Christmas baubles, cats and dogs, and finished Monarch 😊

The latest issue (261) of Cross Stitch Crazy is out now so I can share my picture of the cute cover kit:

Designed by Durene Jones, these were so much fun to stitch I did them twice 🤣 and the free gift includes 2 bauble shaped wooden frames too so the finished decorations are ready to go on the tree or in a card with added oomph.

The other day, I was browsing the worldwide web, and I came across the 2019 catalogue of DMC (here). Remember the Vintage Circus range I mentioned in a previous post? Here they are, all 5 together:

Hmm, I`ve just noticed I got the last two with the drapes - there must be something about me that screams "curtain!"...? 😂 Def. not in the `that`s it, no more` sense because my next DMC commission was this set of 6 hoops, 3 cats and 3 dogs:

I loved this set, they`re such clever designs: they only use 1 colour each but utilise both XS and BS in 1 and 3 strands to create depth and even a sense of movement.

Again, I can only repeat myself: these were so much fun to stitch I did them twice... plus a few (few?!? 🤪) more times: 

Finally, as promised, here`s the finished Monarch of the Glen! 😍 In the end, it took 230 hours, 65 days spread over the past 5 months, and it`s already at the framers (I`ll post a photo of the end result too when we get it back). Thank you for visiting my blog, happy stitching! 😊

kits galore

Me again - the other day I forgot something (but just as well, it`d have been a rather long post otherwise). Remember the Margaret Sherry design I mentioned here? I stitched it a few months ago but now that it`s published, I can show you the pic:

The kit can be ordered from Immediate Media here

It took 40 hours to stitch, plus the wee mouse another 3, and I was smiling the whole time, not only because her characters are so cute but also because her artwork is so expertly translated into cross stitch charts by Fiona Baker.

8 hours

15 hours

25 hours

40 hours

And I`ve just noticed that DMC`s new Vintage Circus collection is now available from various online shops - yay! 😊 There are 5 kits in the range, designed by Emily Peacock, and I was lucky enough to stitch two of the covers. Both `Dancing Horse` and `Clowning Around` took roughly 20 hours and I had great fun sewing them, I love big blocky stitches where you can just let your needle fly. Hope you like them and check out the other 3 in the DMC collection too (`Ringmaster Reginald`, `Strongman Stanley` and `Acrobat Alice`), happy stitching!

Highland cows, Christmas trees and astrolabe

Hello peeps, another flying visit from me because (surprise, surprise) I`m in a stitching frenzy - but I`ve decided to use my lunch break to add some photos here because new publications are coming out almost daily just now and I`m going to get lost among the projects. 🤪
First up, obviously, is Amanda Gregory`s cute mom-and-baby duo of Scottish Highland cows:

And I say "obviously" because if you thought I had a thing for puffins, that is nothing compared to my obsession with heilan` coos! 😁

I bought that book in the gift shop at the Falkirk Wheel and the glasses case in our local post office, but these are just the first few items I grabbed for this photo, there are a lot more in the house. 🙄 And the moo coo was the first souvenir I bought for myself in Scotland in 2000, so it`s older than my son 😲 and he still moos when you press his tummy (the cow, not my son).
OK, I`ve finished my lunch and I`m still yapping on, so I`d better get these pics attached. Actually, the ones for this 52-hour project are strung together in a wee film (and there`s also a short film on the WOXS Facebook page, a behind the scenes at the photo shoot that you can watch here):

In the same issue of The World of Cross Stitching (286), there are Fiona Baker`s 6 Christmas tree cards that were the most fun I had with beads for a long time. 😊 My favourite was the one with the bugle beads - there`s something strangely pleasing about them being exactly 5 squares long on 14ct fabric. 🤪

Finally, digital copies of issue 9 of XStitch Magazine are available now, and in this issue, I stitched Australian designer Christabel Seneque`s astrolabe.

In case anybody needs a refresher course on what an astrolabe is 😉, this astronomical instrument was used by navigators *peeks into Wikipedia* to measure the altitude above the horizon of a celestial body, day or night. Furthermore *reads on*, it can be used to identify stars or planets, to determine local latitude given local time, to survey, or to triangulate. *breathes "That`s so cool!"* 

So, given that Issue 9 is titled Orient, what better tool to orient oneself in this big wide world? 😉 Hope you like it, thanks for not asking about the Monarch and happy stitching! 😊