Showing off my Cross Stitch and Embroidery Skillzz

So this is a card blog, but with my wife being a cross stitcher/embroiderer who owns her own store, cross stitch and embroidery have ended up being a pretty big part of my life these past few years.  She taught me how to do it, and though I don't stitch nearly as much as her, I do stitch enough, and have enough ideas, that I figured it'd be cool to share some things as I stitch them on this page.  So I may do individual posts now and then, but in general as stuff gets started, finished, or I get new ideas, I'll post to this here page.

We'll start with my

Finished Pieces

As of yet, the list of finished pieces if just one - this Coach McGuirk embroidery that I made:

I love the show "Home Movies," it's one of my favorites of all time.  But there's precious little memorabilia for the show out there, so when I realized I could trace images onto linen and then stitch over them, I knew I had to make something McGuirk.  He's voiced by H. Jon Benjamin, aka Sterling Archer from Archer, aka Bob from Bob's Burgers, aka born and raised in Worcester Massachusetts, and he's one of my favorite television characters of all time.  I'm also pretty happy with how he came out!


So we move on to

Works in Progress

This first work is a cross stitch from Steoch's mystery stitchalong this year.  She's done it 3 years in a row, and basically every year she gives you a little bit of the pattern every week for eight weeks until you have the whole thing.  This way it's a mystery for a bit, and my wife really wanted me to join her this year, so I did.  The 8 weeks are up, but I'm only done through week 4 1/2 lol:

My wife stopped at week 5 and may not resume because she hates Star Wars...and that's about the time it became definitively Star Wars.  I'm only at week 4.5 because I stitch a lot slower and initially I messed up the flowers in the top right corner really bad.  In pattern one the part of Han Solo they give you is crazy far from that center yellow part of the flower, and I tried just counting squares while my wife made a grid pattern to ensure she wouldn't mess up.  Her's ended up perfect, mine ended up off three squares which put the whole flower off center.  I ripped out all of the stitches one night and it took me like three hours because I suck at that.  But I'm still almost caught up with her...so all is well!

This other work has been in progress for a long time - I started it at my wife's old store, and then she moved across town and I've barely touched it since.  Just haven't been in the mood I guess.  Anyways, it's an embroidery based on a lyric from Ludacris' "Number One Spot" and looks like this:

It's a little hard to see, but there's a Dora in the top left, Swiper the Fox in the bottom right, and then the words in the middle area say, "Explorin' like Dora, these Swipers can't swipe me."  I love Hip Hop and I love silly references, and this piece really honors that well with some cool visuals.  All the blue is stuff I haven't stitched yet - it's a washable blue pen that makes it super easy to make anything you want.  The only issue I have with this piece is the wording...I don't know if I'll just trace my handwriting or go for a real font i guess I'll decide on it when I get there!