tea cups - Cross Stitch Collection 238

The latest issue of Cross Stitch Collection is in the shops today and in it are the little tea cups that have had me wondering for months now... well, not so much the actual cups - lovely, vintage china designs by Maria Diaz -, but the size of the pieces of fabric I had to stitch some of them on. Of course, now it all makes perfect sense: the smaller ones have been turned into napkins and a pocket sewn onto a pretty little apron, but the largest one ended up as a tea cosy - a matching set fit for the best of kitchens! I can think of at least five people off the top of my head right now who`d love to have these - maybe for Christmas? ;)

The blue cup pattern can be downloaded free from www.crossstitchcollection.com :)

Cross Stitch Gold 112 - parasols

I thought the time would never come when one of my stitches actually appeared in a magazine, it`s been sooooo long since anything of mine has been published! Or maybe that`s just how it felt to me... Anyway, here`s the latest one: my cheerful parasols, designed by Durene Jones, which ended up on an oh-so-summery beach bag.

It has been a real pleasure to work on this - deceptively? - easy-looking, smallish design; after all, it`s only 128x123 (on 14ct, 23,5x22,5 cm) and uses a total of 26 colours. However, it definitely needed the deployment of a good, easy-to-follow marking system, both for the similar shades of cream in the background and the backstitch. Oh, and for a little teaser, at the back of issue 112, you can see my sunflowers advertised from the next issue of Gold - yay! This might just mark the beginning of a summery cheer-spreading offensive on the part of Durene and yours truly...? ;)

Over halfway there, trying not to mix up which handle belongs to which parasol ;)

Just remembered in the nick of time that I wanted to take a photo
of the finished cross stitch, before starting the backstitch (ooops!)

And a mere 56 hours later - the finished product :)