Recently in Cross-stitch Projects Category

Date: December 1987

This Kawasaki Jet Ski cross-stitch design was a Christmas present for Bill in 1987. We were still in the dating stage when I began the project and had moved in together around the time I finished it. All work was done in secret over a period of months: before work, on the BART train going to work and returning home, in the evenings when we didn't see each other.

The pattern was created using a clear plastic grid overlay over a photograph in a Kawasaki 650 Jet Ski brochure. The overlay converted the photograph into a cross-stitch chart. I hadn't heard of this technique before, but it seems to be common now.

Tramp Clown (also Hobo Clown)

4-Tone Clown (also Sad Clown)

Patterns: Tramp Clown 1, 4-Tone Clown
Book: Rosene Patterns & Graphs - Book No. 1 - Designs by Rosene Needlepoint and Edna Looney Products - Copyright not indicated (estimate early 1980s) - Hill-Looney, Inc.
Date: Completed 1980s; photos taken December 2002.

I made these two clowns years ago for my Mom from patterns in a cross-stitch pattern book. There were 6 clown patterns - these are the best two (besides, Mom likes sad clowns!). I must have made them sometime during the 1980s. They are hanging on her hallway wall.

Patterns: Here Comes Santa (2172), Santa's List (2171), Snoozin' Santa (2173), Musical Santa (2170), Friendly Santa (2164)
Kits: The Creative Circle - Kit Nos. listed after pattern name - Price not indicated - Designs by Russell Bushee - Copyright 1982 (first 4 listed) and 1981 (5th)
Date: Completed early-mid 1980s; photos taken December 2002.

I made a set of 5 counted cross-stitched Santa Claus ornaments many years ago (probably sometime in the early 1980s). These are all on 22-count cloth (very tiny squares). Closeups below.

Pattern: Boston Bull Terrier
Book: "Dogs - Dogs - Dogs" - Leaflet SUM-210 - Designs by Mary Ellen - Copyright 1982 - Summit Designs
Date: Completed early-mid 1980s; photo taken April 2003.

I made this cross-stitch Boston Terrier for Grandma Dorie (my Mom's mother) in the early 1980s. The pattern book was published in 1982 and Dorie died in late April 1986, so it was done somewhere between 1982-1986. About 20 years ago...it doesn't seem that long.

Buster was the Boston Terrier my Mom had early in her marriage to my father. When they got stationed in Guam (I think it was), she gave Buster to her mother and father. Buster was Dorie's constant companion and baby. He died before I created the cross-stitch design for her.

After Dorie died, Grandpa Paul (my Mom's father) hung the framed design in each of the houses he lived in. It hung on the wall of his room at the assistive living facility where he lived for months before he died in March 2002.

My Mom now has Buster hanging in her computer room of her home. This photo was taken in April 2003 at my Mom's home.