I'm a year-round fan of all thing spooky. Halloween--pretty
much my favorite holiday--just gives me extra motivation to dream up some
creepy crafts. Right now I'm working on some suitably scary cross-stitch designs
that I can't share yet. However, I can show you four projects I designed last
year. They're all in the Just CrossStitch Halloween 2019 issue, which arrived
in my mailbox a few days ago. Print and digital copies are available for purchase at the
Annie's Craft Store site.
The first design, shown in the photo above, is the "Dark
& Stormy Bookmark." I couldn't resist having a little fun with that famously
melodramatic opening phrase.
Next up is my favorite--a collection of three ornaments that
portray a gallery of freakish family portraits (Frog Boy, Lady Gray, and Mummy
& Mr. Bones). I can't tell you how much fun I had creating these little
designs. They're definitely not my usual style, so I had to bend some of my own
cross-stitching rules to make the concept I had in mind come to life.
One of those "rules" was the use of backstitching. If you're familiar with my cross-stitch work, you may have noticed that I don't often outline sections of my designs. I usually use contrasting colors and white space to make the images stand out. Because I wanted these stitched portraits to have a cartoonish look, outlining was a must.
One of those "rules" was the use of backstitching. If you're familiar with my cross-stitch work, you may have noticed that I don't often outline sections of my designs. I usually use contrasting colors and white space to make the images stand out. Because I wanted these stitched portraits to have a cartoonish look, outlining was a must.
 |
| Backstitching reveals Lady Gray's facial features, the mouse on her shoulder, and the spider dangling in the corner. |
I took a few in-progress photos of the Lady Gray (above) and Frog Boy (below) ornaments as I was stitching them to demonstrate the difference the fine black backstitching made. I'll definitely use this technique in the future--maybe for next year's Halloween designs?
 |
| Frog Boy without . . . and with backstitching. |
As they say in the infomercials--but wait, there's more! The "Snake Eyes Cuff Bracelet" is simple to stitch, but slightly scary, don't you think?
"Witches' Brew," an eerily enchanted woodland scene, borrows a familiar line from Shakespeare's Macbeth. (The design is mine, but Cathy Ring did the stitching on this one.) I love the mottled fabric the Annie's editors chose.
FYI--If you're looking for the issue on your newsstand, here's what it looks like. I've shown you my four designs, but as the cover says, there at least 56 more inside. Click here to take a peek. Happy Halloween stitching!
FYI--If you're looking for the issue on your newsstand, here's what it looks like. I've shown you my four designs, but as the cover says, there at least 56 more inside. Click here to take a peek. Happy Halloween stitching!
