Cross Stitcher 353

Happy New Year, peeps! Can you believe it`s 2020?!? 😲 Today`s the first day of Back To Normal in our household, so I thought I`d share some pics of the latest issue of Cross Stitcher magazine that came out on the last day of 2019.

As it happens, I have two projects in this issue - the snowdrops by Susan Bates on the cover and a cute hairstyles poster designed by Durene Jones.

I was lucky enough to get two of Susan Bates`s seasonal windows to stitch - you may recall the summery seaview with the tulips from the cover of issue 247 (you can read about it in the second half of this blog post from last July). This wintery still life took 51 hours to stitch and, call me weird, but I liked adding the backstitch to it - all 7 shades of it 😉 - because I enjoyed seeing the whole picture come to life.

It`s a gorgeous picture and I love the finished photo of it in the magazine too, the pastel props and frame complement it so well:

A few pages on, there`s the cute sampler of women`s hairstyles, designed by Durene Jones.

As always with her designs, I had great fun with this project too: even though I like to tackle large, painting-like pictures, in between these I enjoy smaller, card-sized projects and I love when these build up to create a larger image. I enjoyed stitching one or two of these girls a day - it`s such a great feeling when you can start and finish something on the same day! - and they made me smile, which is always a bonus. Hope you`ve all had a wonderful holiday and that if you`re back to work already, you look like No. 3 in the top row and not No. 2, like me this morning! 😁