the perfect sunset by Maria Diaz in Cross Stitch Collection 231

Uncharacteristically, for this picture in the latest issue of Collection I do not have too many progress piccies - only one, to be precise. However, I do have an interesting (?) story to go with it.

Have you ever wondered what happens if a model stitcher finds out halfway through a project that she can`t finish it before the deadline? I`m not thinking about running out of time and asking the editor for a few extra days, but rather of something serious that will prevent the stitcher from finishing a work completely. The latter happened to the stitcher who started working on this (I don`t know her, not even her name, all I know is that she had to go to hospital for some reason) and she couldn`t finish this landscape. So this is how I got the project - the first time ever I had to continue a work that someone else had started and I quite enjoyed the experience (mostly, because she did such a neat job that almost put mine to shame, lol!). I hope that whoever she is, she`s feeling better now and if she picks up this issue, she`ll like the fruit of our joint effort.

crocheted Despicable Me minion

I`m happy to report that in between stitching tasks, I managed to finish a crochet project as well in the past couple of weeks: I`ve made a strange hybrid of a minion, a weird cross between utter cuteness (with his goggles on) and a possessed jelly bean (without his accessories). You`ll see in a minute what I mean but first let me give credit to the designer of the pattern, which I found here. Truth be told, though, it was only a starting point for me - as always with crochet -, because I`m so hopeless at it: as I don`t see clearly what`s a chain and what`s not, I keep miscounting (even with a stitch marker!), plus I used different yarns from hers with different sized hooks... so as usual with my crochet attempts, this one belongs to the `Played By Ear` category too. And while the jury is still out on whether it was worth all the effort (although Gregory usually loves and appreciates everything I make, but maybe in this instance he would`ve been happier with the battery-operated model that makes all those cute sounds...?), but the main thing is that I finished something that I set out to do, and now I can`t wait to see his little face when he opens it at Christmas! :)

Mr. Cute! :) I deviated from the pattern (again!) and put wires in his arms
so they`re bendy. Unfortunately, I was concentrating on this so hard
that I didn`t pay attention and sew the fingers on the same way on both hands,
so now he has a thumb on the one and a pinky on the other, lol!

Alternative mouth, with slightly big and scary teeth. In the end,
I decided against it and sew a plain line for a smile :)

And without all his accessories... Unfortunately, his legs come off with his trousers,
and without the goggles he has this slightly demented look in his eyes
(I didn`t have brown felt so I ended up crocheting the eyes as well,
hence the fish-like, lifeless stare... oooh, quick, put those goggles back on!)

Kate Knight cushion in The World of Cross Stitching 211

The latest issue of WOCS contains one of my works, the one I simply nicknamed `orange tree` - it might be the Tree of Life for all I know, I just went for the most obvious (it is stitched on a gorgeous, tangerine coloured fabric, maybe Lugana, as far as I remember, but I might be wrong there). As usual, this has been a while, too - actually, it kinda seemed to go on forever: not only because it wasn`t what you`d typically call a stitcher-friendly project (out of the 86 hours it took, I spent over forty just doing the backstitch, and most of this you won`t even notice, e.g. the fiddly individual petals on the 70-odd blue flowers and green leaves around the frame), but also because I started it before my 3-or-4-week summer holiday and finished it after we came back, so it seemed that I`d worked on it for months. :)

I have quite a few progress photos for this project but I`d like to apologise in advance for the quality of some of these. I must have taken them in the evenings, under a reading lamp, or maybe behind drawn curtains - I remember it was very hot when I was stitching this, so I frequently had to darken the room just so that it wouldn`t feel like an oven. Anyway, here they are:

Every journey begins with the first step: a tentative start on Day 1
(photo DEFINITELY taken in sunlight streaming in through window)

Still at the stage of figuring out the best way to go about this design :)

And the solution: stitch dark outlines of flowers as reference points
(plus all 3 shades of green for leaves, so no need to come back later)

Backstitch defining not only flowers and tree but wee birdies as well :)

The above-mentioned fiddly backstitch: one shade darker blue for the petals
and 2 different shades of green for the tiny leaves

And, finally, the finished product - gorgeous, even if I say so myself :)