cosy autumn sampler - Cross Stitcher 336

This week the latest issue of Cross Stitcher is out in the UK, and in it is this gorgeous design by Rebecca Spencer that collects all the things we love about autumn in one curl-up-on-the-sofa-under-a-blanket-and-revel-in-the-cosy-feeling sampler. 

While you try to make up your mind whether the teddy is your favourite or that mug of hot chocolate, may I just point out that there`s a sewing machine there too? *squeals excitedly* 😉 And talking about sewing: it`s too late now but I wish I had taken photos before adding the backstitch - as it is, you`ll just have to take my word for it that I had that deeply satisfying feeling you get when after a few well-placed stitches, a splodge of reds and oranges turns into a basket of apples, or a rectangle of blue into the padded back of an armchair. #clever

I have a few close(r)-ups for this project, here they are:

Hmm, that last one`s a bit flash-bleached... anyway, you get the idea. 😉 In other news: some of the DMC projects I stitched a few months ago have been launched now so I can add them to my photo album here. This pair of love birds was a sweet little exercise as the fabric is pre-printed so I only had to stitch the birds themselves and the background is already done. #noice

And around the same time, I stitched these gorgeous flowers too - I`m glad to see the kit is available to buy now. Thank you for scrolling through all these pics, happy stitching!

lovebirds, princes and fairies

Now there`s a title I never thought I`d write - sounds a bit like a collection of fairy tales, doesn`t it? But no, it`s just a list of some of the cross stitch pieces that have been published lately. First up, Lucie Heaton`s cute little fairy gift tags that are the free gift with this month`s Cross Stitch Crazy (241):

They were a lovely quick stitch, a very enjoyable day-off from the larger project that I was working on at the time, and the finished tags look super sweet:

Next up is issue 146 of Cross Stitch Gold: the free gift in this magazine is mine too, a sparkly bookmark to commemorate the upcoming royal wedding.

And finally, in the same issue of Gold is this gorgeous pair of parrots (both the lovebirds and the bookmark were designed by Fiona Baker). I enthusiastically started to take pictures of this project every ten hours, thinking it`d take much longer but those bands of oranges, yellows and greens were so satisfying to stitch that I simply couldn`t put it down and it grew surprisingly fast. Still, I have a few pictures for this one, hope you`ll like them and until next time, happy stitching! 😊

10 hours - 1 bird

20 hours - 2 birds

34 hours - XS finished

37 hours - BS detail added

fluffy Spring lambs - Cross Stitch Gold 144

This week issue 144 of Cross Stitch Gold is out in the UK shops and I was pleased to see my cute little baby lambs on the cover. 😊

This design by Clare Buswell was such a joy to stitch - I mean, just look at those faces! 😍 Plus, I love daffodils - luckily for me, there are millions around where I live so from February to April, there`s a sea of cheerful yellow flowers near our house. I also loved the subtle shading of all those lovely greens - some of them were cross stitched in 1 strand for a lighter effect. The project took 53 hours to finish and I only took a few progress pics because there wasn`t such a great big difference between the stages.

And here they are, nicely framed in the mag: I think this nice, crisp white frame is ideal for an image that`s so quintessentially "Spring", and the pale yellow mount accentuates the daffodils splendidly:

Also, this was the first time I used Madeira Lana thread; it reminded me a little of the threads that were in that Riolis kit of a Dachshund that I stitched for my uncle a few years ago. The lambs got fluffed up (?!?) in-house, so I was very curious to see the end result... OK, if I`m honest, I can`t tell the difference between my pics and those in the magazine but to be fair (both to the thread and to the person who "attacked" my lambs with a brush), I was expecting a more radical change, something that would transform my little white cross stitches into this:

So compared to my expectations, the end result is not that spectacular but it`s undeniable that one can tell the difference, i.e. that these are not cross stitches in mere white stranded cotton. I took a couple of close-ups of those areas, hope you can see them OK and until next time, happy stitching!

roses cushion and butterflies - WOCS 256-257

Good morning! Since my last post, I have finished the private project I`d been stitching for over a year now - it`s the one my parents were supposed to get for Christmas 2016 but instead they`ll get it in July when we go to Hungary. We took it to the framer yesterday and it should be ready in a few weeks - squeeee, I`m so excited and can`t wait to share some pics of it here too (but that`ll have to wait until I`m back from holiday). ;)

In other news, I`ve just received my subs copy of The World of Cross Stitching 256 and my rosy cushion is in this issue. This lovely design by Poppy Benner I appreciated even more as I got it right after a backstitch-heavy piece and I simply relished the fact that this one had no BS at all. Plus I liked the Cath Kidston style roses `wallpaper` that`s achieved by subtle shade changes - there are 23 colours in this design and it took 68 hours to finish.

And here it is as a finished cushion in the magazine:

On the last page of the magazine I also spotted my wee butterflies in the preview of the next issue and just in case I`m in a packing/going on holiday frenzy by the time it comes out, I`d better add those pics here too. So next month`s free gift with WOCS is going to be this beautiful butterflies card cover kit (bottom right):

And here`s my close-up - hehe, while typing this, I`m drooling over those gladioli in the top left corner, I think that cushion is already on my to do list, can`t wait for this issue to come out! :) Happy stitching, peeps!

Crazy 226 and some storage solutions

Yesterday was a busy day. Hubby took me for a day out: we had a round of bingo (he won £20! Friday the 13th and all that) and we did loads of shopping... well, it seemed a lot but not really, just the kind where you-hunt-for-school-shirts-in-every-shop-and-until-you-find-the-right-size-in-one-of-them-you-buy-a-couple-of-things-in-every-one-of-them. And so in my search for shirts for the wee man, I ended up, among other things, getting this new storage system for my threads - and I surprise even myself with how ridiculously happy I can get just looking at it! :D

OK, so this is how I stored my threads until now: lots of zippy bags in a large Ikea box.

I keep my threads in small zippy bags, which in turn are kept in larger zippy bags that are numbered by the hundreds, according to the DMC numbering system.

To be absolutely fair, this wasn`t a bad system - my biggest problem was that I didn`t like squeezing the air out and closing the zip every time I took a colour out or put it back. Erm, I probably need to revise what `problem` means but anyhoo, I was really chuffed when I saw this stackable drawer solution in Matalan yesterday: I`ve been looking for something like this for some time, I just never saw the right size, the drawers were either too big or too small. Not this time though, mwahahaha!

The units came in a 2-small-1-big arrangement and I bought 4 of them; luckily, the plastic frame comes apart, so I could rearrange the 12 drawers to build one tall tower - now tell me it`s not a thing of beauty! ;)

When we came home, the latest issue of Cross Stitch Crazy was waiting for me - love surprise Postie! :) - and I was happy to see the little wooden heart freebie that I`d stitched a few months ago. I loved working on these, they were such a breath of fresh air in between the other projects - usually I work on large designs and if you are a stitcher, you know how good it feels to sew something that you can start AND finish on the same day. ;)

By the time I sorted my threads last night, I admit I was too tired to go past the first page - which means I have the pleasure of reading through THREE magazines today, yesss! Yesterday I finally got round to buying the first issue of The Art of Cross Stitch (actually, I dilly-dallied so long that the 2nd issue is out now too). So I bought that one as well and now I can`t wait to see what they are like inside: I think I`ll give the no-brand threads to my friend`s daughter to make friendship bracelets with but the aida will come handy for cards and the hoop from issue 2 will be ideal for framing the flowery number I want to stitch for MIL for Mothers` Day. ;) And no matter what I find inside, I`m already happy that this magazine exists: anything that popularises our hobby is a good thing in my book. Happy stitching! :)

mandala cushion - Cross Stitch Crazy 225

This week another magazine has hit the shops and I thought I`d better post about my stitching in it before the whirlwind that is Christmas knocks everything else out of my mind. It`s a lovely pastel mandala designed by Tiny Modernist and it`s been one of the most relaxing stitches I`ve ever done - cross stitch is pretty therapeutic at the best of times anyway but working on repeat motifs like a mandala is especially joyful when you just want to switch off and chill out.

It took 48 hours - 40 for the cross stitch and 8 for adding the backstitch. I took a few pictures between `layers` and I`ll add the photo of the finished cushion too from the magazine. Have a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2017, stitchers! :)

baby girl love tree - Collection 270

You know how Facebook recalls an old memory of yours by randomly choosing something you posted 1-2-3 etc. years ago on the day? I was surprised to see the entrelac rectangle I`d knitted and then turned into a `dress` for my Mum - apparently, this was THREE years ago...?!? It surely feels less. Coincidentally, that might be the last time I shared a personal project here too, lol - since then, it`s been just one continuous stretch of stitching. Mostly models for magazines, so I can only show pictures of these once they are published - and now, when for the first time in a long while I am free to stitch for myself, I cannot share any pics because it`s a Christmas present and I don`t want the recipients to see it. I`ve been working flat out for over a week now and I have 9 days left to complete it, so I`d better stop rambling here and go back to my threads and needle. But before I go, here`s the Shannon Wasilieff baby girl love tree that`s the giant pull-out chart in this month`s Cross Stitch Collection - unbeknownst to me, someone else stitched the boy version for next month`s magazine, and magic hands also added the beads to mine which I didn`t have to. Thus my piccie is beadless... and badly illuminated, as usual, although I tried my best to make the tree visible on the almost identically coloured fabric. Thankfully, the magazine`s professional photographer did a much better job, so I`ll add the nice&bright photos and close-ups from the mag too. Hope you`ll all have a lovely Christmas and if it`s my last post for 2016, Happy New Year! :)