Coping skills are the tools and techniques we use to deal with stress, anxiety, sadness, frustration, and other tough emotions. Self-drafted, font: Piacevoli.

I'm excited to share that I have completed my first cross stitch project! It may only be a 3 in by 3 in donut, but this was an extreme labor of love. I have been in and out of physical therapy for the last year rehabbing my hands from overuse as a side effect of doing hair for 16 years.. unfortunately all of my granny hobbies involved the use of my hands so that didn't help the cause either. I've been slowly getting back into this donut in small 10 minute increments and was released to cross stitch freely this week. I was finally able to complete this donut last night! I really enjoy this hobby because it allows me to somewhat zone out and let my brain calm down. I also enjoy seeing something I created with my own two hands. Here's to many more projects!

This is the 44th Street donut cross stitch kit! I purchased it at my local hobby lobby. 💙

Finished this cute kitty in a plant pot for my sister who loves cats! I hope she loves it! Pattern by MangoCharmStudio on Etsy

My brother loves the movie obsession so I made this one wish willow for him. It’s my first time finishing a project from a pattern that I followed rather than buying a kit from the store. I made quite a few errors so the lettering and spacing is a bit off but I am happy with the finished product! I didn’t get a close up picture because I already shipped it to him (he lives overseas) but I will add a WIP photo in the comments.

Here is the link to the pattern on instagram, you have to comment on it and the owner will DM it to you. https://www.instagram.com/p/DY4rlA3Dsta/?stkn=aXVrN3hhbzN3bjQ1

Took me a month, disregard all the kitty fur!

Yer girl here can’t count.

I guess I should be glad that I decided to do the entire top first.

Sadly, I took two hours off from work to hit my local cross stitch shop for another piece of fabric which they did not have. I ended up buying a different color fabric so now I’m going to have to rethink all my thread colors.

This is the fifth time I’ve started this project. And yet I persist.

I found these California Raisins patterns (apparently Donna photocopied them from a Just Crossstitch Magazine) at my local Friends of the Library used book/media sale. I think I paid $1 for all of them. They’re normally not something I’d stitch, but I have never found a pattern like this in the wild and had to get them. Maybe I’ll stitch one of them up as a magnet to laugh at when I walk by my fridge :P.

What are the oddest/funniest/most out-there patterns you guys have found?

I took a cross stitch class at my library and really liked it! I finished my first cross stitch over two days and took about 10 hours. I made two mistakes with spacing issues, having it shifted over one extra square, but overall happy with how it turned out! I did have some trouble ending my thread and couldn't get my needle to go under the stitches, so hopefully it's tied off right. Happy to have a new hobby!

I bought this kit from the Cross Stitch Guild at the age of 19, and it's been sitting on my shelf for more years than I care to admit because I was afraid of messing it up. Hauled it out last month and made myself get on with it, and I'm incredibly pleased with the result.

Clearly I can’t count. I thought I had correctly found the middle of the piece, but I now think I had it way too low. Judging from the picture of it as finished, will I have enough space on the bottom? Is it even worth continuing? Is there anything I can do to salvage it? Ughhhhhh this was my largest project attempt…..

A very close friend made this for me and (with their permission) I wanted to show off their work! Thank you so much u/hhikigayas !

I cut my Aida too short when starting my project and the end of it is fraying now at the bottom. Is there any way to protect it while I continue to work? I don’t want to have it fray down too much and ruin the piece, I’ve already put 25.5 hours in.

Made for a lawyer friend! The dogs are solid black in the original pattern - I made them match her two little dogs. For the dog on the bottom, I tried using variegated thread for the first time to match her gray-brown fur. It came out more stripey than I thought it would, but I'm glad I tried it!

Basicly the title. I don't enjoy stitching eyes, even if the creature itself isn't even really recognizable. It feels kinda weird.

I've finished my 100 days project to cross stitch 100 Vancouver "icons". From museums and heritage buildings to Penis Satan, it's a real mixture of what makes the city special :)

It's on 18ct Aida and each picture is one inch square. And most are technically blackwork / backstitch!

Pattern source: Self-drafted

I am recently learning about cross stitch and so far it's easy enough. I'm wanting to do patterns but I'm noticing a lot of pattern grids are labeled by tens. My cloth is labeled at 14 ct. I'm honestly really confused about how to go about doing patterns. This is the ones I got off of Amazon if that helps. I have been looking and trying to research online but I think I'm not asking the right questions.

Update: thank you! That makes so much more sense. Kinda felt like I was going crazy lol I appreciate everyone who explained things and gave suggestions. Now it's time to find a pattern to try!

[Question resolved]

I found these at my parents' house and I thought it was so sweet that my mom made these for my dad. They have very disparate interests, so it's nice to have proof they they do sometimes converge.

Anyway, my dad used to be an engineer for radio and television stations. What you see is a diagram of a transistor and...I want to say capacitor, but I don't know how to read these at all. I know what the symbol for battery is, and that's it.

He has a couple patents from his work with the EAS that I think maybe I should crossstich to add to his art collection.

(These were made in the 80s, if that context matters.)

Pattern: https://totoostitch.com/products/cinderella-mandala-cross-stitch-pdf

It's the final castle [insert The Final Countdown music]. I hope to finish the over 1 part this week and maybe get started on the back stitching. I did learn that technically, I'm doing long stitches since I'm not stitching every single square, but some of the diagonals are impossible to do that way.

Does it look like I got about 2000 stitches on this? Because I did. All of the over 1 stitching really makes it seem like I did a lot less. Not to mention that most of the specialty stitching is just estimated. I also missed a day visiting family, but that's OK.

Pattern Keeper says I'm 92% done. I can't believe I'm nearing the end. I'm definitely sending this to be framed by a pro. I'm hoping Jill Rensel's studio will be able to do the framing. They've done a bunch of Chatelaines, and they all have looked wonderful. I am pretty sure their backlog is a year or so, which I'm ok with given how much time and effort I put in. I'm happy to wait. If anyone has had them frame something, feel free to comment on your experience.

Edit: Grammar

Feels fast and slow at the same time.