Cross Stitch Gold 114

Finally, after stitching Christmas pieces from about March till July, the first ones are starting to appear in the magazines - yay! So much so that there`s an instant double whammy in the shops just now, in the shape of Gold 114, with my little snowman on the cover and my fairy inside. :)

 

The snow globe was designed by Durene Jones, as you probably guessed from the snowman`s distinctive carrot nose. ;) It took me 81 hours to stitch (back in May, lol!) - a bit longer than you might expect for a picture that has nice big chunks of colour - but there was some fiddly fractionals around the letters, backstitch and beads. In other words, a thoroughly enjoyable project that never got boring for a single second! ;)

My finished version looked like this:

And in the mag they opted for the hoop frame that`s so trendy these days:

Next came (well, in July, just before going on my summer holiday) the Christmas fairy by my favourite designer, Maria Diaz. There is such a Victorian elegance to this piece, don`t you think?

I have to confess that of all the colours, purple is the only one I don`t like - yet the baubles seem to work  in this picture somehow, so much so that I`d probably have opted for a purplish frame (but I guess they wanted to match it to the fairy`s poinsettia-like dress, not to mention that red is more traditionally associated with Christmas). As usual with Maria`s designs, there`s a stunning attention to detail, from the golden thread on the baubles to the fairy dust around the wand as she`s lighting the candle, to the background worked with two shades of moss green (cross stitch in one strand for added depth). This picture also took 80 hours to complete and I have a few progress photos to share - thank you for visiting and happy stitching to all of you! :)

First stage: the poinsettia dress :)

What I lovingly called "the haemorrhoid stage" ;)

The situation was getting even more kinky as my fairy got two balls :O

Then her hollow eye sockets started the freak me out so I stitched the details of her face :)

I plodded on with the background greenery...

And, finally, after 80 hours, she was completed :)