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

Life Is Getting Busier :)

Hi everyone, I thought to stop by this morning to say 'Hi' to all of you out there because I was away for too long.  Lately I have slacked on posting reviews and manicures so I thought of telling you why!  I have started stitching my wedding favors and they sure take a lot of time. Here is what I finished so far:

I prepared a length of fabric with 14 key chains and started working on all 14 of them one section at a time, until the sections needed so much colours that the thread wouldn't last me to finish 2 pieces.  You can see that all of them vary in progress. I find this a good system for mass production :)

Here is a close up of a finished piece :) Doesn't she look cute?  Thinking that I have to stitch over a hundred of these makes my head go dizzy!

 

 Here is a better look on how the progress varies from one to the other :)

These cuties here are the main reason I am not blogging so much and they even took me away from Project Taemin.  I have a number of other appointments related to the wedding that are keeping me away from everything as well.... it is soooo busy lately! Right now I am making the most of some free time before I go get ready to give a presentation to one of the Local Councils.. I had it written out yesterday and I haven't practiced the speech yet :( After that it's off to the hair dresser to get myself perked up for my pre-wedding photoshoot that is supposed to take place tomorrow afternoon, but the weather isn't promising much!

Well time is running out and I have to rush!   Oh and for those who haven't started following Empress Ki... go ahead and indulge, it's a wonderful drama! I am watching it bit by bit, sometimes I only watch 15 minutes of the episode inbetween stitching, but it's worth it!

Till next post,
Saranghae,
Pauline

Stitch in Time Cross Stitch Exhibition 2013

Dear All, here is the information regarding the Cross Stitch Exhibition which is going to be held in the first weekend of December and will showcase the work done by all the Stitch in Time Club Members. There is also going to be a raffle with all the prizes being hand crafted by us members.  If you are Maltese don't miss this event and if you are not Maltese but happen to be in Malta in the dates below, come check out the show, we will be more than happy to show you around. I am going to be there every day of the event as well :) 

I hope to see a lot of you at the exhibition :)

Thanks for your support :)
Saranghae
Pauline

SHINee Cross Stitch Project Taemin - Week 2

안녕하세요! Here is this week's update on Taemin :)  It is doesn't look like a lot of progress and the picture is still not recognisable, but I did manage to reach the target that I set myself last week, that of finishing 30 consecutive stitches on Row 1 :)

This week's stitches are marked in GREEN :)

Here are the shots:

  

There is more green than orange, which is good :)  Next week I wish to finish off at least all of Row 1 of Page 1 and maybe start to finish off row 2.

What do you think of my progress?

I am off to put some more love on this cutey! See you soon :)

Next Post is about health and beauty so stay tuned :)

안녕히 가세요 친고 :)

Pauline :)

(that's Bye friends in hangul)

SHINee Cross Stitch Project 1 - Week 1 Update :)

Hello Again!!!  This is going to be the first real update on my SHINee Cross Stitch Project - Taemin. I will be replacing the '1' with 'Taemin' as it is more appropriate :)

I have to admit that I did not put a lot of time into it during the past week but I am hoping that with the arrival of the half days I will be able to get more time to stitch :)

 

Progress so far :)

I am working on Page 1 of a 30-page-pattern, and this has taken me to the bottom left corner.  I decided to start picking colours from Row 1 and move across 6 pages that contain the entire row and see where that takes me. Right now I have 20 consecutive stitches ready on row 1.  The area I am working on has a lot of different colours so it is hard to make significant progress. Working without a needle organiser surely doesn't help as that means I have to thread in a different colour all the time.  I am only using 3 needles and I am trying my best to locate a lot of stitches using the colour on the needle so as to finish the lenght up.  it will get better when I finish off Row 1 as that will create a base to build up on and colours will be more block like as opposed to single stitches here and there.

 This week's worked stitchers are marked in orange and you can see the progress in the photo above. The finished stitches can be counted easy so for those who like to play with numbers here is some technical information, maybe someone will analyse them in some way and come up with some theory ;)

Total pattern is 180200 stitches - 425 stitches high and 424 stitches wide.  In 1 week I stitches a total of 448 which is negligible to say the least. If any mathematician out there works some magic with these numbers, I would be interested in your theories so make sure to post them below !

This coming week I shall be marking the stitches using a different colour so that it will be easier to distinguish between one week and the other's progress, but I won't be counting them again :P  I am thinking that as I move towards the center of Row 1 progress will be a little faster as there are more same coloured blocks and less individual stitches.  I myself am counting my progress by keeping track of how many consecutive stitches I finish from the first row. This week it is 20, hopefully in the coming week I will clear out at least another 30 stitches.

Anyways, I guess I took enough of your time for today so I am off and leaving you with SHINee's - Forever or Never :)

Oh I just discovered that the Music Video for Breaking News has been removed from youtube so the link in my previous post will lead you nowhere  :( sooo sorry :(

Don't forget to follow my blog using Bloglovin', GFC will soon be out for good!

Annyeonghigyeseyo!

Pauline

PS I chose a video with lyrics in english so all you guys out there can compare them with the lyrics of Cinema Bizarre who had the original of this song just months before SHINee.  Lyrics are completely different :)

SHINee Cross stitch Project 1

Hello Chingu :) I am just writing a mini post to share my new adventure in cross stitch :) I stopped stitching for a while after I finished the oriental flowers that I featured in my previous post and couldn't get myself to stitching anything.  I received a pattern of a gorgeous dragon but I don't have the materials to start it and I don't feel like buying them. BUT Today I came across a beautiful photo of my Sun and Stars - Taemin and I couldn't help but download it everywhere, pc, mobile, work desktop... and then it crossed my mind... why not stitching him?  I was looking for a real good photo of him to stitch for an awefully long time and I almost settled on one of his latest Me2Day updates but he is always changing hairstyle and getting cuter so I couldn't decide.  This photo is just perfect :) Here is a mini sneak peak of what it should look like :)

 

Isn't he just gorgeous :)

I was a bit worried about converting this to cross stitch as my old program is long past its working life and I couldn't find anything online but just a few minutes ago I stumbled on www.pic2pat.com and gave it a try. The result is awesome, a good sized pattern with only 75 different colours and exceptional detail. I downloaded it right away :)

Tomorrow I shall be going on a shopping spree to buy the materials needed as I can't wait to start it off :) 

I will keep you updated with the progress but it will be a slow one as I am over busy and I haven't determined the size of the finished embroidery yet. It should be over 20 inches wide on 18count aida because it is 425 stitches wide and 425 stitches high so it will take quite some time to finish off. 

See you soon Chingu :)

 Pauline