Indian elephant and Van Gogh

I almost did something else again! But if I don`t post now, I never will. *puts on determined face*

I`m so busy having fun with my own stitching these days that I keep forgetting about other stuff I`m supposed to be doing. Not to mention the wee man`s school programs - and crocheting: have I mentioned I`ve learnt to crochet sunburst granny squares? I enjoy them so much I`ve started mass-producing them:

I`ve decided it goes faster if I do the same round on all of them - but when that gets too boring, I switch back to completing each square individually, it makes a change to swap between colours and stitch types. Hopefully, one day I`ll have enough squares to make a blanket.

So. There are some publications out there this week (last week?) that have my pieces in them, including this gorgeous Indian elephant in Gold 139, designed by Carol Thornton.

I love the vibrant colours and the straight lines that were especially soothing to stitch, as was all the filling in with that gorgeous pale yellow. Elephants are my favourite among favourite animals, so I was really pleased when this project came my way.

5,5 hours

11,5 hours

20 hours

32 hours

50 hours

67 hours - finished! 😊

I don`t always take pics of the back but I love how tidy those straight lines make this look

There`s also issue 257 of The World of Cross Stitching in the shops, and this month`s free gift is the beautiful butterflies card... that I think I`ve posted about already but here it is then, as a recap:

This week I was also excited to be able to pick up my parents` "Christmas" present from the framer - it looks just the way I pictured it in my head so I`m over the moon with it and I hope they`ll like it too. I`ll find out in about a fortnight - and when I come back from holiday, I can finally put some photos of it up here too.

What else? Finally, after 5 long years of owning the HAED chart of Van Gogh`s Starry Night, I managed to get round to having it re-printed in the library - I thought, why struggle when I can have the chart on A3 pages? So I had them done and last week I was ready to go:

I started from the bottom right corner and after 7 days I had my first page finish:

But then as I was showing it to folks on Facebook, I began to realise that I wasn`t happy with the colour scheme. 😩 I chose Starry Night not only because I love Van Gogh but also because blue is my favourite colour - as opposed to purple, the only colour I don`t like. I put my chart and a picture of the original painting side by side...

...and decided to abandon this project for the now. I think I`m going to chart it for myself, using blues instead of purples, and I`ll try to make it the right size so that I can still use this nice big piece of aida, which is still going to be quite large, even after I cut this stitched bit off (as there is no way I can unpick it). But so as not to be without Van Gogh in the meantime, last night I started his Sunflowers (I`ve had this Maria Diaz design for ages, it`s in the July 2009 issue (172) of Collection).

And while I was working on the bottom right corner of the purple Starry Night, I also realised that if I`m going to spend months and months stitching such a confetti-heavy piece, I`m going to need something (crafting-wise, I mean. At the same time, I`m also translating but that`s a different kind of challenge and satisfaction), so I`m going to need something that gives me instant gratification, i.e. a project that`s made up of blocks that can be finished in a day. So I had a look on the internet and found this amazing blackwork sampler (called `Save The Stitches`, free to download from Elizabeth Almond`s website), and I already have the fabric and threads - I`m going to use stranded cotton 301, 415 and 3821 instead of the metallics and no beads, either, I want to keep it simple and non-blingy. So in a few months/years/decades, I should end up with something like this:

How gorgeous is this?? 😍 I think I`m going to start this today 😉 Happy stitching!

a crafty evening

Last Friday, my friend Jo took me to a craft event, organised by some of her friends from the East Neuk of Fife (we used to live in St Monans for a while too, hence the connection). It was a lovely evening, based on the idea of trying out various crafts "kids style" - you know the feeling, when you take your children to an event like this, and you stand there and drool while they`re colouring in, etc., wishing that you could join them because you love colouring, can even do it within the lines, but you`re not going to embarrass yourself (and your children!) by elbowing your way in at the kiddie table...? Well, Friday night was for us, frustrated big kids.

I had so much fun! Apart from meeting `old faces from St Monans` and having a good chinwag with them - and also with some lovely ladies I only just met but we had an instant connection, thanks to cross stitch -, I tried all kinds of crafts, old and new... not to mention the scrumptious selection of soups and cakes at two tables, where you could also grab a card and copy the recipes displayed. At the cakes table (first stop, needless to say), I managed to get my hands on the recipe of a most delicious Dundee cake - yay, my Mum will be so pleased, we`re both big fans since last summer, when we got a heavenly cake from the House of Bruar, near Pitlochry, the likes of which I haven`t managed to find anywhere ever since... until last Friday night, thanks to Lesley.

To my great regret, in the end I didn`t have time to colour in a single one of the beautiful mandala designs provided, nor did I have the chance to visit the knitting or card making tables, there were so many things to try and only a couple of hours - maybe next time! ;)

However, I did manage to give ceramic painting a go. There were these teapot `blanks` provided and glass painting pens in various colours - I drew a sunflower (what else?) and even got a gift bag to transport it in (which later I can also decorate, yay!). I think I`ll `cook` my artwork first, though, before I put the first soggy teabag on it, I just haven`t used the oven yet since Friday... but maybe, one of these days, I`ll bake a Dundee cake...? ;)

I know it looks like a gerbera, but believe me, it`s a sunflower :)

I took along some stitchy magazines as well, plus some of my stitched pieces that have been returned to me, and people were very interested in how and why I got into model stitching, and they also loved seeing the `real life` models of some of the magazine photos. It was a pleasure to see - the way I imagine it used to be - women sitting around a table, chatting, while their hands busy with the needle; some haven`t done any cross stitch for over a decade and were now happy to be reacquainted with the hobby... and of course, the real joy of seeing someone trying it for the first time.

Oh, and let`s not forget my personal Aha! moment for the night: after watching dozens of  YouTube videos and getting more and more frustrated because I simply cannot see the holes in crochet (I don`t always know what/where the chain is, so I stab my hook willy-nilly and end up with some shapeless thing, instead of e.g. the oval I had in mind). So anyway, thanks to the lovely Sue, I have FINALLY mastered the granny square!! Woo hoo! Last night I started a blanket with this sock yarn I`d bought ages ago from Lidl, when I wanted to try out knitting socks (conveniently forgetting that I don`t like the feel of knitted stuff against my feet, I barely put up with cotton socks), so anyway, I have 100g pale blue and 100g variegated, we`ll see how far I can go with these. At the moment, my blanket is about 10 cm square but now that I know the basics, the sky`s the limit! Happy crafting, peeps!

crocheted Despicable Me minion

I`m happy to report that in between stitching tasks, I managed to finish a crochet project as well in the past couple of weeks: I`ve made a strange hybrid of a minion, a weird cross between utter cuteness (with his goggles on) and a possessed jelly bean (without his accessories). You`ll see in a minute what I mean but first let me give credit to the designer of the pattern, which I found here. Truth be told, though, it was only a starting point for me - as always with crochet -, because I`m so hopeless at it: as I don`t see clearly what`s a chain and what`s not, I keep miscounting (even with a stitch marker!), plus I used different yarns from hers with different sized hooks... so as usual with my crochet attempts, this one belongs to the `Played By Ear` category too. And while the jury is still out on whether it was worth all the effort (although Gregory usually loves and appreciates everything I make, but maybe in this instance he would`ve been happier with the battery-operated model that makes all those cute sounds...?), but the main thing is that I finished something that I set out to do, and now I can`t wait to see his little face when he opens it at Christmas! :)

Mr. Cute! :) I deviated from the pattern (again!) and put wires in his arms
so they`re bendy. Unfortunately, I was concentrating on this so hard
that I didn`t pay attention and sew the fingers on the same way on both hands,
so now he has a thumb on the one and a pinky on the other, lol!

Alternative mouth, with slightly big and scary teeth. In the end,
I decided against it and sew a plain line for a smile :)

And without all his accessories... Unfortunately, his legs come off with his trousers,
and without the goggles he has this slightly demented look in his eyes
(I didn`t have brown felt so I ended up crocheting the eyes as well,
hence the fish-like, lifeless stare... oooh, quick, put those goggles back on!)

knitted hedgehog

I have realised something today: hedgehogs are like buses. You don`t see any for ages, then two come along at once. After the Ed Hedgehog I stitched the other week, I couldn`t resist knitting this little critter when I saw the pattern here. 

How sweet is that nose? And the ears? I just love it! Needless to say, Gregory has already claimed it - oh, I almost forgot to mention: he`s home again, this time with a sore ear but luckily the Nurofen is already kicking in, so he feels well enough to watch endless episodes of Garfield (yes, you guessed it, I have to either knit or crochet him one...) and demand `healing` biscuits (???) on a regular basis.

If my updates are a bit less frequent in the next few weeks, it is because model stitching jobs are like buses too: at the moment, I`m working on some Angela Poole cards for Cross Stitch Collection and this morning I got my next assignment for Cross Stitch Gold, a mammoth mandala-type design by Durene Jones, it`s going to be gorgeous, a 180x180 circular cushion cover. Can`t wait to start but first I wanted to finish this hedgehog, plus I`ve got a reindeer to make (have I told you I`ve enrolled in a free Craftsy class? I have 2 days left to learn a bit more about crocheting). I have finished the two Mothers` Day cards for my Mum and Gran - I can`t show you the photos yet but they were WOCS freebies, both from the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady series. Oh, and talking about magazines: on Saturday I picked up about 25 issues of Cross Stitcher from a charity shop for the hefty sum of £2 - yay! So if I have a spare minute (haha!), I have those to go through too. Hope y`all are busy doing your favourite things too, happy stitching!

mastering crochet :)

Another busy day, another late night, another finish and another short post: I had a lovely morning chatting at Jo`s and she liked the bunny - yay! Then I came home, enrolled in a Craftsy class and spent the afternoon learning to crochet: as it turns out, I already knew all the basics, I just kept miscounting, hence the crooked end results. But now, as suggested, I started to use a stitch marker and lo and behold, all my problems are solved (it was really a revelation, can`t believe that a tiny wee thing can make such a big difference!). And the first thing I made? Naturally, the long-awaited angry bird for the Little Man! :))

I found the original pattern here but due to changing the hook halfway through and tweaking with practically every bit, this being sort of a trial run, I could almost call it my own design