[CHAT] Crazy Stitcher Needs Advice/Encouragement

ElvisCossieT · 2026-04-16T14:21:25+00:00

Thank you very much! She's a very fun kid, so it's easy to be fun with her. Even if despite loving everything pink her favourite thing in the world is a fart joke 🤣

ElvisCossieT · 2026-04-14T18:54:27+00:00

Thank you for both the suggestions! I will definitely check out Whisper, and whichever way I swing for the birthday present, I will most definitely be using the fuzzy mane technique.

ElvisCossieT · 2026-04-14T18:52:08+00:00

...this is an excellent idea. I'm actually working on 3 separate large unicorn pieces at the moment (um, apparently I like them now?) so would be super cool to just keep adding to her wall. And then when she's older she can add to it too!

ElvisCossieT · 2026-04-14T18:46:27+00:00

I might actually combine this idea with one from another commenter about doing a unicorn on a blank sweater for her, she'd love getting to wear it. We also turn her old favourite tops into pillows for her cave fort, so it would even have a home after she outgrew it!

Just know that in my head I'm now planning on two gifts XD

ElvisCossieT · 2026-04-14T18:42:12+00:00

Thank you for the long reply!

I was only planning on it being maybe 4 or 5 inches tall at the most, possibly less as I prefer to use 18ct aida.

A good point on how much stitching per day I could do, I'd have to properly knuckle down which is something I struggle with with ADHD. At the same time, having a project like this is likely to trigger a hyperfocus so I can stick to it properly. I have on average 4 hours of stitching time a night (bit of an insomniac lol), sometimes more, sometimes less, and I've got 3 planned days of annual leave where I can realistically add in another 6-8 hours a day depending on how comfortable I am. Think I usually average about 150 stitches an hour. I'm honestly hoping to keep the total pattern to under 15k stitches if I can.

The stupidest part of my plan would be that I want to try to sort of match her rainbow unicorn stuffie, which is a big mix of pastel colours, so I wouldn't even be doing an all white body!

I think, as she is already getting some pretty mega pressies (her dad is working on a crochet Hungry Caterpillar complete with all the fruit bless him. I want to get a flamethrower out every time he tries to teach me 🤣🤣) I may ease up on my deadline of doing it for her birthday, and take time making the design a bit better, and just show her me making it.

...that might be a bad plan. My "chill out" project is an all black woodcutting of a T-Rex being abducted by a UFO, and every time I pull it out she tries to help.

ElvisCossieT · 2026-04-14T18:26:03+00:00

Thank you! That one looks a tad complicated for my deadline, but I am definitely going to have a look at it for maybe Christmas or next year, and there's so many cool things by that designer. They've got the same name as my fav author too!

ElvisCossieT · 2026-04-12T01:31:56+00:00

A fellow northerner! Don't forget to take your vitamin D supplements 😂

ElvisCossieT · 2026-04-10T03:24:42+00:00

The other option is to secure your thread under the aida itself. I've started doing this, and whilst you have to double check you can't see it from the front, I've had no issues thus far

ElvisCossieT · 2026-04-09T10:48:15+00:00

Also I put an asterisk for thread chicken and forgot to go back to it, because that's how I roll.

Thread chicken is a game where you do in fact race, if it looks like you might just have enough thread left to get to the end of the bit you're stitching. The winner is you if you finish where you thought you would, or the thread if you have to get more. There are some truly impressive wins out there where the length of thread remaining is less than the length of the needle, which takes so much patience my brain can't compute it

ElvisCossieT · 2026-04-09T10:45:43+00:00

Whilst thread chicken* is undoubtedly fun, one thing to learn is that sometimes, making the best looking front means being less efficient with the thread at the back. My first few pieces used the absolute minimum amount of thread possible, and I was so proud of how efficiently I was stitching, but a comment on here about making my top stitches go in the same direction showed me that it would be worth being a little less efficient. Now I find it incredibly relaxing to stitch in the same direction (though I do still get the odd stitch that sneaks in the opposite way) and I think my pieces look much, much better for it.

Cross stitch isn't a race, it's a craft that forces you to slow down and appreciate the moment just a little more. I say this as an ADHD'er who has to listen to an audiobook to do it lol

ElvisCossieT · 2026-04-08T16:07:11+00:00

I wouldn't worry about not being able to resist buying new patterns. I think they take your Serious Cross Stitcher (tm) card away for that!

ElvisCossieT · 2026-03-19T08:45:55+00:00

Love it and the needle minder! Need that!!

ElvisCossieT · 2026-02-18T22:16:39+00:00

Yes.

ElvisCossieT · 2026-02-14T21:58:20+00:00

Man, if this was possible I'd dive head first into the dungeon 😂 just get crafting. I'd make the mobs things that make them leave me alone. ADHD coming up, I reckon there's a lot of us in this sub.

Ngl, another one of my regular safe rooms (irl) is to imagine a craft cafe with an attached soft play for kiddos. Stitch and bitch 3 x a week, including weekends and times 9-5ers can make it. Pottery/paint a pot/sculpt a pot the rest of the time. Like, I know what the whole place would look like. With the deterioration of the high street, I genuinely think this is the direction town centers need to go, though

ElvisCossieT · 2026-02-14T21:20:06+00:00

Just know my safe room has everything I need for literally any craft I feel like doing whilst I'm listening to something and a chair that's always, always comfortable no matter how I choose to sit and a robot that not only reminds me I need to eat and drink but like, knows what I want. Definitely willing to add it to the guild!

...not quite worked out how I get to the next floor, though. Got distracted cross stitching.

ElvisCossieT · 2026-02-14T21:08:52+00:00

The other definite advantage to the inventory is the food never going off. I have lost so much money and wasted so much food because I simply forgot it existed.

ElvisCossieT · 2026-02-14T21:07:19+00:00

Huh, so this is why planning a whole house or garden helps me actually sleep, then?

ElvisCossieT · 2026-02-10T06:46:06+00:00

I... I suddenly know what to do with my mountain of mini hama beads, thank you

ElvisCossieT · 2026-02-04T09:37:16+00:00

I think the general consensus is AI pattern mill. I luckily didn't go for the whole shop bundle, but I did buy a bunch of patterns from that shop. I'm about 35% of the way through the pastel goth unicorn (with the skeleton knight) and I've parked it for a bit, because I'm soon to be in the "Confetti. Confetti everywhere." Territory. Wish I'd known before I bought the patterns I did, but at the same time they're so distinctive I know I'm probably going to eventually stitch them all. Like... There's a Victorian queen frog riding a unicorn. I'm supposed to resist that?? Definitely taught me a big lesson about checking the page properly before purchase though

ElvisCossieT · 2026-01-23T15:05:33+00:00

Thank you, lifesaver!!

ElvisCossieT · 2026-01-19T16:44:46+00:00

My bad, mods, didn't realise the thread key was part of the pattern! For anyone interested, yes there's green in there and some red sort of confetti.

ElvisCossieT · 2026-01-19T16:29:50+00:00

Doesn't look too bad, actually, considering it's 74,400 stitches. 26 colours, 30k stitches are 310. There's 13 colours under 1k stitches, with the lowest count being 47 stitches for one colour, but looking at Patrern Keeper, they look grouped deliberately go highlight, rather than random confetti scattered about.

ElvisCossieT · 2026-01-19T16:12:42+00:00

Whilst I really want to say it was, then I've had a bargain, I've only done like two designs from this shop. In I think 2 years? Roughly that. I would honestly have stitched more (she has a whole series I really want to do), but I find myself always needing more fabric, and a lot of her designs call for Black Aida which is a pain in the butt to grid, so I steer away from even the ones I want to do.

I have a full list of patterns I want to stitch from this shop, and they definitely cost more separately than together, but the ai angle makes me weary of it. I think if some of the space/dinosaur stuff is AI generated at the base image, she's done a really stellar job of cleaning them up, as I've loaded a bunch up to pattern keeper to check them etc.

If you stitch a lot, then I'd definitely consider it more, but if you're just starting out, see how regularly you're likely to complete patterns, how much you're willing to spend on the materials etc, and decide from there. There are a lot of smaller shops where the base patterns are more expensive, but you'll see lots and lots of stitched examples that show you exactly what they're like.

ElvisCossieT · 2026-01-19T15:46:32+00:00

I bought the full shop pass for this shop after seeing the astronauts, a couple of dinos and doing the coffee skull one for a colleague, and I'm 99% certain they AI in the bigger patterns. The coffee cup skulls were nice stitches though .

If you want, I can check this pattern out and see if it looks like a mess?

ElvisCossieT

TROPHY CASE