RABBIT TREE CROSS STITCH CHART from Siegrun Boss-Kulbe

MY PHOTOS & CHART: link

MY RATING: 5 stars

MATERIALS USED: I used a piece of Charles Craft (DMC) 'natural' 14 count Aida. Finished size is exactly 6"L by almost 4"W and I used a dark brown 5"x7" frame. I used DMC floss 352 light coral and 3347 medium yellow green. I didn't measure how much floss I used but I still have what looks to be about half of each skein left.

I found this chart via Pinterest. It appears to have come out of a German book or magazine called Siegrun Boss-Kulbe or maybe that's the publisher. I found a book by them that translates to Spring and Easter so maybe it's out of that. I don't know the name of the design so I call it Rabbit Tree. I guess it's supposed to be in the shape of an egg for Easter but I made this to represent spring only. It took just two days and it couldn't be cuter.

Total cost: Around $9.

You can see my images here.

QUAKER HALLOWEEN (Quaker d'Halloween) by Jardin Privé (Private Garden)

PRICE: $6 PDF

SIZE: just under 7"

MY IMAGES: link

MY RATING: 5 stars!

MATERIALS: I used part of a big piece of 14 count 'sand' colored Aida from Charles Craft (DMC). I used DMC 310 black floss and leftover white floss from a Dimensions cross stitch kit. This took one full 8.7 yard skein of DMC black 310 floss plus all but 2 and 2/3 yards of a second one. I don't know how much white floss this took but it wasn't much. 

Online stitch calculators said the finished size of this would be 7.14" but that's wrong; it's just under 7" and fits beautifully in an 8" square frame. It will have about a 1/4" border. As you can see, mine is a little crooked but I'll fix it later. And there's a slight glare on the glass.

Total cost: $20 for frame, floss, pattern, fabric.

You can see all my images here.

VICTORIAN LADY WITH PARASOL CROSS STITCH

MY PHOTOS: link

CHART: link
MY RATING: 5 stars

This only took a couple days. I found this pattern a couple months ago on Pinterest. I think it came out of a magazine but I have no idea which one or who the artist is. The hat and parasol are Victorican but the shorter length of the dress isn't. 

MATERIALS USED: I used just under one skein of DMC 224 very light shell pink but only because I chose to make the bottom part shorter by six rows so that this would fit in a 6"x8" picture frame. Without those six rows the finished size of this is almost 6 3/4"x3 1/2". With those six rows this would be 7 1/8" long. Turns out it would have fit just fine with those six rows. If you do all the rows at the bottom you'll need a tiny amount of floss from a second skein. The online stitch calculator said this would be 7 1/2" long, with means it would have been a tight fit in this 6x8 frame as the opening is just over 7 1/2". I used plain old black 14 count Aida by Charles Craft (DMC), just a piece of a huge piece. I used a few petite black glass beads from Mill Hill, just $1.64 for a huge pack.

Total cost: $8 for floss, frame, 1/3 of a piece of fabric.

See all of my photos here.

HALLOWEEN SILHOUETTES by Shannon Christine Designs

PRICE: $12 or free from magazine

CHARTS: link

MY IMAGES: link

MY GRADE: A++

MY THOUGHTS: I absolutely love this. I got the charts for free online and they came out of a magazine. They've been renamed Halloween Silhouettes from Spooky Silhouettes. There are four different designs, each being a 3 3/4" square (55x55 stitches.) I made a quad design out of this. I left one blank row between them. I wasn't sure if two blank rows would look alright so I just left one row between them. This uses full cross stitches and the owl uses a few 3/4 stitches on his face and chest. After completing the first one, the witch, I thought it would look much better with one more row around the border to widen it, so I did that and boy does it look much better. Each square then became about 3 7/8". The finished quad is 7 7/8" square. 

Every square is very busy, as you can see, and the border on each one is different. I think the pumpkin should have been left off the witch design but I stitched it anyway for fear of later regret.

MATERIALS USED: I used 14 count "sand" colored Aida, 15"x18", by Charles Craft (DMC), from their Carolina Linen line. The color is identical to their light oatmeal from their Fiddler's Cloth line. I used a total of 24 petite glass Mill Hill black beads though the chart didn't call for any. I used all but a 16.5" long piece of DMC 310 black floss from a third skein, so you'll need three 8.7 yard skeins of whichever color you choose. 

I used a 9" black square frame with real glass and easel back. The window of the frame is just over 8.5" so that gives the framed design about a 1/4" border. I had it in a 10" frame but the border was too wide to suit me so I found the hard-to-find 9" square frame at A----n. Those aren't easy to come by so if you need one and find it, buy two or more for future use.

CHANGES I MADE: As stated above I added another row of border, making the stitch count 57x57. I left off all the single ply black French knots. In place of where some should be, and there were to be a lot, I used petite black Mill Hill glass beads. They're very cute even though you can't see them very well. On all four points, north, south, east, west, on all four designs there's this design, which looks like a cross to me. I didn't like that so I left two stitches of each and every one.

You can see more of my own photos here. On Pinterest I found a photo of a pillow someone made.