I recently gave this cross stitch to my friends, in celebration of their wedding earlier this year. As soon as I saw this pattern I knew it would make a perfect gift. The design is based on a New York subway tile. I like the Charles Rennie Mackintosh vibe, both in style and colour and thought they'd like too. A quick google tells me the design is actually an interpretation of a book cover by Talwin Morris.
My friends also happen to have a love of birds - well I already knew the groom did but happily have since discovered they both do. He's been my friend since primary school, for as long as I can remember, and I wanted to make them something special.
It was such a fabulous wedding, me and my family camped in a bell tent! It was laid back, awesome fun and we couldn't be happier for such a lovely couple.
The first stitches were made in February 2021. The fabric is 18 count Zweigart Aida in Willow.
I didn't use the DMC colour chart from the pattern and instead picked similar Aurifloss colours. I did refer to this conversion chart, though if memory serves I deviated slightly.
I used Aurifloss in 2692 Black, 2021 Natural White, 1114 Grass Green, 5023 Medium Green and 2320 Light Toast.
Since it was a wedding gift, I wanted to personalise the design with names or a date. My first idea was to add their names towards the bottom, I went off the idea because it could have ended up being too busy and distracting. I then decided just to add the date of their wedding, which handily would serve as a good reminder for anniversaries!
It was my husband who suggested adding it in to the border at the top. Genius. It was perfect, like the birds were singing the date.
I'm super picky about fonts, which also extends to digits. I have a few books and patterns I like to reference for text and numbers. I searched through and decided to use the numbers from Modern Folk Embroidery's pattern The Fruits of Plenty, you can see my finished version in this post.
It's so lovely when you're stitching and the pattern is building, the texture of cross stitch always feels wonderful. The pattern is actually full coverage but I knew I would be bored filling in all the background and so I relied on the colour of the fabric to do the work for me.
I'm so tempted to do a full coverage piece but I haven't found one I like. I would like something with lots of detail not just stitching background. I've looked at Heaven and Earth but can't find any I really like. So if you can recommend any full coverage patterns please leave me a comment below, I'd be so grateful!
I'm so pleased with how it turned out and am pleased to say my friends were delighted with it too! I didn't frame it for them, frames are such a personal taste thing and I wasn't sure what style they would like. I have offered to put it in the frame when they find one they like. I forgot to measure it but it's bigger than it looks! A progress shot, next to my headphones for an idea ...
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The Crows cross stitch pattern is from NewYorkNeedleworks on Etsy. It's very basic, just the chart and the colour chart. Not that you need more than that but it could be tricky for some to read and there's no way to really enlarge it, it's just on two pages. It also wasn't in a printable format that I'm used to, each page and the colour chart was a PDF file. Anyway, it's a beautiful design regardless.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, maybe see you at the Saturday Night Craft Along on IG!
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