Little Drummer Boy

An opportunity and a new challenge presented itself to me yesterday afternoon. I offered to design a little drummer boy for a customer who was having difficulties finding a detailed cross stitch pattern. She said that she had looked everywhere and the only ones she came across were the quick 2 hour projects, and that just wasn't going to do! I was happy to design her a little drummer boy, not only for her but for others who are having difficulty finding something more advanced!

Here is the little cutie:

The Little Drummer Boy by Lasting Allure

He is designed using 20 colors of DMC and measures 45 stitches wide by 79 stitches tall. And surprisingly there is no sparkles in him! Which is unusual for my designs but I think he is going to look just as good stitched up and the sparkles would have over powered such a small design. There are a few quarter stitches in him but that was unavoidable due to the scale of the design and wanting to get his delicate tiny hands and nose perfect without them becoming blocky. Back stitching was also used to help create details such as the hair poking out from his head dress and the rope details on his belt.

Some of you may notice the the antique mauve and pine green combination are one of my favorites to work with! I wanted to give it more of an antiqued look and what better way to do that than using dusty colors?

Mad Hatter Give Away!

Yes that's right! I am going to host a little give away for my pattern the Mad Hatter! All you have to do is comment below and tell me what your favorite part of the pattern is. I will then select one comment at random and that person will receive the pattern as a PDF! You don't have to be a follower of my blog (recommended though if you want to keep up with updates) to participate.

So the pattern I am giving away is:

She measures 201 stitches tall and 160 stitches wide. Her purple vest and the trim of her dress sparkles with the beads and Krienik detailing.

So what's your favorite part of her? Leave a comment below to enter! I will pick one winner on July 5th 2012.

Happy stitching everyone!

New Collaboration and Update on Marie!

Sorry for such the delay in between posts! I meant to post last week but plans had changed abruptly and I ended up leaving a couple days sooner than planned to go house and dog sit for the week. Once I got to the house though I barely had access to the internet so instead of playing with the router all night and day I decided to be a bit more productive!

I am happy to announce an experimental collaboration with artist Janna Prosvirina. She works mainly in watercolor and focuses on fairies and fantasy art. You can find her artwork here. Her work is beautiful and I am glad she has agreed to work with me in creating gorgeous advanced cross stitch patterns! She herself used to cross stitch as well and has approved the layout of the patterns and is happy with the professional look I have come up with for the patterns. Here is a small taste of the designs I now offer. You can find four other designs plus the following ones for sale at http://www.etsy.com/shop/LastingAllure

Midnight Masquerade

Summer Moon

Fly With Me

 Along with the addition of these patterns I also managed to get a potion of Marie Antoinette done.

I just have a small section of the pink to complete and then I can move onto the blue of her skirt. I am really looking forward to getting the dress all complete and getting all the beads onto her! She is just going to be stunning.

I hope everyone is doing well! I am going to go look at everyone's blogs now to get caught up on everyone else's projects! Happy stitching everyone! :)

Shannon

Progress On Marie Antoinette Cross Stitch

First off I want to thank all of my new followers this past week (And all of those from previous months). I get super excited when I see other people have followed my blog! Really means a lot to me knowing others like the work I am doing.

Now last night I raided my stash and found all of my threads for Marie Antoinette. I also found some fabric in the color Platinum! I laid the colors on top of it and they seem to have popped off and complimented one another on it. The blue looks SUPER good on it and I can't wait to stitch that part. I spent the afternoon stitching and managed to get the bodice done tonight.

All those holes are beads hehe. I decided to stitch this one first because I felt the digital representation didn't do the design much justice with all of the beads in her and the sparkles. If this one turns out I plan on doing at least another two to have a little series of them. And once I have a couple patterns I might approach my local cross stitch store to see if they maybe would be interested in purchasing some to sell.

Mary Antoinette Cross stitch Pattern

Ok it isn't completely Mary Antoinette but I was inspired by the movie to use soft pastel colors and details in her dress.

This elegant lady is ready for the ball in her gorgeous beaded and metallic dress. There are beads on every part of her gown. Little flower detailing is made using beads and the steams are stitched using #4 very fine braid on her fitted top. White beads scatter along the full gown bottom like polk-a-dots and blue beads create another flower design on the pink part of the gown. Her hair also has beads making up the little jeweled parts that match her necklace.

I had fun designing this one. Took me a total of 20 hours to design it fully. I am going to stitch this one up I think so people can see what it would look like with all of the beads. I promise it will look extravagant and elegant and worth the struggle of applying all of the beads.

Mad Hatter and Cupcake Cross Stitch Patterns

I struggled with designing this Mad Hatter cross stitch pattern for a long time. I had the top section completed but struggled on making the pleats in the skirt and making it look realistic. Today I sat down and forced myself to finish and this is what I came up with:

She sits prettily with a dazed look on her face while sprinkling some sugar into her tea cup. I used beads for the sugar and she has a few more beads in her hair, her vest and the trim of her dress.  There is also details stitched with Krienik #4 very fine braid for the trims of her sleeve and her hat's ribbon and other areas.

And here is the finished cupcake cross stitch design I have done:

My favorite color combination was used here. Aqua and pink go together to make this romantic cross stitching of a cupcake and some chocolate bon-bons. A sprinkle of white beads are used for the sprinkles ontop of the blue icing. It is a very cute little cross stitching that I think would look amazing in my kitchen!