Dimension's Cross Stitch Kit Review

by Kelly

All cross stitch kits have a few things in common - one or two embroidery needles, a graphed pattern to follow, a piece of fabric, and floss.

I usually choose kits from a company called Dimensions. Now, in general I don't have much brand loyalty - I tend to buy for different reasons. But for cross stitch kits, I always look at Dimensions first, and here's why.


First of all, they chose beautiful images to turn into kits. Here are two of my favorites:

Midnight Dance via Amazon

via Dimensions site

Secondly, their kits are never boring to work. Now, having said that, if the idea of sewing hundreds or thousands of tiny colored x's onto a piece of fabric to make an image makes you shudder, these kits still aren't for you.
But if you're crazy like me, and find that kind of thing fun and worthwhile, then imagine combining different colors of floss together in your needle to get a unique variegated look, or learning how to make velvety dark shadows with four strands of black floss, or adding French knots and lazy daisy stitches onto a cross stitched background to create a patch of flowers.

Also, they're great quality for the money. I've completed somewhere between ten or fifteen of these kits, and I've never been disappointed. I've also never run out of floss, which is a good thing, because they dye their own. If you do run out, they provide a way to order more of that color. Of course then there might be problems with dye-lots, and that could be a huge issue if you're trying to finish a half completed kit. Luckily, I've always had floss left over when I'm finished.

And lastly, since they have kits for all levels, from beginner to expert, as I learned new things I've always been able to find a Dimensions kit that was interesting and challenging. Whether or not I will ever take on one of their really complicated kits (like Ballerina Dreams), that's another story.

For now, I'm back to crocheting. But that smaller kit below would be cute to gift to my mom, since she loves butterflies. Hmm....

via Dimensions site

Crochet Hexagons Continued

by Kelly

Work continues on my hexagon flower blanket. The free pattern that I'm using can be found at One Loop Short.

Please forgive the backdrop of 1970's orange shag carpeting. We're renting.

I scammed that lovely yarn from Donna's stash. She didn't seem to mind, as she was just gifted three large plastic bags full of yarn from Stephanie. So really, I guess I actually scammed it from Steph. So confusing.

On another note, our camera is back from the repair shop and works much better than it has in quite a while. Yay! I'm so happy to have a camera again! Here's a gratuitous shot of one of our neighbors, just because.

We call this little guy 'the weathervane' because he sometimes goes up to the very peak of the shed and sits there for quite a while, looking around...first to the left...then to the right...