snowman stocking - WOXS 313

The latest issue of The World of Cross Stitching is out now and in it is Fiona Baker`s snowman design for a Christmas stocking, complete with beads and sequins. I enjoyed working on this - funnily enough, I had a similar project to stitch recently: I love when I can quickly complete the `outline` of a design and then I`m left with a nice big area in the middle with just one colour to fill. 😀

I have a couple of photos, one taken at 18 hours into the project and one of the finished design (63 hours), and I also have a picture of the stocking beautifully sewn by the magazine`s finishing department. Happy stitching! 😊

 

Klimt and robins

Two remarkable things have happened recently in my life: I`ve been awarded British citizenship and, after not being able to meet up in person for 18 months, my mum was here with us when I was notified, so it was even better that we could celebrate together. 😊

Also, having been nowhere for about a year, except for mini walks to the post office or the local shops, it was extra special to go on a proper road trip with DH, DS and my mum. We decided on a westerly loop and spent one day/night in Oban, then went to the Isle of Skye to see the Fairy Pools, and finally came back to Fife via Blairgowrie to see the famous beech hedges there (see pic/info here).

We also had a lovely lunch and wander around in Blairgowrie, where in one of the charity shops I discovered a Klimt frame for a mere £2.50 - if the kind person who donated it reads this: thank you for the perfect keepsake that`ll always remind me of this glorious time in July 2021! 😊

Since the frame already had The Embrace on it, I thought The Kiss would be a fitting companion, so I went on to Etsy and purchased the chart (from here) that`s small enough to fit this 10x15 cm frame. I wanted it to fill the aperture as closely as possible, so I did a little number crunching and decided that 4 over 2 on 18ct aida would give me the result I was after. I knew there`d be a gap on the top but I didn`t want too much of the stitching to disappear under the embracing couple, so I copied the artist`s signature on graph paper and added that in the blank space on the top. All in all, I`m very pleased with the end result and as I said, it`ll always remind me of this great Summer. 😊

In other news, the latest issue of The World of Cross Stitching is in the shops now, with the cute little Christmas robins card by Emma Congdon as the freebie. I`ll be honest: when I saw it last month at the back of issue 310, it looked familiar and I could have sworn I`d stitched it but since I couldn`t find a photo of it anywhere in my folder, I concluded I must be bonkers. So in a way, it was a lovely surprise (and confirmation of my sanity 🤪) when I saw my name under Stitched by - and as luck would have it, the very next day I came across my photo of it too (it was saved in my Crazy folder as originally it was for that magazine 🙄🥴🤦‍♀️). Anyway, hope you like them and thanks for visiting my blog - happy stitching! 😊

freebie extravaganza

No huffing, just stating a fact: I have just about given up on being able to follow which pieces I stitched for what publication are out now and where! 😂 With the very sad demise of Cross Stitch Crazy and Cross Stitch Gold 😞, some of the projects I did for those two magazines several months ago may (or may not) appear in the publisher`s remaining craft title, The World of Cross Stitching. The situation is further complicated by the randomness of where extra cover kits appear, depending (I guess...?) on where you are in the UK, whether you`re a subscriber or you pick up a copy from your local newsagent, etc., etc. So, in light of all this, the best I can do is to keep my eyes peeled 👀 and make a list of all the familiar-looking designs that I come across, and then post about them here occasionally. 😊

Thus today`s first pic is of the cute little Popcorn Bear that was an extra freebie with last month`s WOXS (I received my subscriber copy of issue 300 but I only found out about this cover kit after seeing a photo of it on FB). 😁

Yesterday I got my copy of WOXS 301, and there are a couple of projects in this issue that I stitched a while back: the angel tree decoration that`s the cover gift and 3 Margaret Sherry cards that were originally for Crazy. The angel, designed by Heather Nugent, was a fun stitch on plastic canvas (and I`m not ashamed to admit that even after Heather explained it to me - with illustrations! -, I still couldn`t picture how this front-and-back design will work, but it does!) 😃 After finishing the front, the plastic canvas has to be flipped and the two wings stitched on the reverse, then by cutting along the lines that are marked on the chart, the wings slot together and voila, there`s the finished angel with no messy back showing! 😲 #magic

Still more Christmas: 3 Margaret Sherry illustrations in WOXS 301 that were converted into cross stitch by the talented Fiona Baker, who also designed 4 Christmassy blackwork cards (originally meant for Gold) that are now available in her Etsy shop (here) so I add a pic of them here too. 🎄

Finally, I wanted to add one more photo, this one from Disney Cross Stitch issue 7: a lovely hoop design by Durene Jones of Marie from The Aristocats - but just this morning I`ve learnt that another one of Durene`s designs (and my stitching) is `out there` now: some issues of the latest WOXS also have `our` Christmas cat as an extra freebie, so I`ll add a photo of that one too. 😉 Hope you`ve enjoyed seeing them all, happy stitching! 😊

Double Dog and Fizzy Moon

I almost forgot to post about Double Dog! 😲😱😂

This cute little pup, designed by Makiko, is the free gift with the latest issue of Cross Stitch Crazy (250). As far as I know, he has no name - only I call him Double Dog, because I got to stitch him twice, once in May and once in July. Yep, some of the Christmas stuff gets prepared that much in advance (so no wonder the odd pup goes walkies occasionally). 😉 But the main thing is that he and his little robin friend reappeared for showtime:

And still on the subject of Christmas cards: last weekend I did some private stitching (IKR? 😱) and finished this Fizzy Moon for my mom-in-law. Hubby chose it from my stash (clearly, a man who has no idea of what backstitch is), but it got done and after my freshly ordered super-sticky double sided tapes arrived, I even made up the card so am well pleased with my effort - hope she`ll like it too! 😊

Aaaaaaand it`s October! 😲 Which means: Merry Christmas, everyone! 😆

This week, issue 274 of The World of Cross Stitching hits the UK shops, and the Cover Star (their words, not mine btw!) is this super sweet design by Margaret Sherry of three kittens in Christmas stockings. Well, that`s the official title anyway - but I think that wee mouse steals the show hands down! 😄 I`ve got a few progress pics for this project, my favourites being the two between 30 and 32 hours - that`s when I added the green backstitch to the needles of the tree and I lurved the difference it made.

7 hours

14 hours

19 hours

30 hours

32 hours

35 hours - finished! 😊

And here they are, nicely framed in the magazine:

Now, I can also share some pics of the Durene Jones Cover Kits Galore Event that is happening these past couple of weeks: last week, the latest issue of Crazy came out with "our" robin gift tags (more on those in a mo) but first, the snowman bauble kit that is the free gift with this issue of WOCS.

When I saw the wee pack, for a split second I wondered if I just dreamt that this had two sides - but no, if you check the bottom left corner, there`s the back of the snowman. 😊 And if you`re really eagle-eyed, you may also spot that the finished bauble has metallic BS added that`s missing from my original pics - the threads didn`t arrive in time so the team had to add the snowflakes, etc. in-house (there you go, a little behind-the-scenes info for ya). 😉

So as I said, last week issue 248 of Cross Stitch Crazy was published, and its cover gift is also by Durene Jones: a set of 8 little Christmassy robins that have been turned into gift tags. I loved stitching these, as well as the front-and-back snowman - they were fun, festive and cheerful, just the kind of project to put me in the Christmas mood, no matter what month of the year. 😃 Happy stitching, everyone!