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! 😊

sunflowers, tv cushion finish and museum shelf update

Issue 359 of Cross Stitcher is coming out next Tuesday but the digital copy is already available so I thought I`d better add my piccie of the Maria Diaz sunflower fields here before I forget - the way my sense of time is getting warped these days, by the time I remember `next Tuesday`, it`ll probably be mid-August. 🤪

I love everything about this picture 😍, the feel of it, the colours, the fact that it`s a whole field of my favourite flowers, the blue skies, the depth created by clever use of half stitches and even by leaving some of the fabric unstitched... everything! It took 35 hours to complete, which surprised me a little bit for a 22x16 cm picture that uses only 25 colours - I guess I spent a few extra hours on the confetti of the greens and yellows in the foreground and then the backstitch around the petals. 😉 But I def enjoyed every minute of it - so much so that one day I plan to stitch this for myself too.

And while on the subject of making things for myself: I finally, FINALLY, finished the cushion cover that I`d imagined for my cross stitched tv test card! 🤩 I`m really chuffed with it, even if it took me over 5 hours of faffing about, involving everything from searching for bobbins to taking apart and then putting together again the sewing machine. However, after a few hours of struggling, I emerged victorious - I`ll even include a boring pic of the back here because I`m almost as ridiculously impressed with the slip cover (for I would never even dream about tackling the insertion of a zip! 😳) that I managed to sew the right side out as I am slightly awed by my mitered corners at the front - I really can`t stress enough what a great achievement this cushion cover is from someone who doesn`t like to sew! 😂

Finally, I`ve had a bit more time to work on my HAED Museum Shelf 🤗 I`m up to 48 hours and the bottom right corner is starting to look good, especially since I`ve finished Nefertiti and a bit more of the frame 😃 I`ll add the previous photo I took at 22 hours and also what it`ll look like finished, as a reminder 😉 Hope you`re all staying safe, happy stitching! 😊

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! 😁

Christmas sampler and Monarch framed

The latest issue of Cross Stitcher is in the UK shops now and in it is this gorgeous Christmas sampler, designed by Faye Walsh:

It took 60 hours to stitch and before posting it, I`d taken some close-ups of the individual motifs - I love how vibrant the colours are on the lavender fabric and the stitches lay so nicely on the 32ct evenweave. 😊

And as promised, here is one last photo of the Monarch of the Glen: we just got him back from the framers and he`s already in pride of place on the wall - happy stitching, peeps! 😊

puffins - Cross Stitcher 348

This week the new issue of Cross Stitcher is in the UK shops and the cover star is Rebecca Spencer`s cute design of a bunch of characterful puffins*:

*Hehe, I used bunch in the sense of `lively bunch` but it made me think, so I looked up what a group of puffins is called: "A group of puffins is known by a range of names – a colony, a puffinry, a circus, a burrow, a gathering, or an improbability." - and now I`m cry-laughing at puffinry... not that an `improbability of puffins` is much better! 😂😂😂

I absolutely adored working on this project! 😍 I have a thing for puffins - most recently, staff of various souvenir shops of John O`Groats bore witness to my slight obsession:

So this project was perfect for me, and I especially loved that each bird is slightly different from the other - my favourite is the one in the Sou`wester rain hat 😂 At the magazine, they turned it into a cushion with some off-white fabric framing the puffins...

 ...but I think if I was stitching this cushion for myself, I`d pick a matching navy fabric for the back and I`d add bobble trim to the edge, maybe blue or, if I felt especially adventurous, with red pompoms to make it even more cheerful. 😊

And talking about stitching `for myself`: in the end, I didn`t manage to finish The Monarch of the Glen for my husband`s birthday, there`s still 1 page missing from the sky, but I`m glad at least I could complete the 11th page (just!) of the 12-page chart on the day before - and with a little tweaking, he barely noticed the almost seamless continuity:

Although the summer holiday is over (and by the looks of it, so is summer, full stop) and I`m back in full swing with commissions, I`ll try to pinch away a few hours - about 18-20 should do - and finish this so I can take it to the framers. Hope to show you the end result in the not too distant future, until then, happy stitching! 😊

latest publications

Another quick post because we only got back last night from holiday and am currently wading my way through a pile of laundry, but there are a couple of new magazines that have come out while we were away.

First up, issue 284 of The World of Cross Stitching and the set of 6 Maria Diaz cards that sample ladies` fashion through the decades:

And here they are made up with complementing card colours:

Next up is issue 347 of Cross Stitcher, and the cover star is the Susan Bates sea view that I stitched a couple of months ago.

It took 52 hours to finish and if I remember correctly, almost 10 of those hours were spent just on the backstitch (there are loooooads of tiny windows there! 😂) but it was all worth it because the backstitch really makes this piece pop. For this project, I also made a record of not just the hours but the number of days too (sometimes it feels like I stitch all day but it turns out, it`s about 5 hours per day on average).

Finally, I came across this sneak peek on The World of Cross Stitching`s Facebook page of Amanda Gregory`s highland cows that I stitched a few months ago. I hope I can add the link here but if no, they`ll soon feature here anyway when the new issue of the magazine comes out. Now, back to dealing with the laundry - happy stitching, folks! 😊

WOXS highland cows sneak peek

UK map / map of the British Isles - Cross Stitcher 345

Issue 345 of Cross Stitcher is in the UK shops now and in it is the map of the British Isles that I stitched a couple of months ago. Designed by Fiona Crouch, this is a nice big project (260x182 sts, 47x32 cm or 18 1/2 x 12 1/2 in on 14ct) that`ll give you hours and hours of stitching pleasure and if you, like me, enjoy designs that keep surprising you and making you smile, then this one is for you. 😉

The chart is so big that the magazine split it in two parts - the top half is in this issue and the bottom half will be in next month`s. But since I had the whole design to work on, I first started by stitching the entire outline with one of the main greens (this took 21 hours):

Then, in the next 10 hours (since less counting was involved once the outlines were in place), I filled in some gaps with the other main green:

It took a further 22 hours to add the blue confetti around the coasts, plus a bit of France... 😊

By 75 hours, I had the top quarter completely finished (just to be able to fold those two pages of the chart which was a bit too big for my magnetic board). But after that, I was going round and round, adding one colour at a time - on this type of pattern, I find it easier to eliminate each colour before moving on to the next one. Not to mention, I love that feeling when I can put one thread-baggy away, knowing that I won`t need this colour anymore... until I discover a rogue cluster that I missed and have to dig out the baggy from the drawer just for those 3 stitches, that is. 🙄

Finally, after 113 hours and skeins of greens, blues and black backstitch later, I had a finished map:

Here`s something not many people know about me: I love maps. All kinds of maps. In our holiday cottage, there`s a 2000-piece jigsaw puzzle of a 16th century world map, framed above our bed - the lavishly decorated kind, with the 4 seasons and 4 elements and the 7 wonders of the ancient world around the edges. My son`s also a big cartography fan: in his room, one wall is almost entirely covered by a massive world map, complete with the flags of every country on every continent - you know those videos where they stop `the man on the street` and ask people to point out this and that and they can`t even find the capital of their own country? My boy would be the kid that comes at the end of the video, who, as opposed to all the dumb grown-ups before him, would pinpoint even the most obscure wee African country on the world map. 😂 And when my BFF and I first came to Scotland, we had a map of Britain just like this on our wall and we marked all the places (with dates) that we visited on our travels.

But my love of maps aside, this has been a great cross stitch project for another reason: I love designs where you discover an `Easter egg` at every turn, and not only are these surprises fun, they also make you smile. From Nessie swimming in Loch Ness to the Snails at Great Yarmouth, from the yellow submarine peeking from behind the Liver Building at Liverpool to the Isles of Rum and Eigg of the Inner Hebrides on the west coast of Scotland, this project gave me plenty of that `can`t wait to stitch that bit` feeling. Hope you like it too, happy stitching! 😊