See My Cross-Stitch Goldfish in "Craft Ideas" Magazine

The Summer 2016 issue of Craft Ideas magazine is out, and my cross-stitched goldfish is inside. It's a beanbag that can be used as a bookend. (My kind of pet--no feeding required.) The issue is filled with lots of cute summertime projects. Look for it on your newsstand . . . Happy crafting!

Cross-Stitch Lobster Ornament

June has finally arrived, which means beach season is here! Even though I'm landlocked here in Pennsylvania, I love beachy decor in summertime. This little lobster ornament is quick to cross-stitch, and it looks so cute hanging in the kitchen. You can make a bunch and use them to decorate your patio or picnic table.

This project uses just three colors of DMC 6-strand embroidery floss: 310 Black, 321 Christmas Red, and 498 Dark Christmas Red. My lobster is stitched on 14-count white Aida fabric, but you can use 11-count or 18-count. Follow the chart and key below and use two strands of floss to cross-stitch your lobster.

Little Lobster   ©2016 Kathleen Berlew

When the stitching is finished, cut the lobster from the Aida, leaving a border of six fabric squares on all sides. Cut two pieces of red felt to the size you want your ornament to be and sew the cross-stitched Aida to one of the felt pieces with white thread. Make your stitching line three squares beyond all sides of the cross-stitching. To finish the ornament, pin the to felt pieces together, wrong sides facing, and sew them together with red embroidery floss and running stitch. Sew a piece of red-and-white gingham ribbon in place at the top of the ornament. Leave an opening at the bottom, fill the ornament with fiberfill, and stitch it closed.

Pink Pom-Pom Garland

Even though the weather hasn't been cooperating lately, spring flowers are blooming like crazy in our garden. The peonies are getting ready to pop, and I see cherry blossoms and dogwood trees blooming all over the neighborhood. Those pretty pink flowers gave me the idea for this week's blog project--a super-simple pink pom-pom garland. Just perfect for warm-weather decorating, don't you think?

The first step is making a bunch of pom-poms. I used this pom-pom maker--one of my favorite recent purchases--which makes the process much easier than the cardboard template method.

Follow the directions that come with your pom-pom maker. For the model I have, you wrap the yarn around the "wings" on both sides . . .

then cut through the loops and tie a piece of yarn tightly around the center.

When you open up the pom-pom maker, you have a perfect little pom-pom. Just trim the ends even and fluff it up a bit. Be sure to leave the tail ends of yarn as is.

When you make as many pom-poms as you like, tie them to a piece of baby rickrack and trim the tails even with the rest of the yarn strands.

I love the look of this pink-on-pink garland, but I must confess--I chose the color scheme because I had some pink yarn and rickrack on hand that I wanted to use. Now that I've made one garland, I think I'm going to have bunches more in lots of different colors.

Cross-Stitch Veggie Hoop

I love veggies--cooking them, eating them, and stitching them. I'm not much of a vegetable gardener, but I did make this little veggie cross-stitch hoop to celebrate gardening season. I stitched the radish, carrot, asparagus, peapod, and tomato design with DMC embroidery floss on 18-count white Aida, and it fits perfectly in this little 3-inch hoop. If you would rather use a different size of Aida or even-weave fabric, just adjust your hoop size. Click https://drive.google.com/open?id=129TwXRUZYatKSpLYfDA8DlnpKNXakwUxto download and print the chart and color key.

If you're new to cross-stitch, this is a good beginner project. There are only seven floss colors, and it stitches up really fast. I finished this carrot in a few minutes while I was watching TV (or, more accurately, listening to TV).

And here it is, all finished and framed. Those veggies look good enough to eat, don't you think?