Cross Stitch Bride and Groom #1

Hello and welcome back for some more cross stitching fun (at least I hope you are having fun)!  

Today I am sharing with you my first cross stitch bride and groom. Just like my family portraits, these are easy to plan, stitch–and turn out so cute.  

This particular cross-stitch bride and groom is my older sister and her husband, but I hope you see just of easy it would be to stitch up a bride and groom you and hubby!

First off, let me introduce my sister, Ruth.  

Here she is with her husband almost 11 years ago, on their wedding day.  

Ah, so young and clueless–like we all were on our wedding days!

They were, always have been, and continue to be a great couple.  

I swear, they never fight.  

They just get along so well.  

From the start, they have been a wonderful model of marriage and I had fun transforming them into little cross-stitch people.

Just like the family portrait, the first step is to plan out your project.  

To do this, print out this BLANK CROSS STITCH GRID and grab some color crayons (my colors are crazy–I could only find a box of glitter crayons!).  

I have provided a pattern for this project that you can use as a guide when creating your own cross stitch bride and groom.  

As you can also see, some things you have to make a few adjustments!  

I changed my bride’s arms and added a few stitches to my groom’s neck.  

That’s why we plan before we stitch!

Once you have created your pattern grab some 14 count Aida cloth and get stitching!

Here is a tutorial from coloring your Aida cloth to whatever color you like.

And, here is the font I used, for your personalization.  

Use a rich variety of colors and stitch with three threads at a time–this will help to fill in the stitching area more completely.

As with all cross stitch projects, it is wise to do all of the cross stitches 1st.  

This project also calls for back-stitching and french knots to add details.  

Do these things after all of the cross stitching is done.  

Below you can see a (terrible phone) picture of my project before I did any of the backstitching or french knots.

On the pattern below you will see several red dots–these are french knots and I think they make really cool-looking flowers.  

If you are intimidated by french knots like I was pull up youtube and watch some videos.  

There are so many great videos to teach you this stitch.  

Practice for 15 minutes and you will master the french knot, really!

Also, the dark black lines are backstitch.  I did these stitches with 1 black thread.

Finally, add a little lettering–I added their names but in future projects, I plan on adding the date as well.

There you have it!  And below is a pattern for this project.  

Note that I made all of my white stitches pale yellow so that they would actually show up on the pattern!

Oh, and one last thing!  

My sister, like I said, has been married almost 11 years, and in those 11 years much is the same–they are still a wonderfully loving, fun couple–but a lot has also changed.  

They are now the parents of 5 kids, they live on a farm, and (maybe most thrilling of all) my sister is a blogger!  

Check out her blog HERE, and her beautiful family below.

Thanks for being here,