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! 😊

Christmas baubles, cats and dogs, and finished Monarch 😊

The latest issue (261) of Cross Stitch Crazy is out now so I can share my picture of the cute cover kit:

Designed by Durene Jones, these were so much fun to stitch I did them twice 🤣 and the free gift includes 2 bauble shaped wooden frames too so the finished decorations are ready to go on the tree or in a card with added oomph.

The other day, I was browsing the worldwide web, and I came across the 2019 catalogue of DMC (here). Remember the Vintage Circus range I mentioned in a previous post? Here they are, all 5 together:

Hmm, I`ve just noticed I got the last two with the drapes - there must be something about me that screams "curtain!"...? 😂 Def. not in the `that`s it, no more` sense because my next DMC commission was this set of 6 hoops, 3 cats and 3 dogs:

I loved this set, they`re such clever designs: they only use 1 colour each but utilise both XS and BS in 1 and 3 strands to create depth and even a sense of movement.

Again, I can only repeat myself: these were so much fun to stitch I did them twice... plus a few (few?!? 🤪) more times: 

Finally, as promised, here`s the finished Monarch of the Glen! 😍 In the end, it took 230 hours, 65 days spread over the past 5 months, and it`s already at the framers (I`ll post a photo of the end result too when we get it back). Thank you for visiting my blog, happy stitching! 😊

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! 😊

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! 😁

Cross Stitch Crazy 258

This morning, I received my copy of the latest Crazy and not only did the wee bag tag by Emma Congdon come with it as a free gift...

... but I also got a lovely surprise: my own little blog, the very same you`re reading just now, is mentioned on p. 77! 😮😁 For some reason, I even got a stitchy nom de plume that made me giggle...

... not because there`s anything funny about the name Louise per se, I just found it hilarious right after the statement, `especially when we know the person!` 😂

But this was only the first excitement of the day; the second came this afternoon, when I finished page 8 of the Monarch of the Glen chart, yasssss! There are only (?!?) 4 pages to go across the top, and I`ve already started on the sky in the top right corner. I have 1 more day to work on it, then we`re off on our summer holiday. By the time we come back, I`ll have about 2 weeks to finish the whole picture before hubby`s birthday... um, is it time to panic yet? 🤪🤣 I wish you all a lovely summer and happy stitching! 😊

sunflowers, returned stitches and Monarch update

Just a quick post because I`m in a stag-stitching frenzy, but issue 283 of The World of Cross Stitching is out now, so I can share my one and only pic of these cute little sunflowers in vases that are this month`s free gift:

Created by Fiona Baker, this cheerful little motif has been turned into a lovely wee needle case:

On Monday, I had another Super-Postie: two of my old stitches have been returned, both by Carol Thornton, the ladybird and the Spring cottage - yay, can`t wait to have these framed too!

Framed `too` because a couple of weeks ago I had some returned pieces framed - I`m not sure if I`ve added pics of that great event here or not but rather than scroll back, I`ll just add them here:

And finally, a quick update on The Monarch of the Glen: I finished Page 6 of 12 last night and am about to start on Page 7, woohoo! Happy stitching, peeps! 😊

food love

Issue 8 ("The Munchies") of XStitch Magazine is out/available for digital download, so I can finally share this cute design by PixlStitch:

Thanks to the frequent colour changes, this otherwise not too big design took a surprising 17 hours to finish, but I`ll be the first one to admit that they were absolutely necessary - I`m flabbergasted tbh how much detail can be crammed into such small motifs! 😲

Confession time: before this project, I had never heard of PixlStitch. But having a curious mind, I clicked on everything I could on the above page: not only did I listen to Baby Come Back by Player on YouTube, I also Googled the two quotes (FYI, if you are as quotationally challenged as I am, the first one is by G. B. Shaw and the latter by M. F. K. Fisher 😉). And, of course, I checked out the designer`s Etsy shop as well - turns out, PixlStitch is a gentleman who lives in New Zealand and designs awesome, vibrantly colourful things from planets to dinosaurs... and maps!! Maps that are made up of small motifs, like this foodie heart - needless to say, I`m already planning which one to stitch first. 😁

However, that won`t be anytime soon, for I have embarked on a mammoth task: this year, my husband has a round-number birthday, so I`ve decided to finally sew him the picture he first asked me for when I started to cross stitch about 13 years ago. From time to time, he`d mention it but I`ve always just given him The Look, so I`m pretty sure he has given up all hope by now of ever seeing his favourite painting in cross stitch. It is Landseer`s Monarch of the Glen; I bought the chart from Artecy a couple of months ago and every spare minute I have between commissions, I`m working on it (in secret, while he`s at work). I`m currently on page 5 (of 12), and I have until the beginning of August, minus the couple of weeks in July when we go on holiday. I hope I can finish it and having it framed by the big day, wish me luck! 😊