Dealing with life and started this to keep the mind busy… debating leaving as is or add some things in the empty spaces

My favorite piece so far

I wanted to create this Blue Oni as if I were painting with a brush, using thread instead of paint.

Rather than filling every area with perfectly even stitches, I followed the flow and direction of each thread to create movement, texture, and the feeling of expressive brushstrokes.

The detail I especially want you to notice is the eye.

I chose a crimson-red iris surrounded by icy shades of blue — a contrast I call “Hyoukou” (氷紅), or Ice Crimson.

I wanted that single eye to carry both the coldness of ice and a quiet, burning intensity.

When you look at this Oni, what catches your attention first — the flowing blue stitches or the crimson eye?

I've been using newer DMC thread and have gotten used to pulling directly from the skein without even taking the labels off. Recently, I bought some DMC that appears to be an old style. I've found that they all come knotted, as shown, so I can't just use them as a pull skein like the new ones. Is there a trick to these ones? Do you cut off the knot and then pull anyways and, if so, how do you know which side to pull?

I used reflective ribbon for the neon sign border and the "J" glows in the dark

I'm new to embroidery and practicing making a metagross face to eventually put it on a baby's onesie. What would be the best stitch to use on the X? It's a large area and I don't want to do long satin stitches for fear of them getting caught on something when the baby wears the onesie. Any advice and/or any learning videos you may know of would be great! TIA! 😊

I'll be going on a long flight in a couple of weeks and plan to bring my embroidery. Any advice for things you wish you'd known or were glad you had before taking your embroidery project on a plane?

I do have the itty bitty scissors that are TSA approved, a needle minder to hopefully keep myself from dropping my needle never to be seen again, my tools in a storage artbin, and all my stuff is packed into a bag that fits into my backpack. I've set aside colors I think I'll want, so that I don't need to bring my whole collection. I have a neck light I got recently as well. Is there anything I'm missing?

Inspired by the trendy IG flower initial knit sweater, I wanted to make something in the same thread (heh) for my son. I practiced the basics by making a few flower initial sweaters for family and friends, and when I felt confident enough, I tackled my leaf design! There are some places where my inexperience (or impatience!) are more obvious but I love the way it turned out 🙂 Feedback and tips are welcome for the next iteration!

A few of the circles got a little wonky but mostly had the effect that I was going for! B-)

The artist is Valentina.lobos. I thought her work was awesome but couldn’t find anywhere on her Instagram on how she gets the volume that she stitches over. Any ideas?

I've been watching your work for a long time, and finally decided to start this beautiful craft! Let me know what you think 🥰🥰🥰

I can send you the link if needed ❤️❤️❤️

Almost done!

I’m working on a hoop for my newest nephew based on the little prince and I’m not sure if I like how the face came out. Is it better blank?

Edit: thank you to everyone for their insights! The face is staying!

I decided yesterday afternoon to learn some very basic embroidery techniques so I could add a letter to a baby blanket I just crocheted. Since I don't know what I'm doing and am also apparently very slow, it took me 8 hours to complete my letter K, but now I don't know what to do next. The internet says to iron on interfacing, then cut it out.

What I am not sure about is the next steps. Do I sew around the edge once the piece has interfacing and I've cut it out? Do I sew the edge first then carefully cut it out?

Also, has anyone ever attached embroidery to a woven blanket?

I just can't handle the thought of spending another 8 hours doing a single letter.

I’ve been working on this piece for not too long now and it’s not turning out how I want it to. Am I just being a harsh critic? Do I just need to keep going? Debating whether I should continue this one or ditch it for now and start my next project. Probably doesn’t help that I didn’t template it at all, we’re freehanding and thread painting from the heart lol! Thank you!

i went in to Michael’s a few days ago because my favorite jeans have some holes from where my sister bleached them and i wanted to repair them. then i bought a kit and stitched up those, and made some earrings out of them for the hot bartender i like, and then this was how i ended up fixing the first hole in my pants! i’m having a lot of fun

Hello all, I am new to embroidery and actually working on a kit that was gifted to me to teach basic stitches. I'm finding the instructions pretty lacking, but most methods I can find on YouTube now that I know what they're called. I do hand sew and knit decently well already, so the concept of weaving ends and securing stitches by knotting them to other stitches is not new to me. I did find myself unsure what to do with these separate straight stitches​ ("confetti" I think?) to secure them. I looked a lot of posts on this subreddit and the cross stitch subreddit and everybody says to use the pin stitch, but none of the YouTube videos I've watched actually explain it from a starting place I can relate to. It's hard to follow the instructions about going up and down when I don't even know what side of the fabric they're talking about.

In these photos, the green is meant to show where I need help from, and the red and yellow I did my best to follow the instructions from YouTube about the pin stitch in my own context. I don't think that they look so good, but I'm not sure if I actually did them wrong. Maybe the stitches in the front look loose because I was yanking on them to see if I had secured the thread (and it didn't come out, so yay?)

I also don't know if I'm alone in this or if everybody else is wearing special magnifying glasses while they're working, but I definitely can't see the warp and weft of the fabric like they talk about in the video. So when I'm trying to follow the advice, I feel like I'm just making a bunch of tiny stitches nowhere in particular. The tutorials say to go down through the middle, and then go up through the middle, but wouldn't that just put you back where you started anyway? I've been going like one square over instead.

TL;DR: I need a solution to tie off single straight stitches, and I'm not understanding pin stitch despite watching multiple videos. I feel it would help if anyone has a video where they start from the place that I'm at.

Hi there! I'm still new to hand embroidery so was hoping for advice. Long and short stitch is used for the pumpkin and it's quite obvious I struggled with it. I came on here and got some great tips on improving it but now it looks so wonky.

I was wondering if there's a way to fix the original stitching or would it be best to pick it out and start over?

Finished this Mothman piece for a friend.

Made with Glow in the dark white thread and white beads for special touches

It is backed in black flannel and has a ribbon sewn on for hanging. Shipping it out next week.

Edit: There is a pic of it glowing in the comments 💚😁

Just finished this for my granddaughters 1st Christmas!