
Hello!
Life has been busy since we added our little Dominic just over a month ago.
However, I have to be honest, he is a good baby.
I’m pretty spoiled.
Although I might feel like I don’t have many moments when my hands are free, I have found a few stolen moments here and there to whip up a cross-stitch family portrait of what my family now looks like with 5 members.
And, I would really love to encourage you to make your own cross-stitch family portrait.
It is a simple, easy project that looks just so darn cute!
I have supplied patterns for a few of the people included in my portrait, as well as a blank cross stitch grid for you to draw out your own family.
Also, I do a new family portrait every year, which I will be shared here over the next few weeks/days (we’ll see how much time the kids give me) and I will be supplying the patterns for those too–so hopefully those give you a good idea of how to create you own cross-stitch family portrait.
First off, here is the finished product and a picture of my family:

The first step of this project is to draw out your family in pixel form.
To do this grab a box of crayons and print out a THIS BLANK CROSS STITCH GRID.
Then, using my templates as a guide, draw out your family.
You will, of course, have to be a little creative with hairdos and clothing… Assuming your family doesn’t look exactly like mine does…
And if your family does look exactly like mine, well, you sure are lucky!
Here is a picture of my planned-out family… As you can see, my sweet daughter added a little bit to it as well.

As promised, here are a couple of patterns for women holding baby and toddler girls and boys.
It is easy to adjust the height of people, just add a stitch or two to the legs.
All of the stitches below are cross stitches except the baby’s eyes and the bow in the little girl’s hair.


After your patterns are created, grab some Aida cloth (I used 14 counts), embroidery hoops, a rich variety of embroidery thread and get to work.
A few tips–I found the more colors or threads I used, the better.
For example, all of the people in my family have brown hair, but each person has slightly different shades, and I let my portrait reflect that.
There are several stitches in these projects, so it is going to take a little bit of time…but not much more than a nap-time!

Super-Cute, right? As you can see, I dated this project.
I have made a little cross-stitch family portrait every year and I display them all together.
But, honestly, I am a couple of years behind! So, I am trying to get caught up and in the meantime, I will be creating patterns and sharing them here–as a hopeful help to you if you decided to re-create your family in glorious cross stitch!
Thanks for being here!

Heyy , just wondering , how long will it take to do a mum and a daughter?
This is so creative.Congragualtions on your new additon 🙂
Congratulations on the arrival of Dominic. Your cross stitch family portrait turned out wonderfully.
Thank you so much! And, would you believe, that since this was published I’ve had another baby!
By far the most adorable thing I have ever seen. I’m starting now to finish up two of these portraits as Christmas presents for some friends. Thank you for sharing your talent.
yay! I’d love to see you finished portraits!
This is my first cross stitch ever so I may not be doing it right. But I finished my first family member and it is teeny tiny. Is this right or am I doing something wrong? I am actually making one of all the grandkids so they are shorter than the adults.
Amy Leverett recently posted…Rainbow Butterfly Sparkle
Hummm, it’s hard for me to tell without seeing it, but the easiest way to make it bigger is to use a bigger aida cloth. I generally use 14 count aida cloth (which is small) but you can also easily get 12 count or 10 count, which is much bigger. Let me know if this isn’t helpful! If need be, I’d love to look at your pattern and offer other ideas.
I hope you’ll share them all together when you’re done catching up making them! I’d love to see how they’re displayed.
Dianna L. recently posted…Nothing So Beautiful Free Printable
I just might have to do that, thanks Dianna! Let’s just hope I don’t get distracted and actually get them all stitched!