Designer Spotlight: Rhonda’s Originals

Rhonda’s Originals is an Etsy shop based in Connecticut that does a lot more than cross stitch patterns, but for our purposes we’ll focus on the Miss Prim line of cross stitch dolls, samplers and other designs with a sometimes twisted historical slant.

I really wanted to share these because I came across the Abraham Lincoln doll shown here, and given that his birthday is coming up I couldn’t resist it. His very tall hat says “Oh, Honestly, Abe,” which illustrates that snarky twist I mentioned. This particular design is 67 by 139 stitches, or about 4.75 by 10 inches, or 12 by 25.5 cm, when worked on 14 count fabric.

The patterns include instructions for making them into pillow “dolls.” Once you’ve stitched this one you’re sure to want to add George and Martha Washington and Betsy Ross to your collection (hers says “Heavens to Betsy”).

Among the more than 100 cross stitch designs there’s not really an organization so you’ll have to go treasure hunting. And treasure you are likely to find if you like mermaids, skulls, Pride and Prejudice or old fashioned Santas. To name a few of the things you’ll find. Most of the patterns are shown making these odd shaped pillows, but there are others that are shown as rectangles, and of course you can frame pieces or display them in a different way regardless of what is shown in the pattern.

In addition to cross stitch patterns you’ll find lots of fun printables here including puzzle cards, paper dolls, collage sheets, printable covers to upcycle old paperback books, holiday themed digital clip art you can download and use in different designs, and a fun collection of Marie Antoinette inspired digital designs. This stuff is lots of fun if you’re into collage, altered art, digital scrapbooking or other paper crafts.

Check out all the fun stuff on offer at Rhonda’s Originals, and let me know if you stitch up your own Honest(ly) Abe!

[Photo: Rhonda’s Originals]

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Book Review: My Cross Stitch Doll

I have not done a lot of big cross stitch projects, but sometimes even with small projects it can be hard to decide exactly where to begin and how to work through the chart if you’re working with multiple colors. The general categories for the possible methods are known as cross country and parking.

Cross country means that you’re working one color at a time, moving around the chart (or the section of the chart you’re working on) until you’re done with that color. Parking means you’re working in a smaller section and doing all the colors in that area, “parking” the threads by leaving them attached to the canvas but out of the way while you finish each section.

Royal Rows is a specific way of parking named by Alison Royal, which is explored in detail on a post on Stitching Daily.

The idea is that you’re working one “tower” of stitches at a time (she uses a section of 10 stitches across by 20 down, but you can do whatever makes sense to you). You work all the stitches of a color at a time, starting at the top left and working your way down. When you’re done with a color you can park it where needed in the section below your current tower (known as the dungeon) or in the “east tower,” which is the section to the right.

There’s also a specific way of dealing with thread ends when you’re done with a color. This is a super simplified version (head to the blog post at Stitching Daily to get all the details) but the basic idea is that you’re working from left to right and top to bottom across the work, parking the threads in the next section when you’re done with them and systematically choosing which color to work with next.

The whole idea of parking is kind of overwhelming to me though I will admit that it makes a lot of sense. I guess I need to try it on a smallish big project and see how it goes. Do you use the parking method of cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Stitching Daily]

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