Lesley Teare`s sleeping cat (Gold 138) and Margaret Sherry`s cute hedgehogs (Crazy 130)

This week I have received two subscriber copies and thought I`d better post about them before I get carried away with other stuff and forget (I`m reaching new heights of forgetfulness btw: the other day I sent the wee man to school on an inset day. Not that it hadn`t been etched on my calendar for ages beforehand - I just forgot to check my calendar). 😵

Anyway, so first up is this gorgeous cat, designed by Lesley Teare, from Cross Stitch Gold 138:

It was such a joy to stitch you wouldn`t believe... well, you will when you start to stitch it for yourselves. 😉 I took a few photos at various stages - not the usual 5-hourly caper because as you`ll see, the stitchable portions were quite self-evident. I loved everything about this project: the cat itself, obviously, but also the colours, the flowers, the butterflies and I like the finish too, I think the red fabric they used for making up the cushion brings out the red of the strawberries very well.

9 hours

20 hours

30 hours

53 hours

And today I received my copy of Cross Stitch Crazy 230 with the free cover kit that I`d stitched almost half a year ago - the cover kits are done even farther ahead than other magazine projects (I guess because they involve more preparation? I mean the actual putting together of thread lengths, charts, cards, envelopes and what have you). These two adorable hedgehogs were designed by Margaret Sherry and I had so much fun stitching them (I`m mildly obsessed with hedgies anyway). Not to mention one of them is sleeping in a sunflower, my favourite flower - what more would a girl need? Hope y`all are having a lovely weekend and happy stitching!

These hedgies took 4-5 hours to stitch each 😊

I love these gorgeous cards with the matching frames
- more strawberries and especially more sunflowers can only be a good thing in my book! 😉

Lesley Teare`s cottage teapot and some Twilleys

Well hello, peeps - the weary traveller has returned. ;) The holiday was great and a lot has happened since then too: firstly, the shoe sampler I`d teased you with in my last post got bumped up into a later issue of Collection; at the same time, I stitched a cute ties (as in `neckties`) alphabet by Rhona Norrie for Cross Stitch Crazy that, it seems now, will be in next month`s WOCS; however, there is the cottage teapot that was supposed to be in that issue and is now brought forward to 242 - and if you think you`re confused, imagine how I manage to follow all this, I who actually have to think for long minutes every morning about what day of the week this is.

So the cottage teapot. What can I say? Dream project. So much detail to keep it interesting, not an overwhelming amount of colours or backstitch and it`s cute to boot, what more does the stitcher need? Hehe, maybe that`s why it`s this month`s Stitcher`s Challenge...? ;) It took 48 hours to complete and I loved working on the evenweave, plus I distinctly remember that the BS on the roof felt positively therapeutic. So all in all, good memories - and a wonky photo:

Luckily, there`s a much better one in the mag (love the pink mat, I`d never have thought of choosing this colour but it complements the flowers on the handle beautifully):

And apropos my wonky pics vs. professional photos: yesterday I had a look at the Thomas B. Ramsden site here to see if any of the projects were available yet that I`d stitched for Twilleys of Stamford - and there is an abundance of them! So here`s a wee photo album and for comparison`s sake, I chose the worst of my lot, sometimes the back of a project or a pic that was taken in pitch dark, just to accentuate how much better the other ones are. ;) Hope you`ve all had a great Spring break, happy stitching! :)

Clearly (?), here I was experimenting with taking photos of phone cases out of focus...

Ah, that`s much better!

The back of my perfume bottles...

... and the finished article

My two pub signs in the twilight...

... beautiful in their frames

Two little sweet pea designs...

... turned into two sweet (pea) hangers

A pair of designs entitled Weekend and Weekday...

... and this is what they look like with the backstitch detail added

A wee tapestry for a change ;)

`Lush Meadow`

And, finally, a larger tapestry (the wee man`s there for scale, lol)

And the beautiful end product, a rose cushion :)

blackwork birds - Card Shop 97

Another publication in the shops, yay! It`s Cross Stitch Card Shop 97, and in it are the gorgeous Lesley Teare cards I stitched back in January. I think they`re fab - a stunning combination of vibrant colours and the timeless elegance of blackwork (a great favourite of mine). I enjoyed working on these immensely and I`m happy that, after all these months, the magazine is finally in the shops.

Since I`m going on holiday in a few short days, I`ll write another post and time its publication so as not to miss issue 113 of Gold that`s coming out while I`m away. Hope you all will have a lovely summer, see you in August! :)

Cross Stitch Gold 105

Those of you who are lovely-sweet-kind enough to follow my occasional ramblings or mere outbursts on Facebook as well, might remember that a few months ago I moaned a bit when I started my fifth hour of stitching French knots with metallic threads (I know, I`m such a wimp!). Anyway, the result of this Metallic Marathon is in the shops now - my beautiful little advent calendar picture which I absolutely adored working on, despite those few (one hundred and thirty-four, but who`s counting?) French knots. And that`s not all: issue 105 of Gold features Lesley Teare`s unconventional, super-girly Christmas stocking - also stitched by yours truly. So let`s see some before-and-after pictures, shall we?

A nice and easy stitch for a `last-minute` stocking 

All made up, complete with some funky fabby 

And a more traditional Christmas scene, with 134 (!) metallic French knots

The finished advent calendar, complete with the 25 numbers I stitched - I love the idea of these tiny drawers!