When I started the Super Mario Cross Stitch it was a bit of a test. I have always like cross stitching, my mother is an avid stitcher who has many fine finished projects framed on the walls in her house. I have even done some small and larger projects before, but I never finished them. I know on some I made errors, and I couldn’t stand either taking it all out, or leaving it be. I guess I am too perfectionistic and lacked determenation to finish.

I wanted to pick it up again, I love how easy it is to create beautiful pieces, and you don’t need any creative skill (I am so bad at drawing or painting for example). I figured if I had a pattern I really loved, I’d finish it. So I started browsing around. I found this great weblog, Sprite Stitch that combines cross stitching (or any other craft) with something I love, gaming. Gaming lends itself well to conversion into crafts, because of its pixelated nature. When Sprite Stitch offered a Super Mario Bros. pattern I was sold, and decided to try it. I started working on the project in februari of 2008.

I bought a piece of linnen, found DMC colors I liked, and started. During the project I did two things. I learned more about my stitching techniques, and I kept looking for patterns.

As far as my techniques are concerned, I learned I like aida better than linnen for cross stitching. This has to do partly with a big error I made. I stitched over 1, while in linnen you are supposed to stitch over 2. This made the stitches tiny, and the thread kept “slipping” to other holes. Next time I’ll use aida. I also used needles with a sharp point, which made me stick the needle thru other threads, and thru my finger… Next time I’ll use blunt tipped needles. I also think I would do better stitching with a hoop or a frame, though for this project stitching in the hand is fine. I also learned why patterns use symbols and not colors, even with only a few colors in the pattern it gets confusing quickly.

I kept looking for patterns. I have had the wish to stitch a medieval tapestry because my love for (early) medieval history and the beauty of those tapestries. I have always felt that they lent themselves very well for stitching. However, I had never seen such patterns in stores anywhere, but as I now know, this was because I was used to cross stitch kits, not single patterns. Through searches on the internet I found some great stores for patterns. One of them was Scarlet Quince, who offered several medieval tapestry patterns for sale, yay! The patterns are made for DMC thread (which is good, that’s the one everybody I know uses).