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!
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| Pic 1: Only a few hours into the project, still sailing through the symmetrical bits |
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| 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 |
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| 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) |
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| Pic 4: After 30-odd hours of backstitching, finally the finished product :) |
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| Pic 5: And finally, as it appeared in Cross Stitch Gold Issue 104 |
Beautiful stitching x
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, worth all the long hours working on it :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous pillow, it would have taken me years. Did you do the finishing to make the pillow?
ReplyDeleteThank you, ladies! :)
DeleteNo, 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... ;)
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!
ReplyDeleteLol, 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
ReplyDeleteYour 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.
ReplyDeleteThanks, 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.
ReplyDeleteApropos 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! :)