Gift

Let me start by saying that I consider myself to an expert cross-stitcher with 28 years of experience. I usually prefer to make complete counted cross-stitches without back-stitching that I assemble from individually purchased materials. However, for a wedding record I bought this kit. I took me 11 days to complete it (I'm a fast stitcher since I have been cross-stitching nearly every day since 2009). I have only purchased one other Janlynn kit many years ago and my experience was not good. This kit was problematic, and I will go over each part individually.The instructions were not clear on how of handle the pattern. There are squares with 2 or more symbols in them that are separated by a back-stitch line. The instructions don't say on how to handle this. I looked at the picture using a magnifying glass so I could see how the model was worked up. It seems like they want you to split the square and put in a tiny stitch that takes up a quarter of the square, meaning you have to force the needle through the center since they provide 14 count aida. This seemed like the only way to get the desired curved effect without the fabric showing through. I took pictures before and after back-stitching so you could see what I did and how it turned out. I used this for the table legs and the flower arrangement on top of the cake (but not for the main body of the cake even though the pattern showed two of the same symbol in a square). I used this technique through the entire piece even though it was a pain, difficult to get even stitching, and takes three times as longer to stitch. I got the bride done in one day as she only has a few tiny stitches, but panels with a lot like the rose with the ribbon took just as long.The fabric could be better. I could tell from the force need to stitch even the normal stitches that this is Charles Craft fabric, which is by far the cheapest and most readily available, but not the best, and not what I like to stitch on. Since tiny stitches are needed to complete this pattern, it would have been better to stitch it on 28 count aida and go over 2 squares for the regular stitches and over 1 square for the tiny stitches. I have good eyesight so I don't need reading glasses, but even for my eyes it was difficult to know if the tiny stitches were even, and I was in the center of the square.The thread provided was adequate in length, and I had extra thread left over. But the colors were off. The love birds called for 932 for the back of the birds and the main color of the bells. The big heart behind the birds called for 3841. The bobbin picture shows the color discrepancy. The handwritten numbers of the bobbins are the colors that were provided in the kit. You can see that these 2 colors are barely different from each other, but the picture shows that the back of birds as a medium blue. So I compared the 932 they provided to the 932 I purchase as a skein from the local craft store (the printed labels), and they are different! So since they provided 930 as a color, I used 931 for my project as I wanted more contrast. The pictures show how the color swap worked out.This is a beautiful design, but I feel like the designer only had a loose understanding of what a cross-stitch is as I felt like she was trying to make it an embroidery design since you don't always use the pre-determined holes in the aida cloth. I gave 1 star because I like the design and 1 star because it turned out well, but I can't say that I enjoyed making it. If you don't have experience with cross-stitching, good luck!

I made this for a friend and it took me ages, months to be exact, though I also usually only had an hour or two at a time to work on it. There are a LOT of quarter stitches which slowed me down, and a ton of back stitching, though I flew through that part. It was a lot of fun to watch it come together but all the details in parts of it made the pattern very hard to read. Especially since it is in black and white and on 4 pages. I had to make photo copies of the pattern as the repeated use was making it fall apart. There plenty of floss to work with, I had a ton left over actually. And it was absolutely beautiful when I framed it. I would definitely recommend this pattern but not to a beginner. It was honestly probably above my expertise level but it was so pretty I had to make it.

i absolutely love this cross stitch , it came in super fast . the colors are beautiful , its easy to follow . it's a wonderful piece for any home . I'm excited to see the finished product .

It's a pretty sampler but there are lots of quarter stitches and lots of back stitching which slows one down. Some of the mottifs are off center with the box they are in which is annoying. I've been working on this sampler almost non-stop for just over a month and I have the bride and wording left to do on it. My mother bought it and discovered the pattern is not printed on the Aida so she gave it to me to do for my sister's wedding. This forced project probably changes my viewpoint on it and the fact that I don't usually do these types of projects. The floss included in the kit isn't the greatest but there seems to be an adequate amount of each color.

Boy, I'm glad I've had soon experience on counted cross stitching,because this kid is very had to make. The chart is in black and white,and very hard to read. It should be in color. If your a beginner, don't try this kid, you'll get very frustrated.I'm sure it well be very pretty when I'm finished, but what a struggle getting there.

It was fun to stitch and watch the pictures come alive, and after changing a few colors around the bride looked just like my niece, she and her groom loved it!

Fun to make! Didn't run out of floss, like some other cross-stitch kits I have done. My son & daughter-in-law loved it as a Christmas gift.