July Cross Stitches

July was a very stitchy month. I don't know when I've done so much stitching!

 It's been a very long time to say the least.

This design below was from the 2010 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments Issue.

The design was by La-De-Da.  I used a variegated silk.  You cant tell very well in the picture, but the colors go from white to very light pink and very light blue.  The fabric is 14 count navy aida.

The next design was stitched on black Aida 14ct, and stitched with a variegated silk.  The original was done on a tan fabric with red thread.  It's amazing how different the design looks with these bright colors.

The design was from the 2009  Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue, by the Sunflower Seed.


The following charts were all freebies:

This one is from By the Bay Needleart.  It was stitched over one on off white 22 ct evenweave.  I added blue for the sky because I thought the motif didn't stand out enough.  I thought the full stitch was too dark, so I just did a half stitch.

The design above is Autumn sampler from cosmic handmade. 

It was stitched on 18 count heathered oatmeal Aida.

Little House Freebie from The Floss Box was stitched on 28 count espresso linen.  

I believe I swapped some of the threads out for other hand dyed floss I had in my stash.  

I stitched this design up over the 4th of July.

Irish blessing chart from The Sampler Girl was stitched on the same fabric as the design from Floss box.  I used hand dyed threads by GAST and WDW, although you can't really tell from this horrible photo.


Finally, the piece de resistance:

This free chart from Disegni per Punto Croce, an Italian site.  I tried to find out if this was a chart with a key, but all I could find was the same chart on several different Italian, Russian and Spanish speaking Blogs.  I figured it would be a great challenge for me to make up my own key.  Through a bit of trial and error I did it.  Here is the finished project.  I'm so proud of it!

It's stitched over two threads on a 28 ct evenweave, possibly monaco, but the tag fell off so I'm not certain.  It was originally off white, but I "tea dyed" it with hot chocolate.  Ok so that sounds weird.  We have this hot chocolate mix that is years old.  I love it, but it gives me a tummy ache every time I drink it.  That's probably why the mix is so old.  I thought it would be fun medium to use to experiment with when I wanted a brown fabric.  I was impatient and didn't let the fabric sit in the cocoa long enough.  Originally, I had wanted the fabric to be a much deeper shade of brown.  As it is, I think the light tan complements the design nicely.

If you'd like to stitch this chart, but don't want to go through the hassle of figuring out your own key, here is what I did.  It's kind of hard to describe as the chart is solely a color chart, without any symbols.  I've listed all the colors from light to dark and hopefully you can figure it all out from that.

The same website has similar designs for peaches and grapes.  Maybe someday I will be brave enough to tackle creating a key for those charts as well.

Oranges key (All threads are DMC unless specified)
Oranges - lightest to darkest
742
741
740
720 +740 (one strand each)
720
 Outline of oranges and words:900
outline of tiny oranges on the tree inside the "o": 720

White on orange slice: Anchor 275

Purple (lightest to darkest)
210+553
552+3837
outline of banner: 550

White: 000
Light blue on flower: 162
Flower outline: 820

Browns for dirt (light to dark)
783
781
780
Dirt outline: 433

Center of flowers (Light to dark)
3821
3820
outline: 781

Tree trunk browns (light to dark)
433+801
801
801+938
tree outline: 938

Sky (light to dark) I did this graduated not really following the charts colors because i wanted the sky to be graduated to navy.
000+827
827
827+826
826
826+824
824+823 (this is the navy color)
Black: 310

Blue-ish greens (light to dark) see the colors on the two smallest trees for reference
563
562
561 (I used this color to outline the green circles in the dirt)
all other green outline: 895

Yellowish greens (light to dark)
Anchor 255
Anchor 256
Anchor 257 (use this color for the branches to the flowers and the buds)
Anchor 258

HAPPY STITCHING!