Peter Rabbit, matryoshka, Christmas baking, pill boxes and Rialto

Last post of 2021 - where has this year disappeared?? 😲 Feels like we barely put the Christmas decorations away and it`s time to get them out again! Anyway, thought I`d better add one more update on what`s happening around here before the end of the year. 😊

In the UK shops now is the latest issue (315) of The World of Cross Stitching, and I have two projects in this one: the cute Peter Rabbit card as the free gift, and a Russian doll in shades of blue.

The classic Beatrix Potter illustration was converted into a cross stitch chart by the magazine`s multitalented Senior Technical Editor, Fiona Baker, who also designed this matryoshka doll that was a joy to stitch. I love nesting dolls anyway, but in this case it wasn`t just the subject that appealed: there are all sorts of technical challenges that kept me entertained. I enjoyed the straightforward, easy blocks of cross stitch, the elegance of the blackwork detail, the rare opportunity to work lazy daisy stitches, and adding the backstitch and beads.

Another magazine, Cross Stitcher (378) is also in the UK shops now, and I`ve spotted a surprise in it: this is an Emma Congdon design I`d stitched a good while ago but things must have got reshuffled and it`s only being published now. I`m pleased to see it in print - I seem to remember there was a therapeutic quality to stitching those Christmas lights. 🤣

In other news, after that big rush of commissions in Sept-Nov, I continue to make sure I take time to craft things `just because` - the first case in point being these pill boxes I spotted at our local post office. They were £1 each and I liked that they have 7 slots for the days of the week. I immediately thought of my MIL who`s always hunting for new/better pill boxes (at the moment she has a tiny one with two miniscule compartments), so I picked up 2 of these beauties, in case I muck up the first one (which is exactly what happened, so well done, Past Laura, for the foresight *pats own back*). 😉

Now, far be it from me that I should offend lovers of pugs, novelty hats or kitsch in general, but I felt these lids had to go and be replaced with a little cross stitch motif that MIL would appreciate more. Disclaimer: I got a lot of help with this project from DH - for example, after I`d attacked the first one with various sharp implements and broke the plastic into smithereens, he spent ages soaking the other one in hot water, until it came off in one piece. But then I found out that while the white background could be peeled off (in 1 mm segments of torn silk), the actual pug face - and hat, let`s not forget the hat - was part of a see-through plastic foil that was welded, or held by magic, to the perspex (I came to this conclusion after breaking 2 nails and 1 plastic spoon).

When DH saw that I was wheezing and about to attack it with sandpaper, the dear man must have thought, `Well, that`d knacker it anyway with score marks`, and he ordered new perspex from Ebay for me - and not only the perfect size, but he even made sure the edges were bevelled! 🥰 So I added my wee stitched rose to it and I think it`ll be a much more suitable pill box for my MIL: 

Finally, last week I also started on a cross stitch project just for me: Mary Hickmott`s `Rialto Bridge` (available from her Etsy shop). I thoroughly enjoyed working on this, brought back memories from 30 years ago (THIRTY?!?), and while I was stitching it, the fabric arrived for another Mary Hickmott design called `Highland Living` that I specifically bought to go in the long, narrow space on the wall above The Monarch of the Glen, so I very enthusiastically started on it last night (even though a couple of commissions have arrived in the meantime but January deadlines seem so far in the future atm). 😉 For the now, nothing else matters than the holidays - I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, all the best for 2022 and, as always, happy stitching! 😊

organised threads and Jungle Book

First post in ages where I can just blather to my heart`s content - no rush, no deadlines: I`m on a mini break, woot woot! 😁

To put my joy in context: Monday was the first proper day off I`ve had in over 2 months. I`ve been working flat out on a Disney Special, the first batch of which arrived on 26 Aug, with another load in Sept and more in Oct, plus I had other commissions coming in in the meantime so, long story short, I completed 33 projects between the end of Aug and 15 Nov. Some of them were card sized, some quite large, and I can`t wait to show you the lot once they`re published! 😊

Since I`ve been stitching 8-10 hours a day most days (tbh even I don`t know how I don`t have carpal tunnel syndrome yet), you can probably imagine how much I enjoy doing non-sewing stuff for the now... until the next commission comes in, that is. 😉 I`d imagine by the end of this week, I`ll be thoroughly lost without my stitching, so I might even bring out one of my WIPs... although the only problem with that is that it`s hard to get into the mood when you don`t know how much time you have to work on it before you have to put it away again. Still, I`m making the most of my time off by getting organised with my threads - this has been long overdue as the shallower drawers of my original (white) tower were getting to the stage where they were hard to open as bags of threads got caught at the back. So I got another (black) tower with deeper drawers, for my most numerous `hundreds` (I store my threads by DMC numbers, each hundred having their own drawer - or drawers, if they won`t all fit in just one).

I`m not particularly pernickety (at least I don`t think so - the subtle messiness of our house attests to that 🤣), but I find well-organised threads not only pleasing but also practical and very important when I need to stitch fast - hence this little introduction to my thread storage system. 😊

So as I said, I keep my threads in wee ziplock bags: I find these the handiest solution, not only because I think bobbinating is a waste of time I`d much rather spend stitching, but also because I can put any leftover threads in the bags too (and I keep even 5cm pieces that might do for 1 or 2 sts that I spot after I thought I`d done all of that colour). These bags are 9x12 cm, can hold up to 20-25 skeins, and also serve as impromptu pin cushions - at first, I wasn`t going to pierce them but then it turned out it even helps squeezing out the air of them so they take up less space in the drawer. #winwin

I admit, the thread situation has been getting a bit out of control lately: when I juggle several projects at once, some of which use the same colour(s), and when I`m pressed for time, I just chuck everything back in the drawer... and then some bags get stuck at the back the next time I try to open it, and why is it always the very last bag you come across that you need?? 🤷‍♀️ So, lesson learnt - they`re all organised numerically, in ascending order. 🤩

The hundreds I have not so many of, e.g. the 500s and 600s (pic above), I left in the shallower drawers, but the big ones - like the 700s, 900s or 3800s - I further organised into groups of 10. I bought new zippy bags that have a hole on the top, and I also ordered some colourful binder rings so I can use them more or less like a Rolodex. 🤣

So now all my threads are neatly organised, I should be able to just quickly pick out the colours I need when the next project arrives. Until then though, here`s the most recent one published in issue 64 of the Disney Cross Stitch Magazine - I loved working on this fabulous jungle themed leafy aida and the Jungle Book characters are always such fun to stitch - hope you like them and thanks for visiting my wee corner of organised thread heaven, happy stitching! 😊

snowman stocking - WOXS 313

The latest issue of The World of Cross Stitching is out now and in it is Fiona Baker`s snowman design for a Christmas stocking, complete with beads and sequins. I enjoyed working on this - funnily enough, I had a similar project to stitch recently: I love when I can quickly complete the `outline` of a design and then I`m left with a nice big area in the middle with just one colour to fill. 😀

I have a couple of photos, one taken at 18 hours into the project and one of the finished design (63 hours), and I also have a picture of the stocking beautifully sewn by the magazine`s finishing department. Happy stitching! 😊

 

festive mice, adventures in cross stitch and returned projects

The latest issue (312) of The World of Cross Stitching is in the UK shops and the freebie this month is a set of 12 gift tags with Lucie Heaton`s Christmas mice on them:

Issue 17 of XStitch Mag is also available now as a digital download (here). It`s called Adventure and I have 3 pieces in this issue - the first one designed by the man himself, founder of the magazine, Mr. XStitch:

Then there`s a trademark modern take on floral samplers by Peacock & Fig:

And, finally, here`s the ultimate adventure - reading - summed up in a pic by SewModStitches. On the one hand, it`s just a book, lying in front of you, but as soon as you open it, there are entire galaxies in there for you to find. 🤩

In other news, I`m stitching like a woman possessed (I have about a month to wade through 20-odd projects) but I got a lovely boost the other day: some of my old projects that WOXS had finished with found their way back to me and I couldn`t be more chuffed - remember this 1920s house by Maria Diaz? I love everything about it, the house, the car, the couple`s clothes, the colours - can`t wait to see it framed on the wall! 😍 I`m also very pleased with the St. Ives harbour scene and the cards as well, this package was like an early Christmas present from postie. 😃 Hope you`re all keeping well, happy stitching! 😊

Klimt and robins

Two remarkable things have happened recently in my life: I`ve been awarded British citizenship and, after not being able to meet up in person for 18 months, my mum was here with us when I was notified, so it was even better that we could celebrate together. 😊

Also, having been nowhere for about a year, except for mini walks to the post office or the local shops, it was extra special to go on a proper road trip with DH, DS and my mum. We decided on a westerly loop and spent one day/night in Oban, then went to the Isle of Skye to see the Fairy Pools, and finally came back to Fife via Blairgowrie to see the famous beech hedges there (see pic/info here).

We also had a lovely lunch and wander around in Blairgowrie, where in one of the charity shops I discovered a Klimt frame for a mere £2.50 - if the kind person who donated it reads this: thank you for the perfect keepsake that`ll always remind me of this glorious time in July 2021! 😊

Since the frame already had The Embrace on it, I thought The Kiss would be a fitting companion, so I went on to Etsy and purchased the chart (from here) that`s small enough to fit this 10x15 cm frame. I wanted it to fill the aperture as closely as possible, so I did a little number crunching and decided that 4 over 2 on 18ct aida would give me the result I was after. I knew there`d be a gap on the top but I didn`t want too much of the stitching to disappear under the embracing couple, so I copied the artist`s signature on graph paper and added that in the blank space on the top. All in all, I`m very pleased with the end result and as I said, it`ll always remind me of this great Summer. 😊

In other news, the latest issue of The World of Cross Stitching is in the shops now, with the cute little Christmas robins card by Emma Congdon as the freebie. I`ll be honest: when I saw it last month at the back of issue 310, it looked familiar and I could have sworn I`d stitched it but since I couldn`t find a photo of it anywhere in my folder, I concluded I must be bonkers. So in a way, it was a lovely surprise (and confirmation of my sanity 🤪) when I saw my name under Stitched by - and as luck would have it, the very next day I came across my photo of it too (it was saved in my Crazy folder as originally it was for that magazine 🙄🥴🤦‍♀️). Anyway, hope you like them and thanks for visiting my blog - happy stitching! 😊

recent(ish) publications

I have loads of pics to add so I`ll keep the blabla to a minimum (if I started to detail the events of the past X weeks since my last post, we`d never get to `the good bit`) 😉

I`ve got a couple of cover kits to show you, one`s Durene Jones`s home-sweet-home hoop from WOXS 309 and the other is from issue 310, a sweet little time-for-tea card from the artwork of Lynn Horrabin that`s been converted into a chart by Fiona Baker.

In issue 310 of The World of Cross Stitching, there are also 4 Keep Calm designs by Siobhan Harrison from April Rose.

I got these lovely pastel fabrics to work on - hehe, the pink one was so pastel the design hardly showed up on it 😂, so the stitching hand was reworked on grey by one of my favourite colleagues, all-round good person and fabulous model stitcher Karen Purnell.

There have been a few new issues of the Disney Magazine too that had some of my stitching... well, they all do, technically, because of the step-by-step tutorials of each character of the 4 main samplers, but I mean "extra" pieces like this Mickey bunting, or the baby cube, and this Winnie and friends picture from issue 44 - but I`ll add a step-by-step first so you know what I was on about above 😉

And if you think this 👆 was cuteness overload, wait until you see Pugasaurus from issue 16 of XStitch Magazine! 😁 Designed by Sweet Annet, this pooch in a dino costume is one of my faves from the Cute issue. Hope you like him and all the rest too, thanks for scrolling all the way down here and happy stitching! 😊