Free Mini Cross Stitch Pattern - Teal, Brown, and Gold Plaid Square

I decided I wanted to cross stitch something small and brightly-colored, so I made a pattern that I am sharing with my blog readers!  Please note: this pattern is for personal use only; no commercial use permitted without written permission.

Free plaid square cross stitch pattern.  For personal use only. (c) Erin E. Turowski, 2012.

Key:
X  --  DMC S995 (3 strands)
•   --  DMC 838 (3 strands)
=   --  DMC 422 (3 strands)
Thick black lines  --  DMC E3821 (1 strand)

I stitched this over one thread on 14-count Aida cloth.  It measures 1.1" x 1.1" (2.7 cm x 2.7 cm) square.  It fits perfectly in a 1.5" (3.8 cm) square acrylic keychain.  I buy my keychains from Joann Fabrics as part of a children's scratch-off art kit - I throw away the scratch-off paper, and I get two keychains for $1.49.  Here are some pictures of the finished product!

Teal, brown, and gold plaid cross stitched keychain

Teal, brown, and gold plaid cross stitched keychain (close up)

Enjoy, and happy stitching - Celestial Dragon update tomorrow!

Instant gratification - sparkly cupcake keychain (cross stitch)

I needed to take a break from the "big stuff" to finish a small project for some instant gratification.  So, I found a pattern for a cute little pink cupcake on Google, stitched two, and made them into keychains.  I changed the pattern a little bit - I made the icing pink and white instead of just pink, and I used iridescent sparkly thread and shiny magenta rayon floss to add some shimmer.  Together, the keychains both took only about an hour and a half.  Here is the finished project:

Cross-Stitched Sparkly Pink Cupcake Keychain

Then, after looking at the pics, I realized that I really need to upgrade to a real camera (I have been using my cell phone camera so far).  I poked around on Amazon until I found one that I liked for a good price - the Kodak EasyShare Max Z990 (about $180).  It has a 30x optical zoom and a manual focus option, so it will really help me to get good close-ups of my work!  It should also help with the colors, because my poor little Droid 3, while it has pretty good resolution at 8 MP, tends to just bleed color all through the pictures (like the pink in the cupcake above).

I will post some new pics as soon as it arrives!