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! 😊

Sunflowers finished and MORE Christmas

Just a quick post as I promised - for now I have a finished Van Gogh, mwahaha! OK, not exactly as promised - for `tis not framed. Yet. I had every intention of running out today and not returning without a frame but, alas, in my great excitement I forgot that I was skint. So no frame, I`m afraid, until I get some money - in the meantime though, here`s the finished picture:

It took 23 days, on and off, and I can`t tell you how excited I was when I stitched that blue signature last night! 😀 Not only is it my own personal Van Gogh but it`s also the first piece in a very, very long time that I stitched just for myself - and I`m so happy with it I don`t even feel guilty! 😉

In other news, I got my subs copy of Crazy 234 yesterday, with the little Durene Jones Christmas stocking freebies in it - how sweet are these? I`ll def stitch them again because this time I can finish them with the red/green pieces of felt included in the kit and these`ll look adorable on the tree - tee hee, I`m not even thinking about giving them away! What monster have you unleashed, Vincent... 😂

keys, typewriters, a teddy and a sock (or two)

Another busy weekend but I guess that`s just the way it is, two weeks before Christmas - squeeee, can`t believe it`s almost here again! Also, no idea where 2015 has gone...

From Friday, the latest edition of Cross Stitch Collection, Issue 257 is available in the UK shops and in this one, there are several cards I stitched - or, to be precise, two cards and a keyfob, all three by designer Durene Jones.

One of the highlights of 2015 is definitely the friendship/penpalship I struck up with Durene. After years of stitching many of her designs, we started to write to each other on Facebook, after I messaged her for some advice on the above typewriter chart. First I was a bit starstruck, but it soon became obvious what a friendly and helpful person she is - as stitchers all over the world usually are. Plus, not only is she a talented designer, she`s also a keen crocheter AND she`s funny and quirky... basically, everything you`d expect if you`re familiar with her artwork. :)

So here are the fruits of our joint efforts, as they appeared in the magazine:

I`ve had quite a productive weekend: I made a little Christmas ornament for my mother-in-law - it`s a little teddy in a Santa hat, which I backed with red felt, and while I was looking for some festive ribbon, I came across this tiny bell that was on one of G`s chocolate Santas, so I recycled it (Santa`s belt, not the chocolate. Alas, that is long gone).

Finally, by Sunday night I finished the pair to my first-ever sock - which btw had taken me almost half a year to complete (on and off, obviously) and I`m quite chuffed that the second one took considerably less time: I only started it three or four days ago. :)
Before I show you #1 sock and then both of them on my shapely feet, I`d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and, just in case I don`t post before then, a Happy New Year as well - I hope 2016 will bring all of us plenty more stitching! :)

Cross Stitch Crazy 183

My Mum`s arriving today!!! Yay!!! I`m so excited, can`t wait to see her again! And I`m sure she`s just as excited to come and see me cross stitch again... ;)

As usual, I`m a busy little bee, working on all kinds of commissions: I`ve just finished some Mothers` Day (!) cards for Card Shop and a Maria Diaz landscape for Collection, and right now I`m stitching another Maria Diaz - my absolute favourite and most glorious project so far, something I`m sure will take your breath away when you see it in the magazine (it`s that kind of stunning). I was so overwhelmed by its beauty - and, at the same time, simplicity from a stitcher`s point of view - that I felt compelled to write to Maria and thank her for it. I was not a little surprised when she, busy as she must be, answered me within half an hour, thanking me for the feedback - what a great lady!

Anyway, since I already hear it calling, plus I have some cleaning left to do before Mummy arrives, I`d better crack on with this post. Among all these big projects, I have almost overlooked some Christmas minis I`d stitched a couple of months ago for Cross Stitch Crazy: some traditional toys by Jenny Barton and 4 floral letters by Susan Bates.

Elsewhere, in the knitting world: I haven`t had too much time lately to play with my yarns but I did get on with the rainbow entrelac a wee bit, plus I started a Fair Isle hat just for the fun of it:

Easter decorations

Today my Mum and I finished the Easter decorations for the table - hurrah! They are uber-expensive styrofoam eggs (a pound for a dozen), over which we - and when I say "we", I mean "she" - stretched the little cross stitched patches I made (I found the patterns in Cross Stitcher 250). Aren`t they cute?

Sorry for the picture quality but professional photographer I ain`t...

apple with toothpick

Just a quick post to show how much DPNs do NOT intimidate me any more: I started to knit a wee green apple with toothpicks! I`m using two strands of embroidery (or crochet???) thread and it`s pretty slow going, not only because it`s fiddly to work with toothpicks (plus they don`t slide) but also because they`re so short, they dig into the fleshy bit under my right thumb so I have to take regular breaks. Yes, I know (or at least I think) that there are proper DPNs this size but I`m all for using whatever I can find around the house. Another topic: last Friday we, parents were invited to the kids` Jubilee Garden Party at school. They were so sweet, singing their little songs while covered in Union Jacks, plus I finally had the chance to meet all the other parents, and quickly discuss the details of next Saturday`s Jumble Sale. Since Gregory took the stegosaurus to school the other day for Show & Tell, word has started to spread that I can knit a dinosaur, so I decided that I`d make another one as a raffle prize (I can`t really take anything else: as I explained it to the mum organising the event, by the time my son`s finished with his "unwanted" toys/books/clothes, they`re usually pretty useless and only good for the bin). Anyway, so here`s the other steg I knitted for the sale:

another pear and a Rudolph

Just a quick post (while Blogger`s still working, ha!) to show you yesterday`s crop: another wee pear for my never-rotting fruit bowl and a Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer head Christmas decoration (don`t ask me why!):

new project(s)

A few days ago (on Thursday, 17 May 2012, to be exact) I started on La Scapigliata (`The Tousled One`) by Leonardo Da Vinci - or, in this case, by Maria Diaz, since she designed the cross stitch pattern I`m working from. Here`s the original:

And this is where I am just now:

Not too impressive yet, I know, but 1. I`m working on evenweave, which to me always means slower progress then aida, and 2. in the evenings I`m knitting wee projects so that by the end of the day I can feel that I accomplished something. At the moment I`m knitting a fruit a day: I found the patterns in the June 2012 issue of Knit Today for this pear and apple, and following Gregory`s suggestion, I`m going to create my own patterns for other fruits as well (next on my agenda is an orange). I thought I`d create a never-rotting fruit bowl as a centrepiece for my table. Updates to follow!

another wee flower

Since I`ve been patting my own back for the past hour, I thought I`d better share it with the rest of the world: I`ve finished the 25 cards! Although I can`t post pictures for another month, the main thing is that they`re done - now I just have to cross my fingers/toes so that they won`t get lost in the post. I`m so happy that I thought I`d "surprise" myself with another knitted flower - here it is:

Elsewhere, in the crazy world of our teddies: I can report that our Bigyi family is growing, thanks to the two new Ikea bears we found at a car boot sale on Saturday (plus there`s an "honorary Bigyi" with the blue T-shirt on, he`s the baby):

little knitted flower

The cross stitch related posts are still on hold but in the meantime, here`s a little flower I knitted last night while watching Midsomer Murders (it was the one with the orchids AGAIN, I mean, why? How many more times?), anyway, here`s the pic:

Earlier yesterday I registered on the Let`s Knit Magazine website, and that`s where I found this 5-petal flower pattern, free to download. It`s supposed to be a brooch but I crocheted a wee brown strap and put the flower on a keyring instead. Actually, this little flower represents my (almost) ultimate crafting dream: a bit of knitting, a bit of crochet, a few stitches with a needle, and in just a couple of hours you`ve created something that`s not only pleasing to the eye but useful as well. What more could you ask for? I know, I know... something to do with CROSS STITCH, for crying out loud! Actually, I`ve been toying with the idea of stitching Da Vinci`s La Scapigliata by my favourite designer, Maria Diaz - maybe I`ll give it a go just so that I could FINALLY put some photos up here of cross stitched stuff... Mind you, my Celtic birds are not finished yet, either... Hmmmm, decisions, decisions - and all the while I have stupid cards to mass-produce, arghhhh!

Ollie, the owl

Just a quick post for my boxes are waiting: last night I wound down in front of the telly (Shakespeare`s As You Like It from the Globe on SkyArts2 - if you haven`t seen it yet, watch it if you can!) and I knitted this little owl:

The design is from Issue 27 of Let`s Get Crafting, subtitled "Toddler Knits". I also got the patterns for the turtle and the rocket ship from here.

holiday snapshot...

I`m back! And so is the phone! Finally, after spending 5 days in the new house without any means of communicating with the world, we`ve got the phone line fixed and we have internet access once more... Bliss! I feel like I`m not only back to Scotland but in the 21st century as well! As you can imagine, after moving home, there are plenty boxes to empty and cupboards to clean - however, I`ve decided that they can wait another half an hour while I have a cuppa and quickly post this (rather reddish) photo of all the little cutesies I made in Hungary (of course, I couldn`t take any needles, embroidery or knitting, in my hand luggage but nothing can stop an obsessed crafter like me: I just raided my Granny`s stash). So here they are: a curly-haired teddy (sponsored by Dr. Oetker), a rather morose penguin, a bumble bee and a snowman (with no hands, as my eagle-eyed son had spotted who, by the way, was well-chuffed with his Mr. Bean Teddy), the latter inspired by a whimsical snow-flurry in the middle of our Easter celebrations... April weather, eh?

Mousey

I can report (mind you, only report and not illustrate) that I finished both my Mum`s and my Gran`s little present for Mothers` Day, which I can take with me when Gregory and I fly to Hungary in a couple of weeks` time. And when the girls can open their prezzies on the first Sunday in May, then I can FINALLY post some pictures here... Well, a long way to wait until then but just so as not to leave y`all without a photo, here`s a wee mouse I knitted last night:

He`s a wee bit nose-heavy and I realised too late that white mice usually have red eyes, not black, plus I forgot to secure the whiskers so they`re just sitting there at the moment (until Gregory casually pulls them out) but, as far as prototypes go, I think it`s not too bad. By the way, this is one of the first tentative steps towards changing my profile a bit; a few weeks ago I posted my Woody-story to the cross stitch forum I`d joined on Facebook, and you wouldn`t believe the debate it sparked! Silly little me, I just wanted to brag a bit about my achievement, but a few members of the forum went into battle with all guns blazing about illegal pattern distribution and other nasty things. While I was gutted on the one hand, I also had to admit they were right, so I started to look more closely into copyright issues. Up to a couple of weeks ago, I thought that I can just stitch anything I like in my magazines and then sell the pictures in my Etsy shop; naturally, I was aware that the actual pattern in the magazine is the designer`s intellectual/artistic product but I thought the stitched, finished picture is MINE - however, now it turns out that that`s NOT the case: even though I created that work of art, sometimes with several months` worth of work, it`s still not my property and I can`t sell it, unless I ask the designer`s permission first (which, let`s face it, would be a bit cumbersome). So I decided to take every such picture off my Etsy shop (nobody`s interested in buying these big, and expensive, cross stitched pictures anyway), and from now on I`ll concentrate more on smaller items, such as keyrings, bookmarks, kids` toys, etc., that will be all designed by me. And the big patterns I still fancy from my magazines, I`ll stitch for myself. Now, I think my Mum wouldn`t try to read this far with her English (she`s following my blog but I think she`s just looking through the photos) so, without attaching any pictures, I can tell you that I made a new glasses case for her (also my own design), and for my Gran a bellpull with some alpine flowers on it - I hope they`ll like their prezzies! If I don`t write for a while now, it`s because I`m on holiday - oh, and the Celtic birds are still waiting to be finished!

Nana`s gift for Mothers` Day

Just a quick update on today`s update - since I`m feeling rather prolific! The shamrock is not a mere sheet of plastic canvas any more: it`s a necklace-with-medallion type of thing that my son will probably VERY categorically refuse to wear but I`m sick of making badges for him for every occasion. And (drum roll, please) I managed to finish Nana`s prezzie as well:

Actually, this wasn`t too big an achievement after all, considering how tiny the stitched motif is... to be quite honest, it was a bigger challenge to a) find a photo in which all three of us look more or less normal and b) try to squeeze said photo into this limited space. Oh, and in case you think the stitching is SOOO tiny you can`t even see it, here`s a close-up:

St Patrick`s Day

Now and again I seem to arrive at such a busy phase in my life that I almost hyperventilate with panic. Take this week, for example. I just put my Mum on a plane on Sunday (after spending her last day here frantically stitching my Granny`s birthday present!), but not before she dropped a bombshell on me: why don`t we spend the spring holiday in Hungary? So Gregory and I are leaving on 1 April - while my poor Hubby has to stay and work - for ten days in Budapest, including Easter, yay! ("Yay", except for the part where my Hubby`s not coming with us :((( ). Someone a bit less anal retentive than I am would probably not even blink if they were told that they`re travelling in less than 3 weeks; me, I`m blind with panic. I just spent the last two days booking tickets, confirming passport numbers, printing boarding passes, then sending e-mails to a number of friends to inform them re: arrival... and then the REAL panic hit: what prezzies to take, and what`s to be made for here before I go? Well, to keep them in chronological order: the first thing was an Irish shamrock for Gregory for St Patrick`s Day at the school on Friday:

It took me almost a day to get the chart right, I basically copied a tattoo on graph paper and I only realised when I started stitching that I had to put quite a lot of fractionals in it, which otherwise would not be a problem but this time I was working on plastic canvas so that I can turn the design into a badge... well, you see the result, my knotwork is a wee bit wonky at places but hey, at least it`s done, one box can be ticked. My next task will be to stitch something to go in the lovely little poppy-decorated frame that came as a freebie with one of my magazines a couple of weeks ago - this I`ll make for my mother-in-law for Sunday. And then I`ll have about two weeks to make something that I can take in my suitcase (as opposed to posting, cf. my earlier rantings) for my Mum and Gran for THEIR Mothers` Day present - for here`s an interesting (albeit useless) piece of information for you: in Hungary, Mothers` Day is the first Sunday in May, then the last one is Children`s Day, and the first Sunday in June is Teachers` Day - I think this latter is especially recommendable, although we don`t have Fathers` Day and that`s pretty shameful... On the other hand, we still celebrate International Women`s Day on 8 March when men give flowers to women and generally try to be a wee bit nicer, if only for a day... Och, well, that`s the way of the world but enough of this blah-blah, time to go back to my stitching!

I`m back!

Naturally, I`m aware that I owe some kind of explanation, if not apology, for this long disappearance and I`ve got one: I`ve just been through the second of my twice-a-year bouts of reading-frenzy. So I spent the past 4-5 weeks methodically working my way through some 15-16 books and I only stopped when I reached the end of one particular bookshelf. Probably you have deducted by now that I don`t really do anything by half - DVD box sets, for example, must have been invented with me in mind; I simply can`t watch 40 minutes of something and then wait a week for the continuation of the story: I`d much rather sit in front of the telly for 48 hours non-stop and watch a year`s worth of episodes of a series.
Anyway, now that I`m back (to a massive relief of Husband and Son), I find I resurfaced just in time to sort out some Christmas prezzies. Naturally, kids came first:

I made a dozen Rudolph heads about two months ago, thinking that there are only 10 kids in Gregory`s class but then the actual number turned out to be 14.

After a wee bit of panicking, I started to make some snowmen, and when I got sick of that design, I made some Christmas puddings (since by this time Hubby, having seen the ones I`d finished, also ordered some for "himself").

All in all, by the end of last week I had enough to make these gift tags...
... which I attached to the (shop-bought, again this year, I`m ashamed to say...) festive lollies:

I also made an ornament which was supposed to be a scented sachet at the same time but I`m afraid even I, the person who put the blasted cinnamon sticks in it, cannot smell a thing so I had to resign to calling it just a simple ornament.

Unfortunately, I can`t share the pictures of one of my latest achievements with you just yet since it`s somebody`s Christmas prezzie, so for the now all I can say is that it was one of those moments when you see a pattern and you instantly know that it`d be perfect for somebody so I hope this person will like it too. On the other hand, while on the subject of prezzies, a couple of weeks ago I got some kits from Janet, a very lovely lady from our local stitching club, who always reminds me of my great-granny. She bought down these 3, probably American kits, saying that she`s not into cross stitch and she`d thought I might like them. And I did, of course. So much so that I started on the first one straight away and I finished it yesterday - which pleased me a lot since tomorrow night I can take it to the club and present Janet with it; I thought it`d be a nice way of repaying her for her kindness... I just hope she`ll like it and it won`t be a case of "Oh, great! Just when I finally got rid of them...!"

Last but not least I finally finished some of my pencil case projects so now all I have to do is add them to my Etsy shop - something I`m beginnig to dread because let me tell you, the past hour was a nightmare with this new Blogger layout: I can`t see the photos I`m attaching, only 4-line techno-blahblah, and I can only check things in the Preview but there, of course, you can`t change a blooming thing... AAAAARGGGGH!
I think this much technology was enough for one day... if you don`t hear from me for yet another 4 or 5 weeks, it`s because I`m still trying to recover from this! Oh, in which case:
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!