Cross stitching has been the perfect hobby for this summer. We’re getting busier with saying goodbyes and packing to move and cross stitch is easy to pick up and put down. It’s also cheap, doesn’t take up much space, and it’s so soothing and satisfying to watch the picture take shape as you stitch. I’ve already finished a couple of projects, with several more already on my to do list.

First, I got this lovely tomb pattern from Night Spirit Studios and decided to add the Addams family credo to it. I love those movies. The Addamses are hilarious and kind of inspiring.

The font is free from Lord Libidan, with some small changes. I definitely made a few mistakes with this one but I’m still pleased with the results. My biggest problem is that I originally wanted the lines of text to be centered but they clearly aren’t. I counted so carefully and was convinced my math was right, but when I tried to center the middle line over the bottom I was off by several rows, so I didn’t even try to center the top row. If I hadn’t told you, you’d assume I meant to line them all up this way. It looks good. But I’m still a bit annoyed that I messed up such simple math.

As I was finishing that project I fell in love with a set of patterns from the Witchy Stitcher, one for each of the eight sabbats. They’re so sweet and well matched I just had to make them. At first I had the idea of doing each one as I approached that particular sabbat as a meditation so I started with Litha, coming up in a few days. I’ve never done a project with so many colors and small variations and I was worried I would end up getting frustrated and taking forever to finish. Turns out I was wrong. All those little variations kept the project interesting and I ended up finishing much sooner than I’d expected. I had so much fun I realized I couldn’t space these over a whole year–my fingers are already itching to start the Lammas pattern. Now my hope is to finish them quickly enough to set them all out at Samhain.

I made a few small mistakes here and there but I had fun and I love the way it turned out. Once I’m done with them all I want to find some cute frames to goth up and hang them in my new dining room.

In my scrolling through awesome stitch projects I discovered needle minders–cute little magnet sets you can put right on your project to hold your needle. After nearly losing my needle several times while I was changing colors, I was converted and grabbed a strong magnet from our fridge. Eventually I scrolled through Etsy for a proper cute needle minder and settled on this one from Grandma Girl Designs. It’s strong enough to hold my needle and my metal threader, and it came in adorable packaging with two hard candies just like your grandma might give you.

I’m sure in a few months I’ll get the urge to crochet a sweater or knit a sock, but for now I’m having a grand old time with this.