CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@jenni aaawww, thank you!

@MagicMutti Unfortunately I do not have the skills to design a pattern like this I bought it on etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1769299283/customized-baby-announcement-elephant

@jenni right?! Fell in love with it when I saw it

@florine I thought so too

Finished! 🥳

#CrossStitch #MastoArt

@calimae For me it’s partly that I don’t know if I’m doing it properly. I never looked up how to do it, so I just try to make it work, which doesn’t really feel ‘right’.

And the second thing is that I always make mistakes. Here too, I triple checked and I *still* got it wrong

Biggest part is done!

I hate back-stitching though. Obviously it is sometimes necessary to give it a nice finished look, but I do not like doing it at all

#CrossStitch

@hwll sorry for the long explanation, but I did not know how to explain this in a short version

@hwll I keep the pattern with color symbols on my phone in a cross stitch app, which also has easy grids.

I then find the centre (which I also marked on my cloth) and start with the color that is closest to that point. And then I just count. I usually try to go row per row, but that depends on the pattern; sometimes it’s easier to work in clusters.

And when I finish one color, I take the next one and start somewhere in reference to the previous color. And I just count again.

For example, I started with the color that represents the flower symbol in the screenshot. From the centre (intersection of the blue line and the line where the arrow is) I counted to the point where I wanted to start, and I started stitching. When I finished that color, I took the 1 symbol because then I could build onto what I already had from the previous color.

If that makes sense as an explanation

In the app I can also mark the stitches that I have completed, which makes it a bit easier to follow along.

And yes, it’s very easy to mess up. Especially when you have shades of the same color and it gets difficult to distinguish them, like the grey in my pattern. I just had to undo some stitches because I miscalculated But I don’t usually do very big projects, so then it’s a bit easier.

I know other people use other approaches and ways of tackling a pattern, but this is how I do it.

@JillsJoy It indeed is an elephant! But not Dumbo. At least as cute though

A while ago I bought a cross stitch pattern to make as a gift for friends who are expecting their first baby. At that point I thought: plenty of time to finish this!

And then life happened and yesterday I realised I only have two or three weeks left until the baby comes! Still enough time, but since I can’t work on it every day, I had to start sooner than later. So yesterday I sorted everything out and began stitching. Made good progress today, so feeling good about it

#CrossStitch