But soon enough I discovered that this was not an old lady activity at all. Cross-stitching is so fun and relaxing, and a great way to display pixel art around the house!

Once I started looking at it this way, I knew I had to make a piece inspired by one of my favorite books. And that’s how I came with this pattern of Bilbo Baggins (the greatest little hobbit of them all).

I made this little pattern by painting cells on a spreadsheet and adding line and row numbers to use as a guide.

If you want to make your own, just follow this pattern!

The materials needed are:

• A piece of cloth with at least 45×48 squares to stitch (I recommend leaving a margin of at least 5 squares, in case you want to frame it later)
• A sewing needle
• Embroidery floss x6 colors (Black, Brown, Burgundy, Green, Yellow and Whatever Color You Want To Use For The Skin)
• Scissors
• Patience 

And that’s it! I like to start by stitching the outline, but you can pick any part of the drawing and start counting the squares.

For example, the line at the very top of Bilbo’s head is composed of 6 black squares in a row. You can count the white squares before that black row (there are 17). Once you have that first row stitched, the rest will be easier to position.

You can also  print the image to highlight the squares or mark them with a pen.

As soon as I finished this piece I started planning a second one. I would like to hang a towel in my kitchen with Bilbo’s famous quote ‘Out of the Frying-Pan, Into the Fire’. Maybe including some goblins and a warg…

What do you think? Do you like cross-stitching? Will you try some bookish pixel art in your cloths and towels?

The post Bookish Cross-stitch: Bilbo Baggins appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

They make it so easy to read multiple books at the same time, jumping between them and instantly continuing were you left. They also make cute handmade gifts!

That’s why I’m sharing this easy DIY tassel bookmarks tutorial to make at home

1. Get your supplies. I used embroidery floss but you can also use yarn or a similar material. Get some scissors and a piece of cardboard.

2. Roll the floss around the piece of cardboard. The more floss you use, the chunkier your tassel at the end. For the chunkier pink tassel I used a smaller piece of cardboard, which allowed me to roll the floss more times. Make sure to save some floss for the next steps.

3. Carefully get your roll of floss and make a little knot to keep it in place.

4. With the rest of the floss, make a little knot where you want the partition for the tassel.

5. Roll the ends of that piece of floss. Make a little knot to finish and hide it between the floss.

6. Cut the surplus floss. Attach your finished tassel to a piece of cardboard, photograph or postcard to finish your bookmark. You can also make a little knot to attach the tassel to a paperclip.

Do you use bookmarks or do you just memorize the last page you read? I’m a little bit of both, but now that I have cute bookmarks I’ll make sure to use them all the time

The post DIY Tassel Bookmarks appeared first on Pretty Geekery.