Cross Stitch Portraits

I adore these cross stitch portraits I've been seeing on Pinterest recently.

After looking at the pattern, I made a grid in Paint (graph paper and pencil would have been easier, but harder to find in my house) and started "sketching." None of the three of us are petite, so I added width and height to my people - and should have enlarged the cat similarly!

I love my 2011 cross stitch portrait.

My current header here and on my facebook page

My ultimate goal is to figure out a way to illustrate our family tree (at least parents and siblings + their families), but I'm struggling to arrange 13 people, plus 1 dog and 4 cats in a way that makes sense and gives me enough room for potential additions in the future.

I took a break from designing family members looks and fighting with layouts to give us a 2010 portrait as well.

The colors are better in person, but more light washed out the contrast

I don't love it as much. I wish I hadn't attempted the bouquet, but I am not cutting it out now. I had planned to do a half stitch background (grass and sky) to keep the dress from blending into the white background too much. I'm holding off on that decision until I have a better idea where these will hang and the lighting they'll be under. I prefer the simplicity and coordination of both having the white background, but I don't want to lose the dress either.

These came together fairly quickly, and it was nice to have something quiet and relatively mindless to work on. I'd love a reason to make more, but until I figure out a design for the family tree, I can't imagine a reason to make another until we hit a pretty major change. Since I don't foresee any major changes for us, I guess I'll judge whether I need a 2012 one on how our hairstyles change in the next 8 months.

Now to figure out frames or hoops so I can get these off my desk and onto my walls!