Thankful Cross Stitch

Here’s one of my latest cross stitch finishes for this year. I. found the pattern HERE on Etsy. I fell in love with it because of all the different colors of fall that were in it. It also looked fairly easy to stitch. It was, but I did make one mistake when stitching the leaves of the tree. I had to do some pulling out of stitches, but was able to easily get back on track. When I started to first stitch this, it didn’t seem like there was as much variation in the leaves as I thought there would be. They all seem to be almost the same, or at least similar in color. But after I finished and stood back and looked at it, I could see the differences.

To frame the piece, I found a used picture that I found at the Salvation Army that I was able to pick up for just a couple dollars. I threw the picture and glass out, cleaned up the frame, and it fit perfectly. I really like being able to upcycle things. It’s so easy for old frames to be just thrown away, when they really have a lot of life left in them. When shopping for used frames, I don’t look just for empty frames, but for framed pieces of art as well.

Once I found a frame and took out the artwork, I was able to lay the frame over top of my stitching to see how it would fit. To make it seem more complete, I marked off the stitches and then added a brown border. I think this looks good especially on frames that are a little bit too big for the stitching. I’m really happy with how this project turned out!

This was how the original frame looked on the left, and on the right after it was all cleaned up.