Wednesday, 25 March 2020

floral hoops and HAED update

Issue 293 of The World of Cross Stitching is out now and there are two beautiful floral hoops in it by Jenny Van De Wiele that were a real joy to stitch.


If I remember correctly, they took around 10 hours each, so they`re fairly quick projects to whip up for a birthday, Mothers` Day or as a housewarming gift.



The finishing team had this interesting idea of turning them into 3D pieces of art by extending the flower stems beyond the edge of the hoop, and there`s a handy tutorial too in the magazine on how to do this.


Finally, due to other commitments, I had to put my HAED aside, but I`ve done about 10 hours on it so far. Since I always start stitching from the centre, I almost made the same "mistake" (which couldn`t be helped, really) as with the tv test card that got really bulky and heavy towards the end (I stitched that on 16ct aida, 4 over 2 to enlarge the design because I wanted a standard sized, 70x50 cm cushion). So in order to hold as thin/light a roll of fabric in my left hand, and for as long, as possible, I skipped and hopped to the right edge of the HAED design and the plan is to go from right to left in more or less equal width vertical strips - um, as you can see, I already failed 🤣 because at the bottom I just keep going leftward until my thread runs out of a particular colour but hey. 😉 Hope you`re all staying safe, at home, and enjoy your stitching! 😊




Friday, 13 March 2020

perforated paper cards, a finish and a new start

Well, it`s been a couple of months but I`m back with a new post - hope you`ve been all doing smashingly in the meantime. 😉
Cross Stitch Crazy 267 is out now in the UK and the free gift is a perforated paper card kit - just the one, mind, so you`ll have to choose between the blue tit and the teapot (both designed by the very talented hands of Durene Jones). I was lucky enough to stitch both, so here they are:



Yesterday, after two months (but in reality, after 60 hours in total), I finally finished Emma Congdon`s tv test card design that I fell in love with as soon as I saw it in Cross Stitcher (issue 349). I already bought the brown fabric to use for the back of the cushion I want to make but knowing me, it might be a while before I have a finished product so I thought I`d better share a pic now, before I forget. 😄


And before you say, `but how long would it take to go round the 4 sides and make a cushion cover?`, first of all, I don`t like sewing and second, I already started on my next project, which is much more fun than sewing boring straight lines... 🙄😉


OK, I`ll be realistic here: it may be a little while before I can show you the finished picture - according to the pattern tracker, I have 200 sts down, 75,000 to go 🤪 but one day, it`s going to be this HAED pic called Museum Shelf. Until then, happy stitching! 😊