Monday 12 August 2013

symmetrical cushion from Cross Stitch Gold 104

Well, well, where did this summer go? It seems like yesterday that school broke up and my Mum was coming, then we had the heatwave (yeah, I know, in Scotland!), and then I went to Hungary... and learnt what heat really meant, by the way... then Hubby followed and now we`re all back in our little house in Fife and part of me is wondering if it was really only a few days ago that I was suffocating in the 42 degree Hungarian summer...
I have to say, one of my favourite parts of coming back home is the Going Through The Piled-Up Mail. There were all kinds of goodies waiting for me on the carpet (as the bills are all addressed to DH), including the long-awaited prize books by Rowan that I`d won with my knitted sleeping puppy a few months back. I also got my Tesco vouchers (happy days!) and, most importantly, all my stitchy magazines - among them the latest Cross Stitch Gold, with my kaleidoscope cushion in it. 
This is the project I was working on around the Spring/Easter break, when my Mum was here and I did all kinds of naughty knitting instead of stitching - little did I know at the beginning that it`d take me 180 hours to finish this project! I had a wee giggle to myself when I read the magazine`s advice about taking regular breaks on a biggie like this - I still remember the weekend I finished the backstitch, working 15-16 hours a day non-stop, just so that I wouldn`t have to ask for a second extension on the deadline.
Anyway, enough words, now onto the photos - my favourite bit! Finally, I can share some progress piccies with you, yay!
Pic 1: Only a few hours into the project, still sailing through the symmetrical bits

Pic 2: A few days later, I was still lulled into a false sense of security by the symmetry, eliminating colours one at a time

Pic 3: Days/weeks/months/a lifetime later - yep, the 4 shades of pink were NOT symmetrical
(actually, their motif also repeats in the 4 quarters but you still need to follow the pattern closely)

Pic 4: After 30-odd hours of backstitching, finally the finished product :)

Pic 5: And finally, as it appeared in Cross Stitch Gold Issue 104

8 comments:

  1. Beautiful, worth all the long hours working on it :)

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  2. What a gorgeous pillow, it would have taken me years. Did you do the finishing to make the pillow?

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    1. Thank you, ladies! :)
      No, Minnie, luckily I only have to post the stitched fabric back and the magazine must have a `finishing department`. I`m so glad I don`t have to do that, I don`t think I could bear the responsibility, lol! Can you imagine, cutting-trimming-sewing sometimes just a hair-width away from the cross stitch that someone has worked long hours to finish? I personally wouldn`t dare but lucky for me, there must be some pretty gutsy people there... ;)

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  3. Oh, that is extensive work! Congratulations on finishing it with just one extension! Until the pink shades showed up, I thought you were working on a huge biscornu! But then again, I see biscornus everywhere. :P Thank you for sharing!

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  4. Lol, Katya, I don`t blame you, I almost mistook it for a pincushion when I first saw it in the magazine! I had to go back a few pages and look again coz I hardly recognised this sad-looking Easter egg that somebody left on that chair by accident... Amazing how much the square I`d been working on changed just because it`s been cropped into a circle! It looks totally different, doesn`t it? And somehow smaller, although the design is 180x180, so on the 28ct evenweave it was over a foot in diameter - maybe they should have used a smaller chair or smaller books as props? :D

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  5. Your photo is so much more vibrant than their's! Much more tempting but I think the random pinks would drive me over the edge LOL.

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  6. Thanks, Jo, for the compliment - I`m not too big on taking photos and these were just end-of-the-day progress piccies that I took half-asleep but the colours do look more vibrant, don`t they? Pure luck, I guess.
    Apropos being driven over the edge: the project I`m working on just now is another deceptive little number. I`m itching to share more photos but, alas, I have to wait a few more months again. In the meantime, all I can say is that it`ll be a stunner so look out for it in WOCS 211! :)

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