Mr X Stitch Cross Stitch!

i know, i promised more embroidery posts, didn't i?

i've had a bit of a rough time lately, starting back at work, even for such short days as the ones i'm doing, has completely exhausted me. my fatigue and pain levels have been very high, and by the time i start to write up a blog post (or reply to messages, etc), i'm feeling fairly incoherent.

HOWEVER! i wanted to get this posted as soon as i could!

those of you who follow the Mr X Stitch blog (and if you don't, why aren't you? the eye candy and inspiration is incredible!) will know that it recently celebrated an anniversary. for an entire week they had daily giveaways, and though i managed to miss commenting on about half the posts (which killed me when i realized it, oh i would have loved the emily peacock pattern, i adore her designs!), i DID comment on a few!

and I WON!!! how freaking exciting is that?

the Mr X Stitch team recently announced the release of Mr X Stitch patterns, available at their etsy shop (some are still on their way, i believe).

they have 4 different series available, the Beefranck series, cross stitch full of saucy commentary and blackwork, Kittyzilla’s Internet Meme Series, line embroidery patterns to display your internet coolness, Krupp's robot series, cross stitched robots in fanciful situations, and of course, the original cross stitch graffiti series that drew everyone's attention to Mr X Stitch himself in the first place!

i won my choice of 5 patterns, and let me tell you, it was damn hard to decide!

i wanted a variety, and i wanted patterns that i was likely to actually stitch, so i picked two from Krupp's robot series, the domo-kun/kitten from Kittyzilla’s internet meme series, and two from the original graffiti series, which i can't wait to stitch - i might actually spring for proper framing if i ever managed to complete one of them!

i started stitching the robots immediately, so that i'd be able to show them off (if i'd waited to show one of the graffiti pieces, i'd probably be writing this in 2011, i have such a short attention span!).


i stitched up the Pet Robot pattern first, cause it's so cute. isn't it? aw!



i changed the colours in this one a bit. first off i chose a different red, because as much as i wish i like dmc 666, for the number alone, i really don't! it's such a tomatoey red to me, blegh! so i changed the red to dmc 321, which is probably my favourite true red shade. i stitched the swing and robot first, and once i started on the cage itself, the required thread, dmc 3072, seemed way too light, it didn't show against the white aida cloth very well. (i think it would look FABULOUS on a coloured aida cloth though!) so i switched over to dmc 318, and i liked it much better.



now that it's complete, i'm contemplating ripping out and redoing the swing itself, because it seems like such a GRAY colour rather than the GREY of the cage. (yes, i totally think grey and gray are different colours!) it seems to have more of a brown base, but i might just be being too picky! what do you think?




for my second pieces, i decided to do the robot photobooth pattern. i had to run to the needlework store for it - i thought i had lots of grays, but i didn't have any of the shades required. if you're stitching it, you should note that it used both ddmc AND anchor threads, which i didn't realize until i was at the store looking for dmc 400!

this piece definitely took longer than the pet robot piece, but i love how it turned out. the robots are so cute!



this one was a bit easier to keep track of, because the stitches are all filled in, but at the same time, it was easy to miss a stitch too! it didn't help that i was feeling so crummy while i was stitching it, the math side of cross stitch confuses me at the best of times. (i admittedly screwed up the basting i use to mark the edges TWICE before i even started on the cross stitch itself!)

but it turned out wonderfully.





so, the Mr X Stitch patterns. overall, FABULOUS! they're wonderful. interesting, quirky designs, a fabulous price, fun to stitch.

a few things to be aware of
a) they're in PDF format, and i'm too much of a klutz when it comes to computers to be able to figure out how to resize the embroidery patterns (is there a way? i want to make a smaller domo-kun!)
b) if you're a dmc snob like i am, you might need to buy a few colours in another brand (i don't know if any of the other patterns have multiple brands, or if it's just the one)
c) reading the patterns can take getting used to. i'm accustomed to patterns that are like graphs, with each square drawn in, and these ones aren't like that. and i think if i was doing a larger project, like one of the graffiti pieces, i'd go through the pattern with some markers and colour in the stitches, it's easy to mix up the letters of each colour. i might go through with a ruler and a pencil to lightly draw in lines as well. the patterns DO show the lines for every 10 stitches though.
d) the embroidery patterns don't have recommended floss colours. totally fine if you'd like to pick the colours yourself, but if you're a "completely like the pattern says" kinda folk, you might be frustrated.

but don't let the points get you down! the patterns are AWESOME, and a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Mr X Stitch and the crew for releasing them, and for their 1st birthday!


and of course, THANK YOU! God damn Mr X Stitch, you're a miracle!