Linda's Review of Queen Anne House Cross-Stitch Kit From Mill Hill - Buttons & Beads Series

When trying to decide on which small cross-stitch kits I wanted to try this year I knew I wanted to cover several holidays and seasons. To cover the Christmas holiday season and the winter season I choose the counted cross-stitch & bead design from Mill Hill - Queen Anne House - Cross Stitch Kit. I, of course, just love Victorian Houses so this was a simple choice for me!

Like the other Mill Hill  - Buttons & Beads Series patterns I had bought the Queen Anne House - Cross Stitch Kit included the pattern, embroidery thread, perforated paper, beads, 2 needles and instructions.

The Queen Anne House - Cross Stitch Kit pattern uses full counted cross-stitch and outline stitching as well as beads for emphasis and depth. The pattern also calls for certain areas of the perforated paper to be left untouched as the background.

Given the experience I had with my "Spirit of Quilting Angel Counted Cross Stitch Project" and the fragile nature of perforated paper I decided to add wide masking tape to the back of my perforated paper before I started cross-stitching. I also decided to utilize the rectangular wood frame jig that my darling husband built for me that I could tape the edges of my perforated paper to. The wood frame jig was a rectangular embroidery hoop of sorts, but without bending the paper. He made it out of 1/2" x 1" pine wood strips. It also had an adjustable center strip that I used for this 5 x 5 square design.

Linda Review Of Haunted Hotel Cross Stitch Kit From Mill Hill - Buttons & Beads Series

When trying to decide on which small cross-stitch kits I wanted to try this year I knew I wanted to cover several holidays and seasons. For one of my favorite holidays  - Halloween I choose the counted cross-stitch & bead design from Mill Hill - Haunted Hotel - Cross Stitch Kit.

Like the other Mill Hill  - Buttons & Beads Series patterns I had bought the Haunted Hotel - Cross Stitch Kit included the pattern, embroidery thread, perforated paper, beads, 2 needles and instructions.

The Haunted Hotel pattern uses full counted cross-stitch and outline stitching as well as beads for emphasis and depth. The pattern also calls for certain areas of the perforated paper to be left untouched as the background.

Given the experience I had with my "Spirit of Quilting Angel Counted Cross Stitch Project" and the fragile nature of perforated paper I decided to add wide masking tape to the back of my perforated paper before I started cross-stitching. I also decided to utilize the rectangular wood frame jig that my darling husband built for me that I could tape the edges of my perforated paper to. The wood frame jig was a rectangular embroidery hoop of sorts, but without bending the paper. He made it out of 1/2" x 1" pine wood strips. It also had an adjustable center strip that I used for this 5 x 5 square design.

Linda's Review of Flower Shoppe Cross-Stitch Kit from Mill Hill - Buttons & Beads Series

When trying to decide on which small cross-stitch kits I wanted to try this year I knew I wanted to cover several holidays and seasons. For the Spring season the counted cross-stitch & bead design from Mill Hill - Flower Shoppe (beaded kit) seemed to fit the bill.

Like the other Mill Hill  - Buttons & Beads Series patterns I had bought the Flower Shoppe included the pattern, embroidery thread, perforated paper, beads, 2 needles and instructions.

The Flower Shoppe pattern uses full counted cross-stitch and outline stitching as well as beads for emphasis and depth. The pattern also calls for certain areas of the perforated paper to be left untouched as the background.

Linda's Review of Gather Together Buttons & Beads Series Cross-Stitch Kit From Mill Hill

One of the cross-stitch kits I decided to try this Fall was a counted cross-stitch & bead design from Mill Hill - Gather Together - Cross Stitch Kit.

The Gather Together - Cross Stitch Kit included the pattern, embroidery thread, perforated paper, beads, 2 needles and instructions.

The Gather Together - Cross Stitch Kit pattern uses full counted cross-stitch and outline stitching as well as beads for emphasis and depth. The pattern also calls for certain areas of the perforated paper to be left untouched as the background.

Linda's Review of Spirit of Quilting Angel Counted Cross Stitch Pattern Design by Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books Publishing

In pondering what kind of cross-stitch kits I wanted to try this year I decided to focus on smaller projects of a less mammoth nature. If you've been following my Linda's Blog and Book & Crafts Review Corner blog you know that I completed two massive counted cross-stitch pictures in the past year.

The first I posted about last December in a post on my Linda's Blog entitled "You Spent How Many Hours On That Cross-Stitch?" and reviewed in an article on my Book & Crafts Review Corner blog in a post entitled "Linda's Review of M'Lady's Chateau - Dimensions Gold Collection Cross-Stitch Kit."

The 2nd one I wrote about last June in a Linda's Blog post entitled "315 Hours On Another Cross-Stitch Picture - WOW!" and reviewed in a Book & Crafts Review Corner article entitled "Linda's Review of In Her Garden - Dimensions Gold Collection Cross-Stitch Kit."

Both of the above took hundreds of hours to complete and I didn't want to spend as much time on my cross-stitch kits this year. So, I looked for projects that were smaller in nature and which could fit in a small shadow box or picture frame. I didn't really want anything bigger than an 8 x 10 size picture.