Gen Z Crafts

A Revamp of Crafts for a More Modern Age

Tag: modern cross stitch

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.

mammoth-cave-patternDownload
‘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

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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
“The Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” cross stitch pattern — April 29, 2019

“The Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” cross stitch pattern

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and other science jokes that should be made into patterns or at least spread past my organic chemistry class

Example of what the pattern looks like

Ok, so the title was kind of lie, there aren’t really any more science jokes in this post. At least not any that are going to be stitched out. There will definitely be some from my organic professor because he makes the most dad like chemistry jokes ever.

I’m pretty sure that there’s a requirement before you become a science teacher, especially a chemistry teacher, that you need to be able to make anything into a corny dad joke that makes half of the room groan. I mean, I personally love it. It makes class more enjoyable and it makes getting up and being functional before 8 a.m. bearable.

“Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate? It’s carbon!”

My organic professor

I even have some examples of some that my organic chemistry professor has done that I’m going to sprinkle throughout this post. If any of you guys have some good ones from your science teachers or professors, put them in comments because I’m sure that we’re all going to get a kick out of some of them.

“This alkyne reaction is going to be alkyne’s of fun”

My organic professor

To get back to the discussion at hand, the obsession with mitochondria is one of my favorite things about biology, especially in high school before it became the site where ATP synthesis happened through oxidative phosphorylation. In case anyone is interested in the functions of mitochondria, here’s a link that should explain it in simple terms.

Source

Also, not to get technical and ruin the fun, but the correct term for a singular mitochondria is mitochondrion. But that’s not how the joke goes, so I guess we give some things up for the laugh.

Anyway, I wanted to do this because I’m a biology major and I honestly love this saying because it’s basically the only thing I actually remembered from my high school biology classes. (That and a lot about how to build your own hunting bow, but that’s can of worms we’re not going to open here).

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. You don’t have to use these colors, there are no colors that are correct. I just used these because they are the colors that I associate with the mitochondria.

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. If you want more of explanation on how to do this, check out this post, where I explain how to do some more technical parts of cross stitch.

So, that’s what I have for this pattern. I’m actually hoping to do a cross stitch of a model of an animal cell over the summer, but that’s going to take some time to plan and I don’t have that right now. But if you’re interested in that project, let me know in the comments and I’ll try to get something set up for that!

the-mitochondria-is-the-powerhouse-of-the-cell-patternDownload
Person cross stitch pattern — April 15, 2019

Person cross stitch pattern

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And other hot takes I have about cross stitch and its effects on my view of the craft specific to me

To be honest, cross stitch is a dying art in the U.S. Every time I go into Hobby Lobby or Walmart, the cross stitch selection gets smaller and smaller. The only upside is that all the materials are usually on sale, but that’s whatever. Cross stitch may be slowly dying but it will never fully be dead as long as people keep the interest up through their own artwork.

I would have never gotten into this if I hadn’t seen so many cool and modern cross stitch patterns on Pinterest. I would have never gotten into it at all if all I had to work with were the older patterns like this. So as a way to keep the interest alive, I have decided to put my patterns out into the world, in hopes of enticing other young people into learning it as well.

Here’s an example of how the face would look for this pattern

This first pattern is more of a base than a pattern, but that’s only because it’s set up for customization. This pattern is the basic pattern of a person. This exact pattern is a pattern that represents me, but it can be changed to fit whatever you want to do to it. That’s the beauty of cross stitch and creativity.

I used floss from a kit that wasn’t labeled and wasn’t DMC, so if there’s a color you like here, the best bet is to try and match it up to whatever floss type you like the most. The pattern is set up using DMC floss though, just as all the patterns I make will be. I used 14 count Aida cloth, but you can switch that out based on how big you want your finished project to be.

Here’s a picture of my finished project

This project is made to be tweaked, so this pattern is more of a base that you edit to fit your project and creativity levels. Editing is one of the most fun things about cross stitch to me. You get the control to change things that you don’t want and put things in as needed.

It also helps when you forget how to count and you stitch something incorrectly and only realize it later when you’re too far in to go back, which happens to me all the time. It’s the little bits of character like that just make it.

So to recap, cross stitch is dying and I want to help revive it, patterns are meant to be changed it builds character, and this pattern is available for free use below made on Stitch Fiddle.

person-chartDownload
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