2012 Comes to a Close

It's the final day before 2012 ends and makes way for 2013, and what a year it's been. The ups, the downs, the in-betweens... I've got a couple of little patterns for you in honor of January's rise: the classic "Happy New Year" text, and a lovely little champagne glass.

When stitching the rose, just pick four reds or pinks (or any other rose colours -- yellow, blue, white-grey...) for the flower and three greens for the leaves.

The champagne is based on a Gaia Online item, only with far fewer shades. The item has around 130 colours, while this pattern uses only eight. That's far less trouble, don't you think? :)

Why a rose? Because why not.

Tasty.~

If I wasn't dirt-poor, I'd have already bought the threads for the champagne pattern and stitched it! But, you know, dirt-poor and such. One of these days...

Anyway, happy new year's eve! We're almost there, to 2013.
Hope you have a great year!

1.7 Sweet Strawberry Week

The theme for this week is: Strawberries!
Week 1, Pattern 7

And thus concludes the first themed week of cross-stitching patterns! This one hails from DeviantArt, and I really have nothing more to say about it. Well, you know, other than how cute or sweet it looks.

Source

Later themed weeks are waiting to be released! Several ideas are already lined up; I just have to make enough patterns to match.
Many more posts to come!

1.6 Sweet Strawberry Week

The theme for this week is: Strawberries!
Week 1, Pattern 6

Ah, the weekend! I've saved the more complex patterns for today and tomorrow, and this one is my favorite of all of them. The original had wings, but I didn't want to include those. It's still super-adorable as it is! If I didn't have four other projects going on, I'd stitch this and post it. But alas, I'll have to do that later.

Source

I love how most of the titles have included the words "sweet" and "cute."
If you stitch this and want to show me, send it my way!~ Happy stitching!

1.5 Sweet Strawberry Week

The theme for this week is: Strawberries!
Week 1, Pattern 5

It's the tiniest one yet. And with only four colours, it's also the least detailed. Certainly looks to be the easiest, that's for sure.
But it's a lazy Friday! So why not make it a simple pattern?

Source Unknown.

Sorry for the delayed post today -- I was up until three in the morning, trying to be a counselor for someone who wouldn't take any of the advice. It was tiring, and it made me very frustrated. When I finally got to sleep, I slept until about 11:30, and I completely forgot about posting this.
Then a couple hours later, I visited a friend for three hours.
But once I got home, I did remember the posts. So, enjoy this adorably tiny pattern!

And don't forget to send me your result, if you happen to stitch it! <3

1.4 Sweet Strawberry Week

The theme for this week is: Strawberries!
Week 1, Pattern 4

Wow, is it Thursday already? Boy, time is flying by, isn't it. Here's the fourth pattern of the seven! This one kinda looks like it has a little mohawk going on, rather than leaves, but it's still cute and it's still a pixel.

Source

Don't forget to send me your result, if you happen to stitch it! <3

1.3 Sweet Strawberry Week

The theme for this week is: Strawberries!
Week 1, Pattern 3

Happy Wednesday, let's move on to the third adorable strawberry! This one is smiling wide, isn't he cute? This is the only one that has a face out of all seven of them, and even so, the face can easily be removed if you don't want it to be there.

Here he is, the happy li'l somethin'!

Source

And remember, I love to see finished results from others! If you stitch this pattern and show me your work, I'll happily place it up here.

Happy stitching~

1.2 Sweet Strawberry Week

The theme for this week is: Strawberries!
Week 1, Pattern 2

Here's the second strawberry pixel piece, turned into a little pattern. This lovely one comes from DeviantArt, by user PineappleTheUnicorn. Best wishes and stitches! Also, Merry Christmas. :) I'm looking forward to the new year, and I hope you are, too.

Source

Don't forget, you can stitch this and send it my way, and I'll add it to the post And as always, suggest a new theme and I just might grab it! Every suggestion is considered, and I don't bite.



And now, for the things I got under the tree (and in my stocking)! It's going to be a list, because I'm too lazy to use a camera~ Perhaps later I'll upload photos.

1. Cards Against Humanity card game
2. A beautiful ear warmer from South America
3. New tapestry needles
4. Incense
5. A can opener, soup mug, and "survival kit" (You know. Soup, cookies, etc.)
6. An arm guard for archery
7. A lovely Celtic knot pendant
8. Threadless "Celestial Cat" shirt (Absolutely perfect! I love astronomy and cats!)
9. Threadless "Dot to Dot"shirt (constellations on the front and back)
10. Coffee maker, coffee scooper, and Caribou Coffee's Mahogany blend
11. Katatonia CD: Night is the New Day
12. "The Myst Reader" -- a trilogy based on the Myst game series.
13. Socks (LOL)
14. A tiny blue journal
15. My favorite pens (Uni-Ball liquid rollers)
16. My favorite pencils (Zebra M-301 Mechanical, 0.5mm lead) (Also I got lead for it)
17. Necco Wafers (yum!), Chocolate coins (classic), Sunny Seeds (chocolate-covered, candy-coated sunflower seeds -- my absolute favorite), Chocolate orange (hehe, also classic), Mrs. Fields raspberry chocolates (raspberry & chocolate is amazing), and a pomegranate (as per requested, haha)

My sister also got #s 13-17 -- those were stocking stuffers. The actual presents within said stockings were different. So yeah! Awesome pressies! And there will be more on my birthday, January 4th! Maybe I'll upload the photos then.

1.1 Sweet Strawberry Week

Today marks the first ever themed week for this blog! Last week, I promised seven patterns of a similar subject, so here it is: the first of seven.
The "1.1" in the title of course represents "Themed Week 1, Pattern 1." :)

The theme for this week is: Strawberries!
Week 1, Pattern 1

I've prepared five cute quickie patterns and two more intricate ones for you to grab -- and as always, if you stitch one and e-mail a photo or scan of it to me, I'll gladly place it in this or another post.

I see strawberry pixel art all the time. It seems to be quite a popular thing to make in the pixel world, and there's nothing easier to transfer to cross-stitch than a good piece of pixel art. I suppose this week could really just be called Pixel Strawberry Week, as no realistic patterns are in the mix, but I like alliteration, so Sweet Strawberry it is.

Here's the first of many more to come.

Source

Aren't they adorable? Such sweet little chubby strawberries.~ I hope you enjoy it, and remember, you're always free to suggest a new theme.

Christmas (and Yuletide) Spirit!

The solstice has passed and today is Christmas Eve. It's only fitting that I give you a couple of related patterns. The first is a cute and simple tree -- used for both Yule and Christmas alike -- with the classic Christmas greeting above it.
The second is a piece with a border and a fancy font, also fairly simple. It's a larger pattern though!

Very easy to do! The only colours I recommend keeping constant are the tree, its outline, and its trunk. Others are easily changeable.
50x60.

A lot larger, but still not too complex. 105x75.

Happy stitching, and have a great holiday!

Seven Days, One Theme

Starting with next week, I'll set aside random weeks (meaning whenever I feel like it or am up for the task, to be honest) and give each one a theme. During these weeks, you'll get a new pattern every day, each one sticking to the current week's theme. It could be "bookmark week," where all seven patterns are specifically designed to be made into bookmarks; it could be "kanji week," where all seven patterns are of different Chinese/Japanese characters; it could even be "kanji bookmark week," where you get seven bookmarks with different Chinese/Japanese words and phrases on them.

If there's a lot of potential for a certain theme, it can be repeated in a later week. This might go for the kanji theme, for instance, as well as practically any specific item.

And definitely feel free to suggest a theme, either in the comments or by e-mail!
You can suggest a subject (kanji is the example) or an item (bookmark is the example), or you could suggest both together. You can make multiple suggestions, but please put each one on a separate line if you do. :)
There's already a growing list! I have next week's theme confirmed, and there's another theme I've been pondering over for a while. Perhaps, if I ever stitch the patterns in question, I'll post them to my DeviantArt and see what people say.

The weeks will begin on Mondays and end on Sundays. I will try not to interrupt the flow of themed weeks with other posts, but you never know what might come up.

Happy stitching.~

That Resource Post

There's a lot of wonderful resources online for cross-stitchers and embroiderers. As I come across more sites, I'll add them here.
All links open in a new window.

General

• Carousel Charts has a few free charts, some information on getting started and if this craft is for you, a simple blank graph, and some other tidbits I find useful, handy, or just interesting, including:
• How to do colour substitutions
• Tips for skintone colours
• The type of project vs. How long it might last (Heirloom life expectancy)
• Lucie Heaton also has a few freebies, plus a ton of other patterns at low prices.

How-To

• YarnTree has a sweet little tutorial on how to get started. It's got a list of tools you'll need, how to select fabric, instructions for simple stitches, and how to finish a project. If you print the PDF, you'll get the instructions on the page along with a basic pattern.
• It also has another tutorial for quarter stitches, half stitches, and three-quarter stitches.

Graph Paper

• Incompetech is kind of a life saver. This link leads to the index of graph papers — and they have all kinds of it! Most of them are PDF generators where you can set your own parameters, download, and print them; others are pre-made PDFs for you to download and print. Alternatively, save the  downloaded PDFs as image files and edit them in programs like Photoshop.
  But seriously, though — they have perspective graph paper, Celtic knotwork paper, blank music notation sheets... Everything! It amazes me!
  I'll have a post up at some point on how to make a pattern with Photoshop, basing off of an image.
  Anyway, the optimal choice is Square >>> Multi-Weight. Either of the two options under that are fine to use, as they allow for heavier lines at every tenth square. The only difference is that the left-border option gives you space on the side to write down details, like a colour key.
  Quick note: Set the smallest grid spacing to 10 for the heavy lines to go by tens.

• Multi-width: Full Page
• Multi-width: Left Border
• Multi-width plus Colour Specs

• Stitchpoint has a handful of free graphs of a good quality.
• About.com also has a few free blank charts that include little arrows. This link: 50x60 stitches.

Pattern Generators

• Pic2Pat is a fantastically easy-to-use tool that takes away all the stress of making your own patterns. If you have a picture you want made into a pattern for free, look no further. Simply upload your picture, and it asks you to select your desired floss brand (only four are listed, though), your fabric's stitches per inch (only from 8 to 18), and the size you want your piece to turn out.
  After you hit next, you'll come to a page with a bunch of patterns with varying numbers of colours. The one at the top is 75 colours, and the one at the bottom is six colours. Also, by hovering over each image, you'll be able to see how many colours as well as how many skeins it will require.
  Click the one you want, and it'll save as a PDF to you computer, complete with a preview image, the pattern itself, and a colour list/skein count.
• My Photo Stitch is similar to Pic2Pat, but they have two forms (basic and advanced). Here's a comparison chart between the two websites.

Overall pattern quality is up to the opinion of the user, but so far, Pic 2 Pat wins.

• Stitchpoint's Writing Tool is super helpful! As its name might suggest, it generates text that you type in. It's got four cross-stitch alphabets and two backstitch ones.
• Caption Maker has forty alphabets to choose from if you're willing to pay for it, and is a lot more convenient than the writing tool. Only two of those seem to be free.
• Coricamo lets you use any font on your computer, and is absolutely free! It can be a text generator as well as a photo pattern generator. Apparently, it has only a few symbols, so you may want to watch out for that.

A Gift Stitch for a Great Professor

During the 2012 fall semester, I took a class called Humanities 124, in which we read lots (and I mean lots) of ancient literature and interpreted ancient ways of life through them. We did Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, Israel, Greece, and Rome. (There may be some others I'm forgetting.) Now, the Humanities series is generally a much-hated group of courses which we are required to take, so I was dreading taking it. Whether it's all the writing you have to do or the fact that most of the professors are boring or difficult, not many people like the humanities.

However, I took the class with a brand new professor named Nina, during her first semester teaching at UNC Asheville. Young, energetic, and enthusiastic, she taught this class so well. She gave my class an experience nothing like the horror stories I had heard prior to signing up.

Her favorite part of the course was China; she'd been to China before, and had taught little kids over there for around six or seven years. So of course, her excited nature really came out when the China unit began.
She was undoubtedly my favorite professor that semester, so I really wanted to stitch her a gift. So, towards the end of the semester, I asked her what her favorite colour and hanzi (Chinese word for kanji) were. She replied with lapis blue almost immediately, but had to think about the other part of the question for a while. Eventually, she decided on "fei," which means to fly. And it looks like it has little wings, too. :) It looks like this: 飞

So there it was: a character to stitch, and a colour of thread to use on it.
I printed out some graph paper and made a pattern out of it; here's my set-up.

The needle case, the four colours, the pattern, and what I've started n 14-count Aida. The bamboo is there because the hanzi on its own leaves such a big, open space. I would have put a bird, but couldn't find a good reference. Also, my camera couldn't capture the difference between the teal and the royal blue.

I hope to have it completed by the spring 2013 semester! I've deemed it my current big project.

...Oh, and here's the lovely chalkboard of what each person in the class will remember the most!

I have no idea what the plastic titty balls were about.

Best. Class. Ever.

Pattern: Quick Moth

Here's the first freebie I have for you — a cute little moth.
It looks more like a butterfly than a moth in terms of the wings, but it has the proper antennae and body size. Anyway, it's a quick and simple design. It didn't take too long to make, and it shouldn't take too long to stitch, either. Thus, I call it a quickie. Yeah, yeah, I know. Giggle all you want.
So here's the pattern! I made it in Photoshop since I lack any proper cross-stitch software.

168 Normal Stitches ;; 28 Half Stitches ;; 16 Backstitches

DMC 3857 is for the body and antennae.
DMC 801 is for the four spots on the body.
DMC 3726 is for the wing outlines.
DMC 152 is for the wing fill colour.
DMC 310 is for the spots on the wings.

In this one, colours aren't everything; they don't have to be exactly what I have listed, or even anywhere close to it. But the only thing that should remain constant is that the wings' outlines should be darker than their fill colour. Here's one I've stitched together, all pink and purple and such.

Adorable, right?

I guess I should note that its antennae use only one strand. That didn't end up being the case for their centers, but it's all right. It's all about trial and error!

Project: Scanty Akuma

Other than the lost and unfinished project from the kit I had twelve or so years ago, the first project I started was of Scanty Akuma, from the anime series Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. I started it in June 2011, when I was a very big fan of the show, and after many hiatuses, finally finished it in early December 2012.

I made a pattern from this image with Photoshop's "Patchwork" filter

Using Phtotoshop's "Patchwork" filter is a bit inconvenient, as it turns out -- some squares became a completely different colour, such as her collar going from brown to burgundy; other squares blended in and become the wrong colour, too, such as her eyelashes looking like the hair outline in the pattern -- but it's all right, I still like the way it turned out.

The finished cross-stitch. You can tell it's from a newbie, I'm sure.

It was stitched on 11-count Aida fabric, the rest of which I've somehow lost. The floss was DMC, Iris, and Designs for the Needle. Later patterns I make will have better colour selection.

This may be for sale on Etsy as soon as I have eight to ten listings ready. I will make a blog post concerning that at a later date.

Day of Creation, Day of Repetition

So it's 12/12/12, the last repeating day of our lives unless we live for eighty-seven more years (01/01/2101). I decided to go ahead and set up a blog on this day for that very reason.
So welcome to Cathartic Dream! Here I'll post my cross-stitch patterns and creations for you all to look at. I'll have some freebies, as well as perhaps some designs for sale.

I suppose I should tell you a little about me. My name is Julia, I'm almost 20 (birthday is January 4th), I'm a sophomore at UNC-Asheville, and lately I've fallen in love with cross-stitch and embroidery. The first time I tried it out, I was eight years old. I had been given a kit with five embroidery, stitching, and sewing projects in it, and I wish I knew where it went. Unfortunately, at the time, I was really impatient when it came to new things like that, so I didn't get very many rows done on the first project. Later on, in June 2011, I thought about it again and went out to buy some basic supplies.

The first project I tackled was the face of an anime character, and I'll show that in a later post. Looking back, I should have made a much smaller one to start with, but finishing this was most definitely worth it. Currently, I'm working on a gift for my favorite professor, and it's even larger than the previous one. Whoops. This is going to take forever.

Some of my interests are astronomy, anime/manga, psychology (especially developmental and abnormal), cats (almost any animals, really, but cats are the best), cooking, and ancient history.

My favorite band at the moment is Avantasia, a German power metal band. Previously, my favorite had been Sabaton, a Swedish band of the same genre. Sabaton's songs are generally about specific wars or events throughout history, while Avantasia tends to make stories out of their albums. It's really quite amazing. I'd say my favorite Avantasia song is a three-way tie between "Promised Land," "Another Angel Down," and "Dying for an Angel."
Before I was introduced to symphonic, melodic, and power metal, my favorite band had been Nightmare, a Japanese Visual Kei band. Some of their songs have metal elements in them, but I didn't like those songs much. I really don't like harsh, screaming vocals at all, which is why I was so against metal music for a long time. But then a good friend introduced me to Sabaton's song, "40:1," and I was immediately hooked. He told me that was the song that made him like metal, so he saw it as a good first song to show me. He later showed me Avantasia, Dawn of Solace, Katatonia, and others.
My favorite artist is Warren Zevon. But no one seems to know who he is until I mention "Werewolves of London," which kind of saddens me. So many of his other songs are far better than that one. My favorite is "Splendid Isolation."

My favorite anime at the moment is Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, or When Cicadas Cry. It's a blend of horror, mystery, and thriller, and Rika is my favorite character. But for the longest time, Death Note was my favorite, and it's also the anime that introduced me to Nightmare.

There's so much more I could ramble about, but I think I'll stop there. Kudos to you if you read all that!

~ Julia