A Starry Night, a Finish, and Waiting in Line

Starry Night

I love the artwork of Vincent Van Gogh. I’m particularly fond of the swirls and bold colors that he uses. Go and get a pencil or a pen, and draw a swirl. There are few things more relaxing and fun in art. My favorite Van Gogh painting is Starry Night. The night sky is so dazzling, the swirls and colors are almost hypnotizing.

Intrepid people on the internet have created an optical illusion that can make the swirls move (yes, I tried, it works!). Someone gifted me a wonderful laptop lap desk for Christmas that has the Starry Night printed on top. It’s so handy, I’m using it as I write this post. If you want to stitch this, today is definitely your day, as DMC has it available as a freebie chart right now! The link to the chart is here. I like to keep an eye on the DMC freebie portion of their website; there are really great charts offered there, and they rotate them as well. As an extra bit of trivia for this painting, some art historians think that Hokusai and his Great Wave Off Kanagawa influenced Van Gogh when he was painting this. I have a full coverage version of The Great Wave in my WIP pile. If I can get a finish or two this year, maybe that poor WIP can see the light of day again.

WIP Updates

I finished the Phantom!

The Phantom of the Opera Cross Stitch Chart by EmnEllie

Here’s a graphic that describes the different motifs:

I’m so happy that I stitched it on black aida. It gives it a mysterious quality, which is necessary for this perfectly gothic story. People can be intimidated by black fabric, and it certainly can be tricky to stitch on. Here’s a handy article that has a bunch of helpful tips for stitching on it. I wanted the frame around the words to look like the speech cards from a silent film, and a playbill. I could have designed the mask to look like Gerard Butler’s mask from the movie, but I opted for this style instead. It gives the design a nice symmetry. If you would like to stitch this chart, it’s available instantly as a PDF in my Etsy shop, and the link is here.

Keep an eye out on my YouTube channel for a video about this chart, where I’ll compile all the pictures I took while I was working on this WIP.

Russian Hunting Cross Stitch Pattern by Riolis

Slow and steady wins the race, and I’m back in the green floss! I still have until the end of February to work on this one. I’ll definitely finish this column before then, but a page finish? Maybe I was too ambitious. We’ll see. There are big blocks of color coming up in the next couple of columns, so maybe I can finish it on deadline day. Time will tell!

Odds & Ends

I love otters, and this made me laugh. - In Otter News on Substack
St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, and if you want an Irish-inspired cross stitch chart, here’s the link to my Etsy shop. All charts are available instantly as PDFs.

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