kimonos, harbours and museums

The new issues of both Cross Stitch Crazy (268) and The World of Cross Stitching (294) are out now so I can share some pics of my pieces in these, yay! 😊

First up, the free gift with Crazy this month is this lovely Chinese girl bookmark, designed by Durene Jones:

I enjoyed working on this cover kit: I love the shading of the skirt and her hair, and it was fun to see all those floral motifs come to life as I was adding the backstitch. It took 7,5 hours to stitch, and I think it looks gorgeous framed by the cherry blossoms of the card.

In the new WOXS that`s out today, there`s this stunning picture by Emma Louise Art Stitch:

It is called St Ives Harbour, and it`s been one of the most unique projects I have stitched so far, its style is so different from anything else I`ve done but I love it - I hadn`t heard of this designer before but now I`ll be looking out for more of her work in future. For a medium sized image, it took quite a few hours (62 to be exact) to finish, and many of these were spent adding black backstitch lines around the stones in the wall and around each window pane, but it was so worth it for this final look. Plus, there was a bit of confetti in the foreground and half stitches in the sky, so all in all, plenty to keep the stitcher entertained (actually, I was surprised to see how long it took, those 60 hours felt more like 30).

Finally, here`s the latest update on my HAED Museum Shelf. I`ve been quite busy for the past few weeks so I only just got back to it yesterday. Consequently, there`s not much change since the last photo - I just added a bit more to the frame on the right. Here`s the first pic where I picked it up (that was taken at 10 hours) and I`m up to 22 hours just now. Hope you`re all doing OK, stay safe and happy stitching! 😊

coastal scene and psychedelic hippo

Last Friday the latest issue (318) of Cross Stitcher hit the UK shops and it has the beautiful coastal scene on the cover that I stitched a few months ago.

It`s a Maria Diaz design at its best: patches of colour that make it easier to break the whole down to manageable areas, `daily bits` that help the project grow so much faster. The flowers in the foreground (1 day), the sea (2 days), the cliffs with the lighthouse (1 day), the beach and the harbour with the little houses (2 days) - and then, instead of spending another day or two backstitching... hardly any BS to add because it`s more like a watercolour painting! 😍

Fair enough, it took me a month to finish it, but only because I had the flu for 3 weeks in the meantime - fact is, it can be stitched in a week (if you need an urgent last-minute present for someone) because it`s one of those projects that you can`t put down, you know the type I mean? I think every stitcher is familiar with the concept of `I`ll just finish this little bit here and then I`m off to bed` and then you stay up till 2 a.m. 😂

The above-mentioned flu made me rethink a few things and I realised that the only time I have for myself is time I spend sick in bed, unable to do anything anyway - not exactly quality me-time. 😩 So I`ve slowed down a bit and now I can make room for other stuff too, e.g. I picked up knitting again and finished the little psychedelic hippo I started months and months ago. I named her Lucy after Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, and put her in my Etsy shop for someone to fall in love with. 😁 I also dug out my Personal Stitching but I can`t show any pics of it yet, it was supposed to be my parents` Christmas present in 2016 but hopefully, they`ll get it this year. Happy stitching, folks!

coastal fridgies

Here are the first four of my Coastal Fridgies series (4x5 cm fridge magnets worked on plastic canvas):