A New Baby Girl Alpaca Cousin Named Dahlia

The "dollies" have been jumping up and down with joy the last few days.  The reason?  Well, they have a new baby girl alpaca cousin named "Dahlia."  And, she couldn't be more adorable.

Roxy and her new baby girl - Dahlia.

 Mom and daughter enjoying the sun.

 A tender kiss from  Mom.

How adorable is she?  Beautiful Dahlia.

Dahlia was born at Rock Garden Alpacas the afternoon of June 12th. By the evening she was out running in the fields.

Of course, all the "dollies" want to go visit their new alpaca cousin. With 1,796 of them that isn't going to happen any time soon.  So, of course, they're already bugging me about Dahlia's Alpacas Rock products.  I'm ignoring the"dollies" for now which is never a good idea, but she and her Mom, Roxy, are on the "to do" list.  So, stay tuned.

If you'd like to read more about the "dollies" new cousin "Dahlia" please visit Rock Garden Alpacas or CLICK HERE for their post "Introducing Rock Garden Alpacas Dahlia!"


Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"

They Don't Look Like Much Yet.........

If you've been wondering what I've been up to the last few days I'll give you a clue. I've had my hands covered with paper clay and I couldn't be happier. You see I'm having a blast.

Now I know that I'm dating myself with that baby boomer word but it's the truth. I am just loving my Artful Gathering "Briley The Birdie" class with Colleen Moody. The class is a blast. The group of ladies taking the class are a blast and Colleen is an amazing teacher. Her video's are so easy to follow and are so much fun.

And, well, how could you not have fun when making these guys - or should I say, these birdies:

They don't look like much yet.....


Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"

My NEW Gray Is Beautiful Fabric Collection

I just LOVE designing fabrics and love it when some of the graphics I create for other purposes end up creating wonderful fabric designs.  Such was the case with some of the graphics I created for some of my Gray Is Beautiful Products Gallery.  This fabric line is called Gray Is Beautiful Fabric Designs Collection.

There are 9 fabrics in my  Gray Is Beautiful Fabric Designs Collection right now based on the following designs:

  

  

  

    

  

They Grays are busy at work creating more fabric designs so stay tuned.


Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"

Out With The Old At The Everything E-Directory

What a great saying this is - "Out with the old and in with the new!"

With that in mind I thought you''d like to know that I've started updating my Everything E-Directory starting with the E-Patterns, E-Stitcheries, E-Doodles, and Digitized Embroidery page.

I can't promise how quickly I'll get the Everything E-Directory updated but I'm working on it.


Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"

It's A Baby Girl Named Dahlia For Roxy

Born yesterday at Rock Garden Alpacas. A beautiful baby girl named Dalhia for Roxy.

Mom and her baby girl are doing just fine and Dahlia was out yesterday evening running in the fields. Simply amazing.

According to my sister she came into this world at 3:20 yesterday afternoon.   Her dam is Bluestone Peruvian Roxy a Dark Silver Grey and her Sire is PHA Accoyo Stratosphere a fawn son out of Legacy.

Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"

My Embroidered "Crazy Autumn" Stitchery

Several years ago I bought a couple of creative embroidery and stitchery kits that I thought would be fun to do and have been trying to find some time to complete them ever since. Two weeks ago I finally had some time to work on one of them and decided to make the Fall themed stitchery from Chickadee Hollow Designs that I had bought.

The kit  included the embroidery floss and the pattern included the design on pre-printed pre-colored fabric, as well as a basic embroidery stitches sheet and sheet of basic instructions for completing their stitchery.

I had decided ahead of time that I wanted to frame my stitchery as a picture instead of finishing it the way the pattern had suggested which was to add strips to the sides and finish it as a small quilt. I opted instead to finish mine as a stitchery picture and blanket stitch around the edges.

The stitchery design was pre-printed on pre-colored fabric and folded down the middle so as to fit inside the standard pattern envelope. The design was fine except I had a very difficult time ironing the crease out. I couldn't spray the design with water to help iron the crease out as the design was pre-printed and would have run. I did the best I could and hoped that when it was finished and stretched the design that the crease wouldn't be as visible.

The instructions called for adding fabric borders around the sides and on top of the batting so as to finish as a quilt. However, the pattern didn't include a picture of the finished piece just the picture as shown below:

The pattern included a sheet of general embroidery stitches, steps for finishing as a quilt, and instructions to use one or two strands of the embroidery floss on the design.  However, the pattern didn't tell you which stitches to be used and where and whether you were to use one or two strands in any particular area. It was basically left up to the user to choose which embroidery stitch to use and whether to use one or two strands.

The instructions called for positioning the design over a larger piece of Warm-N-Natural batting and fastening this with small safety pins then embroidering the stitchery. The pre-printed pre-colored fabric design was so close to the edge that I knew it was impossible to fit within any embroidery hoop without creating more creases.

My experience has always been that embroideries always come out better when stretched in an embroidery hoop so I chose to baste the pre-printed sheet to a standard felt square so that I could put in into a wooden embroidery frame as shown in the picture below:

As I wanted to finish this as a stitchery picture with blanket stitching around the edges I decided to embroider around the edges of the design using a 3-strand 3-color embroidery floss combination. I had opted to use this same 3-strand 3-color embroidery combination to frame the inside "Autumn" rectangle and was pleased with the result and thought a similar border around the design would be complimentary.

When my embroidery piece was done I removed it from the embroidery frame and cut it along the brown dotted lines about 1/4" from the edge of the stitchery outline.

I decided I would add one layer of quilt batting and a back piece of felt to my stitchery and to blanket stitch around the edges. Using the stitchery as a guide I cut out a piece of batting and a piece of felt for the backing and then layered them. Since I was pleased with the 3-strand 3-color embroidery combination of the center rectangle and design border I decided to use it to blanket stitch around the edges and like how it turned out as shown in the picture below:

As mentioned previously I was going to put my finished stitchery in a picture frame and had decided to use decorative paper as a background for my stitchery. The choice was between an evergreen colored background, bright yellow background or a rust colored background. I chose the rust colored background as shown in the picture below:

I had chosen a small black metal frame for my finished piece as I wanted the emphasis to be on the stitchery and not on the frame. It took me 26 1/2 hours to complete this picture including the framing and was thrilled with the way it turned out. I hope you like it as much as I do.


Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"

Linda’s How-Do-I Series? How To Make Our Alpacas Rock, Babies Splashing In The Rain, It’s Raining Baby Boys, and It’s Raining Baby Girls Custom Fabric Wall Panel Picture New Free E-Book

I just love custom fabric.  Especially when it can be used to make quick and easy picture decorations and was so pleased with the way my Babies In The Pumpkin Patch Wall Panel Picture came out that when I was designing my Babies Splashing In the Rain Fabric Collection and Alpacas Rock Fabric Collection I decided to create several baby fabrics and one alpaca fabric that could be used to create several custom fabric panel pictures.

Last week I finally had some time to create some and decided to start with my Alpacas Brown Panel Fabric which creates a 9” by 12” custom fabric wall panel decoration. It was very easy to make so I proceeded to make my Babies Splashing In The Rain  Fabric Panel Small, my It’s Raining Baby Boys Fabric Panel, and my It’s Raining Baby Girls Fabric Panel.

Since I was making them anyway I decided to create an e-book tutorial showing you how I made the Alpacas Rock Custom Fabric Panel Picture. All four of the custom fabric panel pictures are made the same way. They just use different size fabrics and different size cotton canvases so follow this tutorial for each of them.

For  more information on my Linda’s How-Do-I Series? How To Make Our Alpacas Rock, Babies Splashing In The Rain, It’s Raining Baby Boys, and It’s  Raining Baby Girls Custom Fabric Wall Panel Picture New Free E-Book please CLICK HERE.

Please respect My Terms of Use: All patterns, e-patterns, e-books, tutorials, how-to's, and e-products © 2004-2013 Linda Walsh Originals-Designs by Linda Walsh. All rights reserved, including downloading, mass producing, photocopying, enlargements, reductions, and all other forms of reproduction, website sharing, Email, RSS feeds, or any other means of redistribution. Commercial selling or reselling by any means, including eBay or any other website by permission only.

Products made from Linda Walsh Originals patterns, e-patterns, e-books, tutorials, how-to's, and e-products are intended for personal use for fun or small scale personal and business profit as long as you credit us with the design. Large scale commercial use (i.e. mass production) including wholesale distribution, catalog sales, and all other forms of large scale commercial production are by permission only. Items made from Linda Walsh Originals patterns, e-patterns, e-books, tutorials, how-to's, and e-products are intended for decoration only and are not intended for use by children. Not responsible for human error, individual workmanship, or printing errors in the E-books, E-products, tutorials, how-to's, patterns or the E-Patterns.

Copyright © 2013 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh of Linda Walsh Originals, Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns, and Linda's Blog. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer. http://lindawalshoriginals.com/

Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"

More Adorable Alpaca Faces

Rock Garden Alpacas New Collage

Finally, a picture of Roxy.  Such a sweetheart.  

How beautiful are Masquerade's eyes? I wonder what kind of children Roxy and Masquerade will create?

Ahhh the good life.... I just LOVE this picture. Zinnia and her mom, Ivy,  enjoying the sun and grass.

Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"

My New Custom Fabric Panel Pictures

I just love custom fabric.  Especially when it can be used to make quick and easy picture decorations and was so pleased with the way my Babies In The Pumpkin Patch Wall Panel Picture came out that when I was designing my Babies Splashing In the Rain Fabric Collection and Alpacas Rock Fabric Collection I decided to create several baby fabrics and one alpaca fabric that could be used to create several custom fabric panel pictures.

Babies Splashing In The Rain Custom Fabric Panel Picture - 11" by 14" Custom Fabric Panel Picture Decoration - Babies Splashing In The Rain Series

Babies Splashing In The Rain Custom Fabric Panel Picture is an 11" by 14" custom fabric panel picture.  It has custom baby fabric wrapped around an 11" by 14" canvas with a finished decorative paper back and saw tooth picture hanger.

Babies Splashing In The Rain Custom Fabric Panel Picture makes an adorable decoration for any newborn babies room.

For more information on my Babies Splashing In The Rain Custom Fabric Panel Picture please CLICK HERE.

It's Raining Baby Girls Custom Fabric Panel Picture - 8" by 10" Custom Fabric Panel Picture Decoration - Babies Splashing In The Rain Series

It's Raining Baby Girls Custom Fabric Panel Picture is an 8" by 10" custom fabric panel picture.  It has custom baby fabric wrapped around an 8" by 10" canvas with a finished decorative paper back and saw tooth picture hanger.

It's Raining Baby Girls Custom Fabric Panel Picture makes an adorable decoration for any newborn babies room.

For more information on my It's Raining Baby Girls Custom Fabric Panel Picture please CLICK HERE.

It's Raining Baby Boys Custom Fabric Panel Picture - 8" by 10" Custom Fabric Panel Picture Decoration - Babies Splashing In The Rain Series

It's Raining Baby Boys Custom Fabric Panel Picture is an 8" by 10" custom fabric panel picture.  It has custom baby fabric wrapped around an 8" by 10" canvas with a finished decorative paper back and saw tooth picture hanger.

It's Raining Baby Boys Custom Fabric Panel Picture makes an adorable decoration for any newborn babies room.

For more information on my It's Raining Baby Boys Custom Fabric Panel Picture please CLICK HERE.

 Alpacas Rock Custom Fabric Panel Picture - 9" by 12" Custom Fabric Panel Picture Decoration - Alpacas Rock Series

Alpacas Rock Custom Fabric Panel Picture is a 9" by 12" custom fabric panel picture.  It has custom alpaca fabric wrapped around a 9" by 12" canvas with a finished decorative paper back and saw tooth picture hanger.

Alpacas Rock Custom Fabric Panel Picture makes a wonderful decoration for anyone who loves alpacas.

For more information on my Alpacas Rock Custom Fabric Panel Picture please CLICK HERE.

Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"

My Embroidered Vintage Birdhouse Ornament Picture

Several years ago I bought a couple of creative embroidery and stitchery patterns for making ornaments that I wanted to make into little pictures and have been trying to find some time to complete them.  I decided that with the beautiful Spring weather this would be the perfect time to work on some of them outside.

I decided to start with a Vintage Ornament #6 embroidered birdhouse ornament from Chickadee Hollow Designs as it was cute and looked relatively easy to complete.  The pattern included the design on pre-printed pre-colored fabric, as well as a basic embroidery stitches sheet and sheet of basic instructions for completing their ornaments.

I had decided ahead of time that I wanted to frame my ornament as a small picture instead of using it as an ornament.

The pattern included a basic instructions sheet which was a summary sheet for competing all of their ornaments and not specific to the vintage birdhouse ornament as well as a sheet showing basic embroidery stitches. It was left up to the user to choose which color floss to use and where and which embroidery stitch to use and where.

The instructions called for positioning the design over a piece of Warm-N-Natural batting and fastening this with small safety pins then embroidering the ornament. The pre-printed pre-colored fabric was fine except it was so small and the design so close to the edge that it was impossible to fit within any embroidery hoop.

My experience has always been that embroideries always come out better when stretched in an embroidery hoop so I chose to baste my to a standard felt square so that I could put in into a small square embroidery frame as shown in the pictures below:

When my embroidery piece was done I removed it from the embroidery square hoop and cut it along the brown dotted lines about 1/4" from the edge of the birdhouse outline as shown in the pictures below:

The instructions also said to finish the piece according to the finishing option of your choice. I decided to blanket stitch my ornament to one layer of quilt batting and a back piece of felt as shown in the pictures below:

Using the embroidered birdhouse as a guide I cut out a piece of batting and a piece of felt for the backing and then layered them as shown in the picture below:

I had decided to use red floss to blanket stitch around the edges of my vintage birdhouse ornament and like how it turned out as shown in the picture below:

As mentioned previously I was going to put my finished vintage birdhouse ornament in a small picture frame and had decided to use decorative paper as a background for my picture. The choice was between an evergreen colored background or a bright red colored background. I chose the bright red colored background as shown in the picture below:

I had chosen a creme colored wood frame for my finished piece as I thought it really complimented the color of the pre-printed fabric and was thrilled with the way my Vintage Birdhouse Ornament turned out.

It took me 10 hours to complete this picture including the framing and was thrilled with the way it turned out. I hope you like it as much as I do.


Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"

How Can You Not LOVE These Faces

The "dollies" just LOVE their alpaca cousins.  How could they not? Just look at their faces!

For more information on Cosmo please CLICK HERE.
For more information on Zinnia please CLICK HERE.
For more information on Masquerade please CLICK HERE.
For more information on Sunflower please CLICK HERE.
For more information on Ivy please CLICK HERE.
For more information on Roxy please CLICK HERE.

Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"

Linda’s How-Do-I Series? How To Make My Flower Panel Fabric Picture - NEW Free E-Book

I have been anxious to use my flower picture large panel fabric design for a few months. With Spring finally arriving I decided it was time to create my “Flower Panel Flower Picture.”

I had decided to frame my fabric picture in a finished frame as I wanted to hang it as a picture in one of my bathrooms. So, I chose a finished gold frame that I had used for some press flower pictures I had created years ago that were faded now. I thought the gold frame was perfect for the cheery flower fabric. I also thought a dark teal blue 16” by 20” mat with 11” by 14” opening would be a perfect compliment to my flower fabric picture. I had also decided ahead of time that I wanted to add some dimension to my picture and thought a few silk ribbon flower heads would be perfect for that.

Here’s how I made my picture:

SUPPLIES NEEDED

Fat Quarter Flower Picture - Large Panel Fabric - http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1520850
16" by 20" Finished Picture Frame
16” by 20” Mat With 11” by 14” Opening - Teal Blue
Quilt Batting - 16” by 20”
3/4” Cream Colored Silk Ribbon Flowers - 5
16” by 20” Heavy Cardboard, Poster Board, or Foam Board
16” by 20” Piece Heavy Cardboard (If Necessary)
Masking Tape
16” by 20” Heavy Stock Paper For Backing
Double Sided Tape
Pencil
Glue Gun and Hot Glue
Picture Hanger With Saw Teeth
Nail (for Hanging Picture On wall)
Hammer

DIRECTIONS

1) Measure around the fat quarter flower picture - large panel fabric so it evenly measures 16” by 20” and then draw a line around it with a pencil. Make sure there is the same amount of spacing on the vertical and horizontal sides of the flower picture - large panel fabric.

2) Cut the 16” by 20” flower picture - large panel fabric out along the pencil lines you just drew.

3) Cut a piece of the quilt batting 14” by 18”.

4) Apply the double sided tape along all the edges of the 16” by 20” heavy cardboard, poster board, or foam board.

5) Center and lay the 14” by 18” piece of quilt batting on top of the 16” by 20” heavy cardboard, poster board, or foam board.

6) Center and tape the 16” by 20” flower panel fabric picture evenly to the 16” by 20” heavy cardboard, poster board, or foam board and on top of the 14” by 18” quilt batting.

7) Apply hot glue to the backs of the 5 cream colored silk floral and glue them to the front of the flower panel fabric picture as shown in the locations below:

8) Put the 16” by 20” teal blue mat inside the picture frame.

9) Put the flower panel fabric picture glued to the heavy cardboard, poster board, or foam board inside the picture frame and behind the mat making sure the picture is centered properly.

10) If the heavy cardboard, poster board, or foam board is not flush with the depth of the frame add a 16” by 20” piece of cardboard(s) until it is.

11) Tape the back of the heavy cardboard, poster board, foam board or cardboard piece you may have added to the back side of the frame with masking tape.

12) Apply the double sided tape along all the back edges of the 16” by 20” frame.

13) Cut a piece of the heavy stock paper 16” by 20”" for the backing.

14) Tape the heavy stock paper to the back of the frame so that it is evenly spaced on the back .

15) Center the picture hanger with saw teeth in the center of the top of the picture frame back and then hammer it to fasten it.

16) Hammer the nail into the wall where you want to hang your flower panel fabric picture and then hang your picture on the nail.

I also created a Linda's How-Do-I Series? How To Make Our Flower Panel Fabric Picture Free E-Book in .PDF format as well. To download my free e-book please CLICK HERE.

Please respect My Terms of Use: All patterns, e-patterns, e-books, tutorials, how-to's, and e-products © 2004-2013 Linda Walsh Originals-Designs by Linda Walsh. All rights reserved, including downloading, mass producing, photocopying, enlargements, reductions, and all other forms of reproduction, website sharing, Email, RSS feeds, or any other means of redistribution. Commercial selling or reselling by any means, including eBay or any other website by permission only.

Products made from Linda Walsh Originals patterns, e-patterns, e-books, tutorials, how-to's, and e-products are intended for personal use for fun or small scale personal and business profit as long as you credit us with the design. Large scale commercial use (i.e. mass production) including wholesale distribution, catalog sales, and all other forms of large scale commercial production are by permission only. Items made from Linda Walsh Originals patterns, e-patterns, e-books, tutorials, how-to's, and e-products are intended for decoration only and are not intended for use by children. Not responsible for human error, individual workmanship, or printing errors in the E-books, E-products, tutorials, how-to's, patterns or the E-Patterns.

Copyright © 2013 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh of Linda Walsh Originals, Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns, and Linda's Blog. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer. http://lindawalshoriginals.com/

My Haunted Library Cross-Stitch Shadowbox Picture

Haunted Library - Mill Hill Buttons & Beads Cross-Stitch Kit #MH14-0201

One of my all time favorite holidays is Halloween. I think it's the large number of creatures that you can make for this one holiday that draws me to it. So, of course, I was drawn to some of the Halloween cross-stitch kits I saw from Mill Hill.

Like the other Mill Hill - Buttons & Beads Series patterns I had bought the  Haunted Library kit included the pattern, embroidery thread, perforated paper, beads, ghost button, 2 needles and instructions.

The Haunted Library pattern uses full counted cross-stitch and outline stitching as well as beads and buttons for emphasis and depth. The pattern also calls for certain areas of the perforated paper to be left untouched as the background. In this case they were leaving sections of the dark blue perforated paper background untouched.

I, once again, decided to frame my finished cross-stitch picture in a 5" by 5" white shadow box frame that is 1 1/2" deep and can stand on it's own (like the picture at the top of this post) or with its back picture stand (like the picture above) as I've been really happy with the way all my other cross-stitch shadowbox pictures have come out.

I also decided to once again utilize the rectangular wood frame jig that my darling husband built for me(pictured above) that I could tape the edges of my perforated paper to. The wood frame jig is a rectangular embroidery hoop of sorts, but without bending the perforated  paper. He had made it out of 1/2" x 1" pine wood strips with an adjustable center strip that I used for this 5 x 5 square design.

I had learned from previous mistakes that I needed to draw diagonal lines to locate the exact center of the perforated paper as in the last perforated paper cross-stitch picture I had done was slightly off center by a few holes which caused a problem with inserting the needles in the holes along one of the edges of my frame. So, I drew a diagonal line across each corner to get the center point of the perforated paper.

I had also run into a slight problem with one of the perforated paper cross-stitch pictures I had previously created with the beads along the edge causing a problem when framing so this time I also drew squares on the perforated paper to show me where the 5" x 5" square was. Plus, I knew I wanted to square my picture so I needed to know where to end my stitching.

While the end results of this design were wonderful some things in the kit and in the instructions could be improved upon so I'd like to offer the following constructive suggestions:

The cross-stitch chart was in black and white as was the floss color code and symbol key. Both were easy to read and very clear. While I had no problem with the chart and keys I did have a problem with the way the DMC floss was presented. All of the floss was tied together in one big knot so you had to separate the floss pieces yourself, sort them, and try to interpret which color belonged to which floss # and symbol key on the color chart.  If you only have a few colors to deal with this isn't a problem. However, if you have several different colors of say gray to choose from that are close in color then interpreting the chart can be tricky. You may assign the wrong color to the wrong symbol if the colors are too closely aligned.

As I have done with other cross-stitch kits I've completed I had to design my own thread color sorter and symbol key. I took a piece of thin cardboard and cut a 1" x 9" long rectangular piece out to use as a thread sorter. I then punched 15 holes in my cardboard strip in which to tie each of the different colors. Just above the hole I wrote the DMC floss # and just below the hole I added the respective cross-stitch symbol. I then inserted the floss threads that went with that # and symbol through the hole and tied them in a loose knot. This kit could be much improved if a thread sorter with respective #'s and symbols was provided.

The beads were contained within two small ziploc bags which was fine. However, when several different beads of similar color or size are included within the bags it can be very difficult to distinguish between the colors or between the petite and regular size beads.  Labeling the ziploc bags as to which bead number they contained would enhance this kit and allow you to tie the bead # to the symbol number on the charts.

The pattern called for certain areas of the perforated paper to be left untouched as the background like the picture shown below:

However, I don't like seeing the different perforated sections in the background and opted instead to finish all of the background with a dark teal  blue DMC embroidery floss color that closely matched the color of the dark teal blue perforated paper and would be sewn as a half-cross stitch using two strands of the floss.   I had decided to square the edges of my picture and also decided to add two rows of the dark teal blue floss around all the edges to make sure the perforated paper would not be visible once my cross stitch picture was framed in its' shadowbox.

Instead of mounting my picture on foam as I had done with my previous cross-stitch I opted instead to mount my Haunted Library on hard chipboard.

My results with the totally finished background, square edges, and hard chipboard is shown below:

The kit had included a white ghost button that was cute so I decided to include it in my final design.

Despite the relatively small issues I had encountered with the kit I was thrilled with the way my Haunted Library turned out. There is a lot going on in a very small cross-stitch picture and it is amazing to see all the details.   The beading and stitching around the front door really creates a 3-dimensional effect for the doorway.

It took me 32  hours to complete this picture including the framing. As always, my comments are meant to be constructive to enable future purchasers to benefit from my experience and to enhance their ability to create a wonderful little cross-stitch design.


Posted by Linda Walsh Originals- "Doll Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns - "Instant Download E-Patterns for Grown-up Girls!"
Linda Walsh Originals Dolls - "Handmade Dolls & Crafts for Grown-up Girls!"