This month, there are two of my stitched pieces on the cover of UK magazines - a cute cat and mouse duo by Margaret Sherry in The World of Cross Stitching 319, and a musical wee number in issue 80 of Hachette Partworks` Disney Cross Stitch Magazine.

Margaret Sherry`s trademark cat and mouse illustration was converted into a cross stitch chart by the magazine`s Senior Technical Editor, Fiona Baker. It was a lovely quick project (35 hours, although the mag rounded it up to 50, which sounds more realistic if someone e.g. doesn`t use Pattern Keeper... or doesn`t cross stitch for a living like me, lol). What I mean by `quick` project is that it`s one of those where if you just do the odd colours on the outside first, then you can sit back and relax, load up a dozen or so needles with Blanc and just fill in the middle while watching tv or whatever. 😉

Hmm, that lovely sky blue fabric looks almost mauve/lilac in my photo - just shows you what a difference proper lighting makes! 😉 And talking about gorgeous fabric: I fell in love with this one with the music notes as soon as I saw it! 😍

First, I was a bit worried that the half-stitches-only background of the big pink heart around Berlioz would not cover the fabric sufficiently, and some of the notes do show through, but they all work well with the cross stitched notes that are roughly the same size too. 😊

And while I was looking up the covers on Hachette`s website, I`ve noticed that this adorable picture of Jock, also from The Aristocats, is coming up soon in issue 88, so I thought I`d better add his picture now 1. before I forget and 2. before I get too snowed under - er, I was referring to more stitchy projects that I`m working on atm but we actually did get snow last night/this morning, so nothing surprises me anymore. 🤷‍♀️ Happy stitching, peeps! 😊

WOXS 305 and Disney 24-26

Hello peeps, I`m back for my next infrequent visit - I`ll be honest, February has been kicking my butt big time with plenty stitching, home schooling and fun times hanging on various phone lines to various offices with various lift music... but at least the snow`s gone, so yay! 😃

Issue 305 of The World of Cross Stitching is out now and it reminded me that I haven`t posted here for a while, so here we go, let the piccie-fest commence! First up, the two moths that are this month`s free gift:

The kit comes with everything you need to stitch Tiny Modernist`s Tiger and Atlas moths, and it even includes two felt frames to turn them into decorations. And inside the magazine, you can find designer Perry Abdel-Hadi`s Eid and Ramadan cards, as well as an interview with her - the first time WOXS has published charts to mark this Muslim festival, and I love the inclusivity as much as the gorgeous pastel colours and the elegant blackwork on my favourite of the 6 cards:

There are also a few Disney projects that have been/are about to be published in Hachette Partworks` magazines. Mr. Fredricksen`s house from Up! has been turned into a card; the Mickey and friends stitch into a framed picture; and the Mulan minis are framed in the cutest little hoops! 😍 Hope you like them, thanks for popping by and happy stitching! 😊

castles and butterflies - Gold 156 and Crazy 256

Oh, how cool, just noticed that there are exactly 100 issues between these 2 mags! 😁

And they`re both in the shops now so I can share a few pics of the Carol Thornton castle I stitched for Cross Stitch Gold and the lovely butterflies by Cheryl McKinnon that`s this month`s free gift with Cross Stitch Crazy.

This project was custom-made for me: not only do I love Carol Thornton`s paintings-turned-into-cross-stitch-designs, but landscapes are my favourite cross stitch subject AND I love castles (we usually try to organise our family holidays around visiting as many as we can... which is not a difficult task in Scotland btw 😉). The project took just shy of 100 hours, mostly thanks to the confetti-heavy foreground of the flowers, but I loved every minute of it. Here are my progress pics strung together in a mini film:

And here are the lovely butterflies that are the free gift with issue 256 of Crazy, complete with purple hoop - I like it when there`s a different finishing idea for a project (but of course, this could be made into a card as well). Happy stitching!

Vermogh key fob

Despite of piling up commissions, I was hit by sudden inspiration the other day so I dropped everything and gifted myself with a key fob. 😊 If you follow this blog, you may know that I hardly ever stitch anything for myself, but having seen these beauties in the latest issue of Cross Stitcher (342), I felt I just had to.

It started with Becky Spencer`s interpretation of Van Gogh`s Sunflowers (naturally. How could I not stitch that?!?). 😉 Since I don`t have the frame used in the mag, first I wanted to stretch it over a mini frame that I`ve got (one of those 10x10 cm wooden frames with its own little easel). But by then I fell in love with the idea of stitching the Girl with a Pearl Earring as well and somehow display both together - so I decided to sew them together, add a little stuffing and turn it into a key fob to hang on my handbag.

My only problem was that I wanted it to look like the original by Johannes Vermeer:

Obviously, the mag`s challenge required Cheryl McKinnon to use only 8 colours, so she had to repeat some of them, i.e. the red of the lips on the turban or the green of her eyes on the dress - but I didn`t have such restrictions so I tried to pick colours closer to the original.

(For those of you who want to stitch this 31x40 design from Cross Stitcher, here`s a list of the DMC threads I used: 793, 794 and 3047 for the turban, 351 and 352 for the lips, 3828 for the eyes, 3045 and 3046 for the dress, 945 and 948 for her skin, Blanc and 3799).

To save time, I didn`t stitch the background with 3799 as the mag suggests but rather used a piece of dark navy, almost black, aida instead. I`m absolutely chuffed with the end result and I`ve already hooked it on the strap of my bag so I can see my little key fob every time I go somewhere. 😊 Happy stitching!

flowery bookmark and Sleepy Guy

Things have piled up a bit lately, so I`m not sure what mags came out when, I just know what looks familiar and this Cheryl McKinnon bookmark from Crazy 252 is def mine - ooh, just spotted the felt flowers that were added to it, how lovely! 😊 I have my BEFORE pic and this month I got a copy of this beautiful pro photo too of the AFTER from the magazine:

Also, in my last post, when I showed you Peacock&Fig`s mermaids from issue 6 of XStitch Magazine, I forgot to add another model I stitched for this Mixtape issue - a collaboration of Lucie Heaton and her son, who created the original graffiti that Lucie then translated into cross stitch. It was great fun to stitch, I loved working on the bright yellow aida and every time I looked at Sleepy Guy, I pictured an overworked Elvis impersonator and had a huge smile on my face (plus, hello, blocky stitching - yes, please!). Happy stitching, folks!

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. 😊