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! 😊

Spring cottage and zombie love

Issue 155 of Cross Stitch Gold is out now and in it is my next Carol Thornton - I love her paintings and I think they translate really well into cross stitch. You might remember the ladybird I did recently, or her Christmassy cat lying on a cushion from last year, and there`s a castle also by her that`s already featured in the preview of the next issue of Gold (but more on that when the time comes).

For now though, the Spring cottage. Even though I had to rush like mad to finish it (I stitched it at the beginning of December and there was a lot going on at the time, so I had to do a few 16-hour stitchy days before the deadline) but my overall memory is that I loved working on it. Landscapes are my favourite subject matter anyway and I particularly like quaint wee cottages+horses+Spring flowers, so this was an ideal project for me. Because of the rush, I only stopped a few times to take a photo of my progress - here they are:

40 hours

100 hours - finished 😊

Those crooked chimneys cracked me up: I couldn`t help thinking of Spongebob every time I looked at my little "excited" cottage:

And here it is, beautifully framed in Cross Stitch Gold:

In other news, I finally got organised (even though I still don`t know where March has gone???) and now that I`ve obtained Issue 7 (the "Love" issue) of XStitch Mag, I thought I`d add a picture of the little zombie I stitched for them.

WARNING!!! The following is not of the cute teddies and sweet kittens variety so if you`re not into brain-eating zombies, please stop scrolling here! 😉

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This has been my first ever The Witchy Stitcher design and even though I wouldn`t have chosen the subject matter for myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the technical aspect; it`s a well-constructed pattern that flowed easily, which is always a plus for me among all the confetti-heavy pieces I often work on. And my son`s in the process of binge-watching The Walking Dead, so he appreciated my being so trendy. 🤣

That caption makes me giggle every time. 😆 This wee zombie only took 18,5 hours to stitch and I like how photographer Stacy Grant chose to frame it with torn black paper. Hope you like both of these - very dissimilar in style - cross stitch projects, have a lovely Easter and Spring break, and happy stitching!