roses cushion and butterflies - WOCS 256-257

Good morning! Since my last post, I have finished the private project I`d been stitching for over a year now - it`s the one my parents were supposed to get for Christmas 2016 but instead they`ll get it in July when we go to Hungary. We took it to the framer yesterday and it should be ready in a few weeks - squeeee, I`m so excited and can`t wait to share some pics of it here too (but that`ll have to wait until I`m back from holiday). ;)

In other news, I`ve just received my subs copy of The World of Cross Stitching 256 and my rosy cushion is in this issue. This lovely design by Poppy Benner I appreciated even more as I got it right after a backstitch-heavy piece and I simply relished the fact that this one had no BS at all. Plus I liked the Cath Kidston style roses `wallpaper` that`s achieved by subtle shade changes - there are 23 colours in this design and it took 68 hours to finish.

And here it is as a finished cushion in the magazine:

On the last page of the magazine I also spotted my wee butterflies in the preview of the next issue and just in case I`m in a packing/going on holiday frenzy by the time it comes out, I`d better add those pics here too. So next month`s free gift with WOCS is going to be this beautiful butterflies card cover kit (bottom right):

And here`s my close-up - hehe, while typing this, I`m drooling over those gladioli in the top left corner, I think that cushion is already on my to do list, can`t wait for this issue to come out! :) Happy stitching, peeps!

Lesley Teare`s sleeping cat (Gold 138) and Margaret Sherry`s cute hedgehogs (Crazy 130)

This week I have received two subscriber copies and thought I`d better post about them before I get carried away with other stuff and forget (I`m reaching new heights of forgetfulness btw: the other day I sent the wee man to school on an inset day. Not that it hadn`t been etched on my calendar for ages beforehand - I just forgot to check my calendar). 😵

Anyway, so first up is this gorgeous cat, designed by Lesley Teare, from Cross Stitch Gold 138:

It was such a joy to stitch you wouldn`t believe... well, you will when you start to stitch it for yourselves. 😉 I took a few photos at various stages - not the usual 5-hourly caper because as you`ll see, the stitchable portions were quite self-evident. I loved everything about this project: the cat itself, obviously, but also the colours, the flowers, the butterflies and I like the finish too, I think the red fabric they used for making up the cushion brings out the red of the strawberries very well.

9 hours

20 hours

30 hours

53 hours

And today I received my copy of Cross Stitch Crazy 230 with the free cover kit that I`d stitched almost half a year ago - the cover kits are done even farther ahead than other magazine projects (I guess because they involve more preparation? I mean the actual putting together of thread lengths, charts, cards, envelopes and what have you). These two adorable hedgehogs were designed by Margaret Sherry and I had so much fun stitching them (I`m mildly obsessed with hedgies anyway). Not to mention one of them is sleeping in a sunflower, my favourite flower - what more would a girl need? Hope y`all are having a lovely weekend and happy stitching!

These hedgies took 4-5 hours to stitch each 😊

I love these gorgeous cards with the matching frames
- more strawberries and especially more sunflowers can only be a good thing in my book! 😉

coastal scene and psychedelic hippo

Last Friday the latest issue (318) of Cross Stitcher hit the UK shops and it has the beautiful coastal scene on the cover that I stitched a few months ago.

It`s a Maria Diaz design at its best: patches of colour that make it easier to break the whole down to manageable areas, `daily bits` that help the project grow so much faster. The flowers in the foreground (1 day), the sea (2 days), the cliffs with the lighthouse (1 day), the beach and the harbour with the little houses (2 days) - and then, instead of spending another day or two backstitching... hardly any BS to add because it`s more like a watercolour painting! 😍

Fair enough, it took me a month to finish it, but only because I had the flu for 3 weeks in the meantime - fact is, it can be stitched in a week (if you need an urgent last-minute present for someone) because it`s one of those projects that you can`t put down, you know the type I mean? I think every stitcher is familiar with the concept of `I`ll just finish this little bit here and then I`m off to bed` and then you stay up till 2 a.m. 😂

The above-mentioned flu made me rethink a few things and I realised that the only time I have for myself is time I spend sick in bed, unable to do anything anyway - not exactly quality me-time. 😩 So I`ve slowed down a bit and now I can make room for other stuff too, e.g. I picked up knitting again and finished the little psychedelic hippo I started months and months ago. I named her Lucy after Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, and put her in my Etsy shop for someone to fall in love with. 😁 I also dug out my Personal Stitching but I can`t show any pics of it yet, it was supposed to be my parents` Christmas present in 2016 but hopefully, they`ll get it this year. Happy stitching, folks!