A full cone of black embroidery floss on a yarn holder. In the background, a jar of orts, some fake flowers, and a pegboard hanging cross stitches and hoops.

If you have a Cone of Doom, how do you store
it? 🤔 I keep it on one of those spinny yarn holders on
the top of this shelf right above my desk where I do
most of my stitching. So any time I need some 310 I
just reach right over my monitor and pull down a
strand of whatever length I want. 👀

It's time for another 'what the heck do I DO with this now?' post. Tiny Hardanger edition. I made this to try out Hardanger for the first time, and it turned out super cute.
But... now what? What should I make this tiny piece into?

sirithre.com/learning-har...

The cover of my project folio, made with a quilted rainbow of circles that was an EPP project I started in 2019 and abandoned for several years before finally finishing up this month.

The inside of a cross stitch project folio made from a pattern by WhatSaysieMakes. It features 20 floss bobbin pockets, as well as room for a hoop or a Q-snap.

This month's article had me researching types of project bags and other things people store their cross stitch projects in. I was really intrigued by this
style of folio bag with little pockets for bobbins and decided to make my own!

Bag pattern by WhatSaysieMakes.
sirithre.com/project-bags...

a cross stitch of a pinguicula plant flowering.

The back of a cross stitch of a pinguicula plant flowering.

A look at the back of this month's Pinguicula/Butterwort pattern! :)
Such fun texture from stitching in various directions. And my usual dashed backstitch border.

5 painted player miniatures from the board game The Witcher: Old World

Speaking of other hobbies... recently I finally finished painting the player minis for The Witcher: Old World board game.

Well, I painted 3 of them, and my partner painted the other 2!

It was a fun change of pace from textile crafts for sure. :)
Now to... paint a whole lot of monsters.

An ikea ALEX drawer full of all kinds of beads. Glass beads, seed beads, flower shaped beads. As well as various jewelry fixings and wire.

My bead drawer has gotten out of control. I keep buying beads intending to make more scissor fobs... but I've got so much on my plate already. 🙈

How do you keep up with all your different hobbies?
And don't say you have just one -- I won't believe you. 😝

This month's pattern is a sweet little piece themed after one of my favorite carnivorous plants, the butterwort. aka Pinguicula.

It's pretty hard to depict that distinctive leaf shape and texture in a cross stitch, but I did what I could. 🤣

#crossstitch #stitchsky

A cross stitch project featuring a venus fly trap

A few years ago I stitched up this Venus Fly Trap design planning to do a whole series of carnivorous plants, but I haven't quite gotten around to doing another til recently 🙈
I really want to do a pitcher plant one day. And possibly
some sundews with like, backstitch and french knots.

That fabric choice is amazing!

This month's cross stitch pattern is coming along! You can already tell I'm doing another plant-themed pattern, I think. But I bet you can't guess the plant/flower!
I posted the color palette last week if you need more of a hint. ;)

How interesting is this yellowy green though?

I haven't done many pendant necklaces recently! I used to do a ton of them with cross stitch designs. They're fun to make, but you can't fit very much in them without going up to at least 28 count fabric, so it can be a little tedious to stitch.
Want to make your own?
sirithre.com/pendant-tuto...

Two finished cross stitch designs based on the covers of the board games Wingspan and Wyrmspan respectively

My Wyrmspan cross stitch pattern is now up on Etsy! Before you ask, there's no bundle price for the board game ones because I do have more planned! As to when I'll get to them... who knows. I've got entirely too many plans/ideas and zero time. 🙈

oooh you're definitely on to something there.

This is April Fools of course. But as a cross stitch artist I still absolutely think Kiana should do it. Or at least release pattern versions 👀 These would SLAY as cross stitch.

Picking out colors of thread is the real hard part tho. 🙈 For everyone's sakes, don't just run it through a program.

The last one has me itching to actually cross stitch some of your art one day. 👀

a cross stitch of a witch with a cat

a close up shot of a cross stitch

a close up shot of a cross stitch

Showing off this closeup of the only HAED I ever finished (years ago)... To show how half stitches over 1 on 28 count can look pretty decent for a full coverage design. And it takes like, half the time to stitch it!

There's a few gaps in the closeup, but once you zoom out it all blends together!

I put together a spreadsheet of all the colors that I have used over the last 10 years of designing cross stitch patterns, and then challenged
myself to stitch with the colors I've never used in a pattern before. (plus 310)

Here's what I ended up making!
sirithre.com/design-chall...

A pile of unfinished cross stitch projects

A look at my UFO pile. Some of these being 20+ years old at this point. 🙈 Because let's be real, we all abandon projects from time to time and you should never feel bad about it.

Maybe you'll pick it back up one day. Maybe you won't. Either way there's no harm in letting them sit unfinished.

A color palette of embroidery thread featuring yellow-greens, a buttery yellow, and a range of purply-magentas. The same palette is pictured in both DMC and Cosmo brand threads.

A small color palette for April -- But hopefully it says spring well enough. 😅 April's cross stitch pattern definitely has a floral theme, but probably not the flowers you're thinking of. 👀

Definitely excited for warmer weather and getting the garden going this year though!

Heck yeah. Human designs may take longer to design, test, and release. But they're worth the wait. 🥰

Omg this is an excellent use of free will. 🤣

Second time stitching something with the "ghosting" effect! It's just black + 2 shades of grey!

It's also a freebie! It's in my website's freebies section!

TheRetroStitcher.com

#CrossStitch #Embroidery #StitchSky #Art

It's definitely on my to do list, but am in a bit of an art rut so just collecting ideas/inspo for now. 🙈

Oooh, that could be fun! Or even an escher style staircase 😂

A cross stitched fabric tray of two ki fish around some lotus leaves and flower. In the tray, some embroidery scissors and various spools of thread.

I keep wondering what else I could make a fabric tray out of that would make sense. A few years ago I made this koi pond tray like a cute lil pond.

The other idea I had was a paleontology excavation pit with some fossils
peeking out of a brownish fabric. 🤔 Idk.

But what else could I do?

Yep! They're up on my Etsy if you're interested in stitching them 🥰

An update on this project I started back in 2023! It's time to move the Q-snap again!
I thiiiink we're at least half way now? Idk, I'm terrible about quantifying that kinda thing.

Where should I move the Qsnap to next? Left? Or down? 🤔

Pattern is Midnight Whispers by @urbanstitches.bsky.social

A photo of a fireplace mantle with a legend of zelda puzzle hanging over it. On the mantle are some cross stitched cubes featuring toadstools, a sad pumpkin, some faux plants, as well as junimo, korok, and krobus plushies.

I... still need to redo my living room. I've got lots of plans to paint and hang more art and so forth. Eventually. I still have no idea what to do with my mantle in the meantime tho. So I just kinda threw some stuff up there temporarily. And it's kinda cute. 😅

...yep that's it. That's the post.

I definitely don't want a 'boring' frame/hoop finish. I'm always looking for new fun ways to finish my stitches! But I'm not sure what I want to do with it either as it's kinda a weird size. 🤔

A glow in the dark cross stitch design under blacklight. Pattern features a butterfly sitting on a toadstool.

A glow in the dark cross stitch design under normal light. Pattern features a butterfly sitting on a toadstool. Some measuring tape nearby to show the fabric scrap it is on is about 6 inches tall.

A photo of various glow in the dark threads under blacklight.

I made this ages ago to show off how to stitch with glow in the dark threads.
sirithre.com/glow-in-the-...

...and it's been sitting in a folder ever since.

What would you do with this small scrap? It's kinda small, doesn't have a lot of fabric around it...