Wednesday 26 February 2014

George, the handsome hippo

Do you remember Gloria, my glorious diva of a hippo? Well, I put her up for sale in my Etsy shop, and a couple of weeks ago someone saw her and - as expected - fell in love with her. Only problem was that this lady wanted a boy version for her (yet) unborn nephew, and preferably in grey. So I slightly amended the original Alan Dart pattern and came up with this:
I think he`s just as gorgeous as his big sister - pity the lady who`d ordered him never contacted me since! I hope she still wants him... then again, I wouldn`t mind keeping him at all! I`ll keep y`all posted.
Elsewhere, in my little dreamworld of freedom (=I haven`t had any commissioned stitching for over a week now), I stitched this freebie from the latest Crazy and made it up for my MIL for Mothers` Day - I hope she`ll like it, I wanted something cheerful (she had a heart operation a few weeks ago and she`s still not 100% but she`s getting there). So here are some colourful birds to cheer her up:

And as there`s still no sign of any model stitching in the pipeline for the noo, you won`t believe what I`ve unearthed from the bowels of my cupboard: La Scapigliata! Yes, I started working on it last night and I hope to finish it before the next commission arrives - again, I`ll keep y`all posted of my progress. Happy stitching!

Wednesday 12 February 2014

Cross Stitch Gold 109

I might as well come clean: I have no idea how it`s already the middle of February. All I remember is, it was Christmas, my parents were here, then they flew back to Hungary on 12 January and I started to work like crazy on my latest commission for Collection (a massive, 180x180 picture by Maria Diaz with stunning detail, partly thanks to the miles of backstitch and 320 French knots, eek!), for which my deadline was 3 February. Eventually, I was a few days late with this one, due to a cold `epidemic` that swept through the whole family (Gregory brought some bug home from school and I got it from him, then DH from us), so in my capacity as a patient-and-nurse, I lost a week or so of precious stitchy time. Luckily, I managed to more or less make up for it by stitching solid 10 hours per day for the past couple of weeks. Now I`m working on a Durene Jones gorgeousness for Gold - and this reminded me that the current issue of Gold has my bunny wabbit in it so here I am to share.
Another confession: I didn`t take progress piccies for this piece, only one photo of the finished piece, front and back. Now before you accuse me of `stitchers` snobbery`, I couldn`t care less what the back of anybody`s work looks like - I know it`s a hotly debated topic in many stitchy circles but I, personally, don`t care how others work, I just try to make mine as mess-free as possible (couldn`t do it any other way with my slight OCD, lol). Anyway, thanks to Amanda Gregory`s clever design, it was almost impossible to make a mess of this rabbit`s back (until I started the backstitch, that is), and I liked the mirror-effect so much I took a photo of it.

   
It`s such a cute little bunny, isn`t it? I stitched it just before the run-up to Christmas, around the time when the shops started to put their festive CDs on, together with their fake-tree decorations, and in the middle of all this, I was stitching for Easter. Never mind, in return I`ll be working on Santas and snowmen in June.
Talking about Christmas, I did some knitting while my parents were here - remember that big entrelac rectangle? My Mum claimed it for herself, and despite all my efforts to persuade her that I can`t turn a rectangle into a garment with arm and neck holes, she insisted that it`d make an excellent vest (=sleeveless jumper) for her. So with plain blue, I knitted a back for it, i.e. another rectangle, then started to sew up the two halves but got so frustrated that we packed up the whole thing into her suitcase, in the firm belief that if anybody can turn this into something wearable, it`s my Gran.
And for her, my Granny, I knitted a Fair Isle tam, similar in colours to the one that`s been her favourite for these past 15-20 years, and which hat is about to leave her after this rather lengthy partnership. Here are some pictures of my colour combo, a variation on this pattern, proudly donned by my lovely Gran who, you won`t believe this, is 80 years old - she hasn`t changed in looks for the past 20 years and no, it`s not just because she`s `always wearing the same hat`, lol! I hope to be as wrinkle-free as she is when I`m 50, let alone 80!