday Blues

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a nice weekend and you are all up for another week, slowly getting closer to Christmas :)  It was a nice weekend here, all sunny and productive, I am working on another blanket present which I must finish in time and this one is a little big because it has to cater for a single bed :) I did run out of one of the colours and had to stop, but I made considerable progress.

On to what I wanted to talk about today. I was running around the streets window shopping and came across a lot of Blue, so I went to my favorite online store to check out some blue picks to fit in with the season's trends and decided to let you in on my finds. I saved this post for a Monday to also add it up to the Monday Blues theme :)

Starting off with a little classy casual top, here is a blue with black and white polka dots pattern. Perfect for the office :)

Then there was this cute lace embellished and slightly retro style top which I think is fun for the office as well. Black are just amazing together.

Below is another lacy top in a slighter brighter blue is more suitable for a classy casual look, but maybe not for an office.

Below is a more casual sweater in a mix of colours featuring blue as the main protagonist.

And the final blue top here is more suitable for a little romatic evening :)

Well I guess that is all for Monday Blues... I think I will go through some cool blue dresses for this season later on this week, and please look forward to a post filled with lots of glitz and glam to adorn these amazing tops and dresses.

Let me know what you guys think in the comments below and see you soon :)

Love

Pauline