Christmas crackers, baubles and Russian dolls

Another month, another post. (By the way, how can it be September already?!?). This week, there are a couple of new magazine issues out - first up, Crazy 247, with which the free gift is a set of two cute Russian doll felties, designed by Cheryl McKinnon. I`ve always loved matryoshka dolls, ever since I was a child, so I had great fun stitching this pair:

Issue 273 of The World of Cross Stitching is about to hit the UK shops too, so I can finally share pics of the gorgeous Christmas crackers that Fiona Baker designed. I enjoyed this little detour from the "stitch it, frame it, hang it on the wall" routine: while I usually like to work on big pictures, from time to time it`s nice to make something that shows a different way of displaying one`s stitching. And this project ticked all those boxes: novelty element? Check. Christmas stitching? Check. Traditional Christmas colours of red, green and gold? Check. Something that not only looks like a Christmas cracker (i.e. already a winner) but recycles loo rolls? Say no more. 😄

There`s a handy tutorial in the magazine that shows the process of turning these festive napkins into awesome crackers:

...so that one could decorate the Christmas table like this:

Awesomeness! 😃 In other news, we just spent our first weekend away in the new (i.e. new to us) camper van - talk about awesomeness! Of course, I couldn`t just leave the house for two whole days without any stitching - so I took a piece of aida with me and some variegated thread, and I made a bauble for Mr X Stitch`s Christmas tree at Standen House (if you`d like to find out more about the project and/or download the free bauble patterns, you can do so here). And even though it looks more like a strange planet than a bauble, I hope it`ll fit in with the rest of the hoops on that beautiful stitchy tree this Christmas. 😊