Highland living, fame, free kits and Regency lady

Before I dive into details of my latest stitchy escapades, a warm welcome to anyone who`s seen this in WOXS 317 and thought of checking out my blog. 😊

You might need to dig deep for the aforementioned `handy tips`, but there are more pics of my recently reorganised threads in this post, and examples of my route planning - as evidenced in my progress photos, which I sometimes string together in mini videos - are abundant (as is my waffling, whenever I have the time to go on, and on... and on).

Case in point: now. Not only have I finished my 5th pre-Christmas commission (you know, those tasks trickling in at the beginning of Dec, when mid-Jan and end of Jan deadlines seem so, so far away, and the next thing you know, it`s Jingle Bells... Should old acquaintance... Oh, it`s 20 January!! 😨). Anyway, so not only have I finished those 5 projects but I finally managed to get back to my Mary Hickmott pic too - the second one after finishing this Rialto Bridge for myself. Only this morning, I added the last few clouds:

It`s called Highland living, available from Mary Hickmott`s Etsy shop, and even though the key calls for 16ct ice blue aida, I stitched it on 14ct so that it`ll fit nicely in this gap above the Monarch of the Glen (it`s about 60 x 10 cm on 14ct), whenever I get round to framing it.

Because of the mad rush of the past few weeks, I completely forgot to post here about the previous issue`s cover kit: the free gift with WOXS 316 was this cute little Emma Congdon design:

The magazine`s finishing team turned it into a banner, and this month`s free gift, Lucie Heaton`s leafy plants in macramé hangers can be used either as a card or as a bookmark.

Finally, here`s Heather Nugent`s Regency lady, also from issue 317 - I loved working on this! Not only because I`m a Jane Austen fan, but also because I love stitching big blocks of colour, and this project had not only those but a little bit of everything as well, from intricate backstitch detail to beads and petit point. It took just over 50 hours, and instead of unrolling the fabric for every progress pic, I took a photo of my Pattern Keeper screen at the end of each day. I put them in a mini film, together with my finished stitching and the framed picture as it appears in the magazine. Hope you like them, thanks for scrolling through and happy stitching! 😊

Scottish tartan lavender sachet, Rome and more Disney

I have a finish that I can share as soon as it`s done! 😲😱😂 This weekend, we`re celebrating my mother-in-law`s 85th birthday and, among other things, she`s going to get this lavender sachet:

I bought this kit a couple of months ago when we took the first road trip of 2020; we went up to Loch Ness and came back the next day via Aberdeenshire where we did a bit of castle spotting. As soon as I saw this little cutie in the Drumnadrochit gift shop, I thought of MIL: she`s a passionate collector of lavender sachets and the kit included that too so not only did I have fun stitching it, I didn`t have to hunt for dried lavender once it was finished, either. 👍

I promised more Disney pics in the title and I will add them in a minute, but first here`s a quick peek of my newest treasure: I don`t often buy large kits (because I have plenty fabric and threads so I tend to buy charts instead) but recently I saw this picture and fell in love with it:

It is a large (80x50 cm) design of Rome by Thea Gouverneur and as well as being stunning, it also features almost all the attractions we visited last summer, so I can`t wait to start on it - I`ll be remembering the summer of 2019 every time I look at it. 😊

OK, more Disney. I wasn`t going to post so soon but the editor from Hachette Partworks has sent me some official photos and they`re such beauts I have to share. 😉 So from my last post, you may remember the sampler(s), the 4-part cushion and the two Alice in Wonderland pictures...? Well, this is what they look like when a professional photographer does them justice. 😃 Stay safe, peeps, and happy stitching!

Kate Knight cushion - Cross Stitch Gold 130

I`m so chuffed that I can finally share pictures of this gorgeous design! :D I stitched it in February-March - it didn`t take 2 months to stitch (actually, it was a fairly quick one at 70 hours) but there was a little delay due to fabric hiccups. I loved the first one I got, it looked a bit like washed denim but it was evenweave; unfortunately, I realised pretty soon that it`d be more suitable for freehand embroidery. The warp and weft of the fabric was so dense (or fluffy?) that I couldn`t see the holes not only with a white pillowcase on my lap but I actually put a lamp (= a torch in a box with a see-through lid) under it - NB. Don`t try this at home! I still couldn`t see the holes but nothing else on top of that, I almost blinded myself, rofl.

So after a quick discussion with the editors, we decided that since I don`t have 3 or 4 years to finish this one project, we`d better get some `more standard` evenweave from Zweigart - and I`m so glad we did! The new fabric was perfect not only because of the holes were easier to see but also because the darker navy blue was closer to the shade of Kate Knight`s original artwork and it made the colours of the birds and the leaves stand out even more dramatically.

I took this photo to plead with the editors, lol: the one on the left shows the progress after 2 days of stitching;
the one on the right took 2 hours on the new fabric ;) #Irestmycase

I`ve decided not to make a `film` this time: since it only took 70 hours, I only have 7 photos, taken every 10 hours. I thought in this case it`d be pointless to stop after every five because it`s one of those designs where not much seems to be happening between progress pictures. Once the middle section was done and I stitched the first shade of green on the leaves, it was just a matter of going round and round, adding more and more shades in cross stitch and backstitch. So here are my photos first, and finally the picture of the cushion in Cross Stitch Gold, one of my favourite finishes of all time! :)

Jumbo birthday wishes - Collection 260

The latest issue of Cross Stitch Collection is in the UK shops and it`s full of designs of all shapes and sizes celebrating the coming 90th birthday of HRM Queen Elizabeth II. One of these is Jenny Barton`s Indian elephant that`s been turned into a birthday card:

A fun stitch with lots of interesting detail (10 hours in total)

While tidying up my photo folder, I also found this picture of the wee highland coo I`d stitched for my Mum for Christmas (and now I can share). You know how you ask your loved ones what they`d like for Christmas, assuming you`ll get a useful hint, a little glimpse into some secret desire? Erm, my Mum said, `a pocket`. Of course, you have to time it well and I asked her when she was wearing a dress with no pockets and she was in the middle of a rant how there was nowhere to put her handkerchief. Still, we aim to please, don`t we, so here it is, one of her Christmas prezzies: a pocket. ;)