Gen Z Crafts

A Revamp of Crafts for a More Modern Age

Author: etrumann99

Dinosaur and Volcano Cross Stitch Pattern — March 20, 2021

Dinosaur and Volcano Cross Stitch Pattern

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But maybe less volcano than you’re expecting

This is what the patterns should look like both digitally and when finished!

Like many others during quarantine, I was struggling to find the motivation to do really anything. I spent a lot of time rotating through social media apps trying to find anything to distract me for more than 4 minutes. So, I spent a lot of time on Pinterest, looking at cross-stitch patterns and quilting methods until I finally found a project that I was interested in working on.

I was inspired to make this by a project that I saw on Pinterest, which is where I found the patterns for most of this project. I have reformatted them into some easy-to-use cross stitch patterns that I followed when I made my project, but I will acknowledge that this project wasn’t entirely my own. While I looked for a legitimate pattern for this project, I couldn’t ever find one, so I had to really set out to make my own, which I did by hand in an old graph paper notebook I used for my cells lab.

Here’s some information on the dinosaurs I used for the front of the shirt: red velociraptor, purple triceratops, orange stegosaurus, and blue brontosaurus. I also used a stegosaurus, triceratops, and brontosaurus on the back of the shirt too! There’s no real reason why I used these dinosaurs, other than I had found these patterns to use and they’re all easily recognizable dinosaurs. Obviously, none of these colors are accurate to how the dinosaurs actually looked like, I just wanted to use nice bright colors because it’s fun and I had a lot of random floss that I could use for these!

This project really is just a combination of me looking at all the extra supplies I had in my house and a project I was passionate about and just me sitting down and doing it. All in all, the whole project took me a week to finish, but if worked on it a little bit more consistently it probably would have only taken me 4 days.

Pattern

One thing I had to learn about when starting this project was how to use waste canvas and what that was exactly. So, waste canvas is essentially just like the Aida you would use for a regular cross stitch project, but the fabric itself isn’t as put together so that you can remove it after the project is done. One of my biggest struggles, in the beginning, was trying to figure out how exactly to stitch with it because you want the stitches to stay together, but the “holes” were difficult to understand. As you can see in this picture, there are smaller holes that you can stitch through and large holes that are there for some other reason.

Source

Anyway, once you figure out how to start stitching on the waste canvas, the project starts to go along much like any other normal project. Taking out the canvas isn’t as bad as I thought it would be either, as long as you don’t accidentally stitch through the waste canvas itself. I did that a few times and it was a pain to try and get the waste canvas out of the stitches without ruining the project. If you’re looking for some tips on how to use waste canvas, both of these blogs have some helpful tips you can use.

I ended up converting patterns of all the dinosaurs that you can use if you want! I originally reformatted these all by hand on graph paper, but I converted them to a digital format just to keep the patterns themselves cleaner. All of the big dinosaur designs were made by Yarn Geekery as a crochet pattern, but I did convert them into the cross-stitch pattern that I used. The smaller dinosaurs on the back of the shirt were a pattern I found on Pinterest as well, but they don’t have a link to the original poster, which is one of the problems of using Pinterest in general. In contrast to my other posts, I used 2 strands of floss for the main stitches, but 2 strands of floss for the backstitch because I wanted all the colors to stand out.

I’m going to be honest with y’all right now. The volcano was around 95% improvisation and like 5% planning. As much as I would like to supply you with a pattern for the volcano, it’s almost impossible to make with the software I use. So instead, I’m just giving you tips that should help you should you choose to do this!

This is how I planned the volcano, it’s a little messy, but it worked.

I just drew a triangular shape with a flat top on the waste canvas and just went from there. Most of the outer stitches are ¾ stitches to make the edges look straighter. Another thing I kind of threw in there was the back stitching between the colors of the lava, where the color matched the section right underneath it. So, for example, the back stitch between the orange and red sections was done in red. Everything was lined in black back stitch, including the divide between the lava and the rock. There was a lot of free form stitching and just trying to see what I could even do, which makes it hard to tell others how to do it. My main advice for the volcano is to just try!

Just to reiterate, I wanted to try something new during quarantine and I found this pattern that I thought would be cool on a sweatshirt, so I tried it out. Pretty much all of these patterns aren’t entirely my own, I just reformatted most of these patterns in order to make it easier for people who want to use them as cross-stitch patterns for a personal project like I did!

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Subversive Cross Stitch Pattern — November 6, 2019

Subversive Cross Stitch Pattern

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aka I’m finally allowing myself to swear on this blog

Example of what the pattern looks like

Hi, if you’ve ever talked to me outside of an academic setting, you know that I swear a lot. In fact, according to my father, I swear like a sailor and should join the Navy. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just how I am.

Also, if you’re ever told to stop swearing because it’s not ladylike or not appropriate for your age/gender, fuck them. You are allowed to be your own person and present yourself the way you feel comfortable. If that involves swearing every other word, then so be it. You are you and no one should take that away from you.

Anyway, this all has a point. Subversive cross stitch is a style of cross-stitch that takes the medium itself and makes it a little more modern and vulgar. Many examples are expletive-laden, like the pattern in this post. While not all subversive cross stitch patterns have expletives, many of them do.

Source

This specific quote is one that is used quite frequently in my friend group. It comes from an abridged retelling of something that one of my professors said to me when I asked a question. Obviously, this isn’t a word for word what they said, it was me retelling it to my friends in a rant/explanation.

On a totally different viewpoint, this quote could come across as somewhat uplifting, in a more modern take of the word bitch. It’s a call to action for you to figure out your life or whatever issue you’re working on tied in with a reaffirmation of your ability to deal with it.

Pattern Explanation

This pattern is set up to be done on 14 count Aida fabric and with DMC floss, but those can be exchanged for whatever materials you would prefer to use. You can change out the colors for whatever colors you want. As I always say, my patterns are usually made so you can follow the basic structures. You can be as creative as you want with colors or spacing.

The body of this project uses 2 pieces of floss since it’s all stitches. This pattern is fairly simple, which sticks to the brand of subversive cross stitch. Which is a plus because back stitch is kind of hard sometimes. Apparently, there is also a right and wrong way of doing back stitch, which I will be covering in a later post.

So, to recap, I swear a lot in real life and that’s okay anyone can do it. My professor didn’t really help me one time and now my friend group has a classic quote. This pattern is a subversive cross stitch pattern and you only have to do stitches for it.

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Percy Jackson Cross Stitch Pattern — August 23, 2019

Percy Jackson Cross Stitch Pattern

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That’s right, we’re back and packed full of even more nostalgia

Example of what the pattern looks like

Hi. I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated but I’m back and I’m here with another hyper fixation from my childhood. This specific interest is “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.” This was originally a book series that was horrifically murdered as a movie series and then revitalized as a Broadway musical. We never talk about the movie. Ever.

The main premise of the Percy Jackson series is that the Greco-Roman gods are real, and they have children with mortals. These children are half-bloods or demigods since they are half-god half-mortal. Percy is one of these half-bloods, so life really isn’t easy for him or the others because of the monsters who can sense them and are revenge-driven. This series is around 10 books long, so there’s a lot of minute details about the universe that you can’t really summarize well.

One thing that has always really stuck with me about this series is the fact that all half-bloods typically have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia or both. These learning disabilities are usually seen as obstacles in classroom environments but are actually an advantage when you’re on the battlefield. That was really important to me when I was younger because I also had issues with focusing, so it helped to normalize what I was experiencing. It was nice to think that I had a kind of superhuman power instead of something that everyone else was upset about.

Grover, Annabeth and Percy from the first book. Source

Not only was this series full of positive representation of learning disabilities, but it was also cool to read about characters that were my age doing all sorts of cool things, like traveling the U.S.,  having cabin counselor meetings around a ping pong table and meeting all sorts of mythological creatures. It seemed more like an escape to me, even if Percy was on the verge of death in each book, because I wanted to do those things and more, but I never really had access to some of those things, partly because they aren’t real and partly because the area I grew up in is more isolated than New York City.

Even going back and rereading the books as a junior in college, I still feel this escape, even in the suburbs. Reading these books feels like going home to me because it was such a big part of me as a child. I can’t even really explain how significant this book is to me because there aren’t the words. It just is.

Being a half-blood is dangerous. It’s scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.

Percy Jackson, The Lightning Thief – Chapter 1

Pattern and Explanation

I know I just went on and on about the books in the previous section, but the quote used in this pattern is actually from the musical. It’s from the song “Son of Poseidon” which comes up at the climax of the plot. This might be somewhat of a spoiler but I love this line because of the intensity this line is sang with and emotions that come with it.

As always, this pattern is set up for 14 count Aida and DMC floss, but you can change materials based on what size you want it to be and what kind of access you have to materials. The body piece should use two pieces of floss, but if you want less white space between the stitches, then use three. The words can use one strand of floss, but I would recommend two strands of floss for the detail work. The combination of back stitch and stitches in the text is a new thing that I’m trying but you still follow all the same rules and instructions as before.

So long story short, Percy Jackson was a very big part of my childhood identity and it still is. I might update this with a picture of a tattoo that I’m thinking of getting that is very related to this book series but isn’t blatantly obvious about it. Anyway, enjoy this pattern and comment if there are any patterns you would like to have, and I can see if I can make it for you!

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Avengers cross stitch pattern — June 1, 2019

Avengers cross stitch pattern

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Is it still to early to talk about Endgame?

Example of what the pattern looks like

Everyone has a favorite Marvel character and if you don’t that’s fine, I’m not here to judge you. My favorite is Bucky Barnes (the Winter Soldier), who isn’t even in this piece, but that’s whatever right now. It’s about the Avengers not a line up of my favorite characters. A fun fact that is probably a little more relevant to the piece is that my mom’s favorite character is the Hulk. So, watching Endgame was pretty fun with her.

Anyway, my family and I have been watching Marvel movies since they first started coming out years ago. It was always fun to go out, watch the movies and the go directly into the car to talk shit about the entire movie and how it went against the comic books. That was fun until we had to try and explain it to our parents and we’re three layers deep in lore and they’ve barely scratched the surface. Which, to be honest, also happened with Star Wars all the time.

Not going to lie, I did this pattern because of all the hype about Marvel that’s been going on now since Endgame came out. It’s not that I don’t like the Avengers, I literally just talked about it up there, I’m just not as passionate about it right now due to finals coming up. It was easy to do and not really stressful, so I went for it and I am not ashamed of that.

Source

Pattern and Explanation

As always, this pattern is set up for 14 count Aida and DMC floss, but you can change materials based on what size you want it to be and what kind of access you have to materials. The body pieces should use two pieces of floss, but if you want less white space between the stitches, then use three. The words can use one strand of floss, but I would recommend two strands of floss for the detail work on the emblems just because they are kind of busy and it’s already hard to see some of them.

You are free to change the colors or designs if you want. It’s your cross stitch, not mine and you should do what you want, not what I tell you to. I only make what I would do. Honestly, I don’t even really use patterns in the correct way anyway. You’re supposed to go directly by it and count with the stitches, but I just use it as a guide. I get the correct shapes and how to do some of the detail work from the pattern but I freehand the rest of it.

Anyway, Marvel and the Avengers are special to me because it’s been around for a majority of my life and I’ve had a lot of good times watching the movies. Also, this was fairly easy to make and plan for, so it was a good end of the year project when all of the projects are due at the same time.

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Hi is this really even a spoiler??
Tennessee cross stitch pattern — May 28, 2019

Tennessee cross stitch pattern

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This seems like a bad time to tell you how close I came to being a Volunteer and not a Cardinal. Go Cards though!

Example of what the pattern looks like

During my junior year of high school, I had decided that I no longer wanted to be an obstetrician and that I wanted to work with the exact opposite kinds of people. That’s right I wanted to be a medical examiner and work with dead people. This change in plans also changed my top college from Western Kentucky University to the University of Tennessee.

I know that this is a weird introduction for this topic, but hear me out, it’s going to connect in a second. While researching the qualification of a medical examiner, I found out that the University of Tennessee had a body farm, which to me is the coolest thing ever. As a disclaimer, the bodies are donated to the center and are treated with respect by the professors and students.

At the body farm, forensic scientists in training observe how decomposition is affected by the different situations and condition they are put in. This is to help the medical examiners and forensic scientists determine decay rates and possible times of death while in the field. Anyway, the University of Tennessee had one, so I was definitely interested.

This is a picture of Smokey that I took while on a college visit!

As much as I love where I am at right now and how I know that I probably wouldn’t have done as well at a big university, I still feel connected to Tennessee and the University of Tennessee by extension. It had the atmosphere that I was looking for, but in the end, it just didn’t work out for me. But there’s always graduate school to look forward to.

Hi, also the University of Tennessee has the cutest mascot who is a Bluetick Coonhound named Smokey. I love him if that was a surprise to anyone. The quote is the from the unofficial fight song for the University of Tennessee, “Rocky Top”, which is the song that is played after every touchdown. I had the ability to see a football game at Neyland Stadium and it was so cool to see the energy and vibe after each touchdown where the whole stadium is singing along.

Neyland Stadium on game day. Source

Pattern and Explanation

This pattern is set up to be done on 14 count Aida fabric and with DMC floss, but those can be exchanged for whatever materials you would prefer to use. I know that I usually say you can use whatever colors you want, but I feel like with this one is more structured. The orange used in this piece is the closest orange that I could find to match Tennessee Orange, the official color of the University of Tennessee.

The body of this project uses two pieces of floss while the outlines and words use only one piece of floss. This project is mostly regular stitching, with the only back stitch being the quote at the bottom. So, it should be a good break from all the back stitching in my other patterns. It’s just an easy way to outline objects without making it thick and obvious.

To recap, I almost went to the University of Tennessee because they had a body farm and that’s really cool, but I didn’t and now I go to a college in the Midwest, which is honestly a better fit for me anyway. A bright spot in this entire thing is that now I have a bunch of random knowledge on the University of Tennessee, which has actually come in handy in high school during Scholastic Bowl matches.

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Opossum cross stitch pattern — May 23, 2019

Opossum cross stitch pattern

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and reasons why you should be nice to opossums and their babies. Please don’t hit them with your car.

Example of what the pattern looks like

Reason 1: I love them. That’s it.

No, in all honesty, there are many reasons why you should be aware and respectful of opossums, that one is just my favorite. Also, I’m going to clarify right now that this post is centered around the Virginia Opossum, which is the only marsupial in North America. This is not about possums, which are a marsupial that lives in Australia. I realize that possum may be a colloquial term to refer to the Virginia Opossum, and I feel that in my soul, but to be scientifically correct I had to clarify that.

Reason 2: Opossums eat ticks, which helps to lower the chances of someone getting Lyme Disease

Lyme Disease  is a disease that is passed on by infected ticks. Once you get Lyme Disease, it takes a lot of antibiotics to try and fight off the disease while you also have to deal with the muscle fatigue and rashes. One good thing about opossums is that they can eat ticks without getting Lyme Disease. They’re dilution hosts, meaning that an infected tick can bite them and then that same tick can bite you and you won’t be infected.

Source

Reason 3: They also eat mosquitos, small rodents and other pests that you don’t like or necessarily want to be around

I know that everyone always jokes about opossums being trash cats and other things related to garbage, but they do so much more than just hang out by the dumpster. They actually eat a lot of the bugs and other organisms that live around your trash and some of your actual trash, but that’s life.

Reason 4: The babies don’t always die when the mom does

Since opossums are marsupials, they carry their young in pouches until they are old enough to get a ride on the mom’s back. So, there’s always a chance of a dead opossum having young in their pouch after getting hit by a car. When you come upon a dead opossum, the first thing you need to do is check whether or not they are male or female. If they’re male, just move them off the road if they’re on the road. If they’re female, check if there are any babies in their pouch. This is a video that shows you how to remove the babies.

Obviously, be safe and smart about this. Do not just go and put your bare ass hands on a dead animal and do not just try and pick up an injured opossum. They are still wild animals and you need to treat them as such. Don’t be afraid of them but be mindful of what you’re doing. If you are unsure about how to deal with this kind of situation, the best thing to do is call your local wildlife rehabilitation center. This is also a good reference for what to do if you see an injured or dead opossum with babies.

Look at her carry all her kids! Source

Pattern and Explanation

So, the quote was supposed to be like that, it’s a reference of this tweet. Other than that, this is pretty much the same set up as the rest of my patterns. It’s set up to be done on your favorite count of Aida fabric, personally, I would do it on 14 count, but that’s just because I have so much of it. The colors of the words can be done in any color, but the opossum itself should probably stay the same colors as the pattern. However, I can’t control you so go nuts if you want. Make a blue, red and purple opossum, create what you want to see in the world.

The outlines and words should use one strand of floss while the stitches should use two strands of floss. Again though, I don’t control you, so if you want less white space between the stitches, use three strands of floss instead of two.

Anyway, be nice to opossums and their babies, they help get rid of insects and ticks. Also, they’re cute and I love them. But we still have to use our brains when interacting with them because while they might be cute, they will react like wild animals if they are afraid.  

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Look at their hat!! Source

The Adventure Zone cross stitch pattern — May 20, 2019

The Adventure Zone cross stitch pattern

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Also known as I love Dungeons & Dragons and the McElroy family is responsible for 98 percent of my humor

Example of what the pattern looks like

Hi, I’m back with more of patterns of my extremely niche interests. This one is a more recent interest of mine, I only started listening to this podcast at the beginning of this school year on my drive home from college or when doing laundry, but it quickly became a favorite of mine because of the players and their humor.

The Adventure Zone is a Dungeons and Dragons actual play podcast ran by Justin, Travis, Griffin and Clint McElroy. The McElroy family has several different podcasts with different members of their family, all about a range of different topics from the Bachelor to weird medical history to manners and why they are important.

This particular piece is based on the Balance arc, which is the first arc they ever did. This arc included classic characters such as Magnus Burnsides (played by Travis), Merle Highchurch (played by Clint) and Taako (played by Justin). All other characters were played by Griffin, the dungeon master. This pattern is made of the top quotes by each of the main characters and one thing that represents them the most to me.

The first section is for Magnus, a human fighter/rogue who sticks to his guts. As you can probably tell by the quote, he doesn’t really think before he acts and usually suffers the consequences of that rashness. The picture can really be two separate things, depending on how you look at it, and luckily, they both represent Magnus, so that’s great. I was intending for it to look like his ax, Railsplitter. However, I have also been told that it looks like a hammer, which is what carpenters use and Magnus is a master carpenter, so it fits.

Here’s a depiction of what the characters look like from at the bottom corner left to right: Taako, Magnus and Merle (Source)

The second section is for Merle, a dwarven cleric who really isn’t that great of a cleric, considering he didn’t really know how to heal after three years of playing. But that’s not the subject of this. As a cleric, you can cast usually religion based or healing based spells and one that Merle used the most was Zone of Truth, which casts a 15-foot radius around an object that no one can lie in if they fail a charisma saving throw. He would use it at inopportune times, like when they needed to lie to other people, but they needed the others to tell the truth. Merle’s icon is the Extreme Teen Bible, a holy symbol that increases his cleric abilities as a follower of Pan.

The last section is for Taako, an elven wizard who is aloof but also chill with people he respects. His quote is based on the fact that if he doesn’t personally have skin in the game, he won’t really stick his neck out for another person. He’s basically the opposite of Magnus. This changes as the relationships between the characters evolve, but if he doesn’t think a plan is going to work well or if it’s bad, he just won’t participate and will stay back. Taako’s icon is the Umbra Staff, a magical umbrella that he uses to perform magic with. It’s essentially his magic wand in a way. There’s more to it than that, but that’s major spoilers and I don’t want to ruin anyone’s experience.

When someone leaves your life, those exits are not made equal. Some are beautiful and poetic and satisfying. Others are abrupt and unfair. But most are just unremarkable, unintentional and clumsy.

Griffin McElroy, Ep. 66 The Stolen Century – Chapter Seven

Patterns and Explanations

This pattern is set up to be done on 14 count Aida fabric and with DMC floss, but those can be exchanged for whatever materials you would prefer to use. You don’t have to use these colors, you can use whatever you want. Canon is just a suggestion sometimes anyway, but especially with this media.

The body of this project uses two pieces of floss while the outlines and words use only one piece of floss. I personally would suggest finishing all of the body first and then going back over it with the detail work because they aren’t necessarily secure, depending on how you do it. It’s usually prone to falling or moving around where you start it.

Since this project is in a landscape setting instead of my usual portrait setting, the pattern is split into two pieces. One way to get around this is to just cut the white space around where the grid should line up with the two pieces and tape them together. Another way to do this is to just count the number of stitches between the two pieces and play it by ear.

Anyway, that was my thoughts on The Adventure Zone, or I guess really just my info dumping of it for you guys. Hopefully some of you consider listening to it if you haven’t already. It’s a really great podcast filled with goofs but also serious moments and wonderful characters and story lines.

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Mammoth Cave cross stitch pattern — May 8, 2019

Mammoth Cave cross stitch pattern

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Also known as I love Kentucky, bats, and nostalgia

This is an example of how the pattern will look

Mammoth Cave National Park is located in Cave City, Ky., a place I spent many childhood vacations exploring and enjoying all it had to offer. From geodes to a burgeoning interest in pathology, there are tons of things to find. I might be biased, but it is one of my top two favorite national parks to go to. If we’re being honest Great Smoky Mountains National Park is right up there on the same level.

I’ve spent a lot of time there, sweating in the muggy air and running away from the wasps that hid in the old wooden structures that littered the small town. Of course, since it was a family vacation, there had to be some sense of peril mixed with nostalgia, so we went to this action park to try and experience what my father and his sisters did when they were kids, back when Cave City was in its heyday.

There is an attraction there called the Alpine Slide, which is essentially just a fiberglass slide that goes down the side of a mountain. There are sleds that you sit in with a lever that pushes the wheels down to slow you down or pulls the wheels up to make you go faster. You can actually get going pretty fast down the twists and turns, which can lead to disaster when you factor in the age and maturity levels of some of the people who take part in this activity, myself included. (I definitely fell out and scarred my leg up for a couple years.)

Picture of the Alpine Slide Source

Cave City also has other memories for me, some that are a lot less dangerous and probably more related to the pattern. I just like talking about my times there because my family and I have had a lot of good times down there that I want to share but will not because this is a cross stitch blog, not Emily’s travel blog.

Mammoth Cave is actually where I first started to consider going into a more research related field after seeing that white nose syndrome had spread to the bats that live in the cave system. White nose syndrome (WNS) is a fungal spore that grows on the nose and wing membranes of bats. It is not native to the Americas and was only discovered in the U.S. around 2007, in a cave system near Albany, N.Y.

A picture of white nose syndrome on a brown bat Source

WNS is very contagious and there is no cure or treatment for it yet, so it’s very deadly. It’s estimated that around 6.7 million bats have died from WNS in the U.S. alone since 2006. Since this is a relatively new disease for the bat population, and therefore also people in the U.S., it’s shown that WNS was inadvertently spread by humans who went spelunking  in different cave systems. The spores can attach themselves to hiking gear and clothes since they are hard to kill they’ll spread when people go to each cave system. There is no evidence stating that WNS is dangerous to humans, so don’t worry if you’ve been spelunking in the last few months.

Hi, sorry, I just wanted to info dump there for a couple of paragraphs since I’m debating doing my thesis on WNS and how to possibly kill the fungus on clothes and hiking gear in order to lessen the spread of it to other cave systems that might not have it yet.

The quote at the bottom is from Stephen Bishop, one of the first people to guide others through the cave system. He was the first person to see many of the major landmarks in the cave system, including the eyeless fish. One of the accounts that he left behind stated that the caves were “a grand, gloomy and peculiar place.”

Mammoth Cave Source

Pattern and Explanation

I originally planned to have this pattern on a black Aida with white, green and silver elements in it, but then I actually made the pattern and fell in love with the way that I have it now. I might actually make it this way now, who knows.

As always, the Aida cloth of choice is 14 count and the floss amount for the stitches are two and the details are one. You can change out the colors for whatever colors you would like for this as well. This pattern is a simpler pattern as well, there’s just more detail work because of the writing.

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‘And the rest is rust and stardust’ quote cross stitch pattern — May 6, 2019

‘And the rest is rust and stardust’ quote cross stitch pattern

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Trying to balance my internal struggle with topics in source material with my base instincts going off over twinkly things

TW: mentions of pedophilia

Example of what the pattern will look like

Hi, I know that this is kind of a niche thing to do, but I’m rationalizing it with the fact that this pattern might spark others into liking or at least thinking about this quote more. It was in the running to be my senior quote in high school, but one horribly attempted speech in my senior English class and it was overtaken by a more appropriate quote from “The Office.”

“And the rest is rust and stardust” is quote from a poem written by Humbert Humbert, the main character of “Lolita.” This specific line is at the end of the poem “Wanted”, which is about how Humbert felt when his love interest left him for someone her own age. If you weren’t aware the entire story is basically about pedophilia and how it affects the world.

I have a rough relationship with this quote because I love the quote itself, but the source is kind of difficult for me to deal with. I understand that Lolita can be considered a classic but just because it’s a classic, doesn’t mean we can’t question it. The content just doesn’t sit right with me and that’s it. I appreciate the quote but its source material doesn’t interest me.

Source

However, I love the idea that everything in the world can be considered rust and stardust. The possibility of being part of a celestial system and body is kind of fascinating to me because that’s space and space is amazing, cool and mysterious. Those are all things that I would like to associate myself with and would possibly want to be.

I’m in love with the stars after having grown up looking at them on warm summer nights for hours. There was less light pollution than in the city, so you could see so many stars and planets. I was taught constellations from a young age and I’ve only become more obsessed with them over time. In case you were wondering, the constellations in this pattern are as follows: Cassiopeia (top left), Perseus (top right), Libra (bottom left) and Ursa Major (bottom right).

Pattern and Explanation

This pattern is actually made for a darker colored Aida fabric. Since this pattern is hard to see on the computer and printed paper, it’s set up with the white background, but I actually did this on a navy Aida with a copper-colored floss for the words and a sparkly white floss for the constellations. I originally intended to make this pattern reflect that, but I want people to be able to see what they’re making.

This floss is definitely more of a challenge to work with since it has more plastic like attributes, so it doesn’t want to thread through the needle as easily as regular floss. It will also look bulkier in the stitches than regular floss, so I would recommend only using 1 or 2 strands of floss for your stitches, especially for the words and the star points on the constellations. If you want some techniques for working with metallic floss, this link should be a help.

As I say on all of my patterns, you don’t have to do exactly what I did. If you don’t want to mess with the metallic looking floss, then exchange it for the things you want. I’m just putting out what I want to see and do. That’s what this entire blog is about, doing what you want and making your projects your own.

And-the-rest-is-rust-and-stardust-patternDownload
Faded blue paw print cross stitch pattern — May 1, 2019

Faded blue paw print cross stitch pattern

/etrumann99/Leave a comment

Also known as I love my dog and the color blue


This is what the pattern looks like. This is using 4 different shades of blue.

Hi, I am one of those people who has more pictures of their dog on their phone than of themselves. I have always been this way and don’t plan on changing this in the future. Sorry Mom and Dad, but also not sorry. 🙂

I love all animals, but there’s a special spot in my heart for dogs. That’s why I’m trying to find my peak occupation of working at a wildlife reserve in an more rural area and taking care of several dogs. That would be me living my best life.

Also, not to hijack the point of this post, but here’s a picture of my puppy, Maggie Mae. She’s a pit bull-chocolate lab mix, and I love her. Her face looks like that because she’s dramatic and can’t handle sitting for a picture longer than 2 seconds. She is a baby, but we love her.

My baby!

If any of y’all would also like to info dump about your pets and are comfortable about putting their picture on the internet, hit up me up in the comment section. I am always down to appreciate pets and the hard work they do being cute.

Pattern and Explanation

This pattern is little more complex than the previous patterns that I have put up, mostly because it is just bigger than all the other patterns I’ve put up.

Since this is more of a medium sized project, the pattern is not formatted in the same way. One way to get around this is to just cut the extra pieces off around the grid and tape the pattern together to form one big pattern. Another way is to halfway align the halves of the pattern in a way where you can still count correctly but you only have to keep track of one section at a time.

These colors can be switched out for any colors you want. I chose these because I love the color blue and I liked how these colors looked together. For this project, two threads should be enough, but if you want less space between the stitches, three threads should be good enough.

This isn’t a hard project overall, it’s just going to take some time to count out and stitch all the portions of the print, so account for that if you’re on a tight schedule or if you want that instant gratification.

blue-dog-print-patternDownload

Hi, here’s one more picture of my dog.

She can be expressive too, she’s just dramatic most of the time
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