singing penguin and Monarch update

The latest issue (259) of Cross Stitch Crazy hits the UK shops today and the free gift that comes with the magazine is this cute little penguin - the first design this year (by Helz Cuppleditch) that can be considered Christmassy 😲 (although this wee fella still hedges his bets, he could be singing anything after all, not necessarily Christmas carols, right?) 😉

But as I see from next month`s preview, from issue 260 (in the shops from 29 August) it`s full-on Christmas already - so hard to believe when a few days ago, we were still roasting in Rome on our summer holiday. But now that we`re back in Scotland, I`m furiously working on The Monarch of the Glen: two days ago, I finished page 9 of 12:

And thanks to an almost 10-hour wee session yesterday, I`ve got most of page 10 done too (I`ve finished the whole sky and most of the antler since this pic was taken last night).

So when Birthday Boy goes back to work on Monday, I have less than a week (thanks to a doc`s appointment 🙄) to finish this and the remaining two pages of the chart - in other words, I have another 40-50 hours of stitching to complete in 4 days... I`ve already resigned myself to the fact that it won`t be framed for The Big Day, now I`m just hoping it won`t have too much of the left corner missing when I hand it over on Saturday. 🤣 I might have to sneak out to the living room in the middle of the night and stitch for a few hours while hubby`s sleeping... watch this space! 😁

Spring is here

There have been a few mags coming out recently and Spring is definitely in the air - not just IRL but as far as cross stitch charts are concerned.

In Cross Stitch Crazy 254, the cover kit is a pair of mice, designed by Helz Cuppleditch. I loved stitching both but my fave has to be the one in the hammock: 😄

Still on the subject of cover kits, I also stitched this month`s free gift with issue 280 of The World of Cross Stitching:

This birdcage bookmark is such an elegant design by Fiona Baker and a really easy stitch too, just a few quick backstitch lines between wee bits of cross stitch, so it`s an ideal last-minute gift, for example (it`s Mothers` Day on Sunday here in the UK. Just sayin` 😉).

Finally, issue 343 of Cross Stitcher has hit the UK shops today and in it Part 1 of 4 seasonal samplers by Faye Walsh is published, called Spring Is In The Air.

 It took 62 hours to stitch and I enjoyed it a lot - samplers made up of smaller pictures always build more quickly and I rarely have the chance to blend colours (as I had to here for the sea waves in the image in the centre), plus I liked the colours, the virtually no backstitch and the fabric too, it`s a beautiful lavender shade (in case you can`t tell from my photo 😂).

I took some close-ups of the individual scenes - my pics might not be exactly well lit but at least there are some details there that might not be spotted at first glance. Hope you like all these Spring-themed projects, happy stitching! 😊

penguins and fairies - Cross Stitch Crazy 246

This week issue 246 of Cross Stitch Crazy hits the UK shops and it`s a double whammy for me: I stitched not only the free gift that comes with the mag but a gorgeous fairy pic inside it too... ooh, and I`ve just spotted that it`s on the cover as well (how observant am I? Looked at it a dozen times but only saw the fairy when I took this photo 😂):

Oooh, love the autumn colours on those cards... and that Northern Lights pic is stunning! #easilydistracted Anyway, first up, the cover kit. It`s a sweet little skating penguin designed by Helz Cuppleditch:

Isn`t he the cutest? 😃 With his wings behind his back, he reminds me of The Skating Minister (even though the Reverend crosses his arms in front of him, but the impression of the casual gliding on ice is the same). 😊 And he - the penguin, not the Reverend Robert Walker - got a very nice aperture card as a finishing touch:

Next up: the fairies. I`m not that much into fantasy stuff but even I have to admit that this is a gorgeous picture. The original artwork of Margaret Tarrant, Lady`s Slipper Fairy (1933), was expertly converted into a cross stitch chart by Fiona Baker; usually, stitchers don`t exactly look froward to doing the backstitch but on this piece, I couldn`t wait to get to that stage. The details on the hands and faces are so minute - just look how a few well-placed stitches transform this pasty blotch (sorry, fairy!) into a face with expressive features! And look at these hands! Wow! 😮

Hehe, that smiling face on the wing always cracks me up btw: without the backstitch, it looks like a kawaii fairy wing. 😂 And here`s the whole picture framed - I love it and hope you like it too. 😊 Happy stitching!

Addendum: the kind words of Malgorzata in the comments below reminded me of this photo I`d taken when the fairy project arrived with all these beautiful skeins of thread, simply because I found them stunning - how gorgeous are these autumn colours? 😍😍😍

tree of life, a bit more Christmas and sunflowers

This week there are two new publications out in the UK shops and, in a way, my stitching`s on the cover of both. 😀 One of them is the free gift with the latest issue of The World of Cross Stitching, and the other is this folksy tree of life cushion in Cross Stitcher 322.

As I have mentioned many times before, I love, love, LOVE stitching blocky designs... and folksy designs... and designs with shades of red, green and brown, so this Amanda Butler cushion felt like it was made for me. It grew so fast that I could hardly believe it (have I mentioned how much I love blocky designs? That`s another reason: because you can actually see it grow). It took roughly two weeks and it was one of those projects where I felt sad when it was finished, I enjoyed it so much - from the green blocks to the vines and flowers to filling in the gaps with DMC 352.

3,5 hours

16 hours

23 hours

38 hours

45 hours

58 hours - finished 😊

Deer on the flip side 😁 - love the texture of the dark green leaves` back!

And here it is in the magazine, all made up into a folksy wee cushion, complete with cheerful yellow bobbles:

 Next up, after all the autumn colours, here`s a bit more Christmas: the free gift with WOCS 259 is a set of 3 cute cards, designed by Helz Cuppleditch, of a moggy playing with a stocking, a robin and a cracker.

I like how the cards repeat the snowflake motifs of the stitching:

Finally, in other news: I`m plodding on with my Van Gogh Sunflowers. I`ve been away on holiday and had another commission stitch finished in the meantime (also by Amanda Butler but this is a wildlife pic, just wait until you see it in WOCS, amazing and cute rolled into one!!) so according to my calendar, I`ve spent 17 days so far working on this and I reckon another 4-5 should do it so fingers crossed, by the time of my next post I`ll have it framed...? #wishfulthinking 😂 Happy stitching, peeps!