Slow Sunday Stitching: A Cross Stitch Update

I'm joining everyone today at Kathy's Quilts for "Slow Sunday Stitching" to share a recent cross stitch finish!

This is Erin Elizabeth's "English Tier" just one in a series of designs that are in this format but have different themes like "French", "Stitching", "Summer", "Baking", ect.   I was attracted to this one in particular because years ago I had picked up this in a thrift store:

At the time my DH and I had been bingeing on "Dr. Who" episodes so it was a hoot to find this jewerly box that looked like an iconic London Police call box.  I've had it on display with other themed minatures and loved the idea of making an England themed cross stitch piece to hang from one of the knobs.

After purchasing the pattern I hadn't made any specific plans to start it until Pat Sloan, one of my favorite influencers, announced back in the Fall that she was going to do a sew along for a London themed quilt project!

That was just the nudge I needed to get this underway!  The plan was that when she worked on her blocks,  I'd take a few stitches in this.  Although it was patterned to be stitched on a 14 count fabric,  I planned to stitch mine on 18 count to make it smaller.  That's about as small as I'm able to go at this point in my CS journey.  To go smaller would mean stitching on very high count linens and I haven't even finished the projects or mastered the technique of stitching on the low count ones I already have in progress! 

I was about this far by the end of 2024.

 In recent weeks, Pat made a push to finish up her blocks so I pushed to finish up my stitching too.  In the end, adjusting the size did and did not work:  it is smaller but not as small as I had hoped. 

 Albeit in the finishing, I could have left a lot less space around the stitching.  I also find that I don't love the coverage I get on 18ct with DMC which requires stitching with a single thread rather than two which is something I learned when I stitched on that count fabric previously.  I recently read about a thread brand called "CXC" that I might try getting as it is supposedly a little thicker while following the same color numbering as DMC.  That would make it easy to substitute when needed for this count fabric.

With regards to the "fully finishing":  I already had the "London Toss" fabric in my stash so knew I'd use that for the backing.  I had purchased it to make a mug rug for a gift some years ago but I never got around to that project.  When I finished the stitching, I felt like it was going to need some kind of trim around the edge.  Fortunately I had just the thing:  some time ago, I discovered that my local Joann's would often package up remants of trims the same way they do fabric remnants.  I realized these were great opportunities to stash bits for cross stitch finishings and the trim used here was one of those.

The empty bag was the one used for this project!

Unfortunately, with Joann's going out of business that source won't be available much longer!  This trim was pretty thick so I had to stitch it on the front by hand in order to manipulate the cord to go around the corners and then stitch the backing to the cording on the back.  The real challenge was finshing the ends.  Not perfect but it'll do!

Considerng that this is my second "England themed" cross stitch piece, does this make me an Anglophile?!?!    

Now to decide on what to work on next.  It'll be one of these:

I've been considering starting both of these since January.  I did start a review of how to reformat the first pattern but am still not sure about how I want to center the words and images of it.  The orginal design is one horizontal patterned piece but I want to display it in the frame shown as three individual pieces.  There's also this one:

And another attempt at stitching on Linen!

I had started it while we traveled last month.  It is the one I'm making for myself after making one with a similar theme (but much less "snarky") for my MIL as a Christmas gift.  

If you want to see what everyone is keeping their hands busy with as we start to move into the Spring season, head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what is sprouting in craft rooms around the world!