Cross Stitiching
Jennifer Cabrera
Why This?
My friend's grandmother cross-stitched a lot in her free time and would hang up her artworks around the house. From far away, they looked like they were actual paintings, but up close they were even more amazing. It was like looking at a pixelized photo or painting, but with little x's instead of pixels. Before then, I was already fascinated with pixel art, so the thought of a tangible pixel artwork was too much to ignore. Until this project, I didn't really have an excuse to try and learn how. Unfortunately, her grandma moved away a little after I started to learn, so most of what I did stitch was self-taught. It was still fun, though a little more tedious.
I'd definitely recommend learning how to those that are artistically inclined, but know that it requires a lot of patience. Results don't really show up until 30 minutes into the work, depending on the complexity of the project. It's very much worth the work.
First Stitch
When I first started learning this, I came up with my own design. Something simple to try and get the hang of it. I can tell you now, it took much less time that I thought it would
More Stitches
But once I tried something that I thought was only a little more complex, It took me between two and three weeks to finish. But the final product looks very good, in my opinion.
I got a book called Cross-Stitch from a Country Garden, which was filled with small tips and very large projects. They call for specific colored thread, though, so I couldn't try my hand at them.
Cross Stitching
This amazing cross stitch project is the ultimate goal, at least in my opinion. If I were to ever seriously peruse cross-stitching (not that I won't continue to cross-stitch in my free time), I'd hope that I'd be able to reach this level of skill.