Cross-Stitch Family Portrait

This is the day and age of obsessive "selfies". They are everywhere. The social network is teeming with them. And here I am in my own anachronistic world peering at those tiny square of an Aida fabric trying to embroider a cross-stitch family portrait. It took more effort than I thought. So here is the end result.

The last time I attempted a cross-stitch was in the 5th grade! This time around I wanted to do stuff much more professionally and extremely neatly.

The inspiration for this project came of this place -
http://www.marthastewart.com/857131/cross-stitch-family-portrait

Now counting cross-stitch is not as easy as it looks. There is the whole matter of getting everything properly accurate once you start embroidering. Also I wanted to make slightly bigger figures so I had to put in some math to scale up my picture.

Here is the original plan all put on a graph paper -

Once I had a general idea of the portrait, I spent a fair amount of time learning all about colour blocking. I wanted to use colours that go well together yet look really vibrant and coordinated. After spending quite a few hours, I kind of decided on the colour scheme and started shopping.

The major stumbling block was acquiring the right Aida fabric. I wanted a count 14 or higher. Finally found it on the pony craft store - http://www.ponycraftstore.com/product/viewdetail/aida-fabric-white-42-x-48cm-70402

Also more hours watching videos and learning to cross-stitch properly, I think I managed to do a decent job with this piece. Look at the back side of my embroidery to get a gauge of the quality. There is not a single knot anywhere. All the crosses cross over the same way and I have all these beautiful parallel lines on the back. So I finally did something right! And what a lesson in patience!

Now all that is left is to carefully wash this up, add some interfacing to stiffen the backside and frame it up. This one goes up on my craft station at the new house!

Enjoy.