memory jars - Cross Stitcher 334

What a great wee surprise to come back to from holiday: Susan Bates` memory jars pic is out in the latest issue of Cross Stitcher! 😃

"Surprise" because it was supposed to be in issue 335, according to my paperwork, but some projects must have been shuffled around - maybe just to amaze me with yet another strange little coincidence in life? (Yeah, coz the universe is out there to amuse me.) 😆 Anyway, so while on holiday, we went to see my BFF, who works as an event organiser for one of the museums in Budapest, and they recently opened a Frida Kahlo exhibition.

Obviously, that is not inside the museum: it`s the Wee Man posing with Eugene of Savoy just outside, because he has to climb up on every single thing. (My son, not Eugene of Savoy). Anyway, so imagine my surprise when I came back and saw this cover:

What are the odds, eh? *shakes head, bemused* And the next surprise was to finally learn the name of the designer of the memory jars (for some reason, it`s never included on the paperwork that I get with Stitcher projects). Although with this one, I had my suspicions. 😉 My first clue was the beach scene, but the warm yellows, reds and oranges seemed familiar too, I think they`re very characteristic of her designs, and now the mag confirmed that it is, indeed, by Susan Bates. 😊

I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this project. Each jar took 4-5 hours (40 hours in total), so I did 1 or 2 a day, depending on my mood, just revelling in the feeling of accomplishment that you get when you stitch card-sized designs that you can start and finish within one day. The colours are gorgeous, the backstitch gave each little pic amazing detail, the captions were quick work, loved the easiness of the aida... as I said, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole project. 😉 I took a photo of each individual wee scene, the lighting (as usual) is not the greatest but hopefully, you can nevertheless see a bit more detail. Happy stitching!

The World Of Cross Stitching 269

This week the latest issue of WOCS is out and in it there are 2 (very different!) projects that I stitched. Fiona Baker`s under the sea motif library was a treat, like something sweet after a meal; I was working on a big project at the time... I think it was the tiger...? Yes, it was, because I remember thinking these small pieces of powder blue aida were such a relief to my wonky eyes after each session on the black evenweave. 😊 So I stitched one every evening after I finished for the day with the tiger; they were funny, fun and varied too - one on plastic canvas, the other on aida band, etc.

And the finished results ended up being just as varied: from cards to key rings, from pencil cases to bookmarks. And I loooove the mini canvas on the easel - I actually have some of these in my stash so I might need to make one for myself someone. 😉

The other project in the same issue is this romantic wedding wreath by Shannon Wasilieff. When I was stitching it, there had been no mention of a royal wedding yet, so originally it was finished for an imaginary couple:

But then the wedding date of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was announced and the quick-thinking team at the magazine re-stitched the two names and modified the date - it would have been a sin to miss such an opportunity, this wreath could have been tailor-made for the royal wedding and has been published at the perfect time too to commemorate the big day this weekend. But there is an alphabet with which readers can personalise the design to suit the couple they wish to stitch it for, and it does look stunning framed in a hoop. It took 35 hours (I don`t know why the magazine says 38 - sounds better? *shrugs*), 9 of which were taken up by adding the 1042 beads - yes, I counted them. I`m that anal. *shrugs again* I can also imagine a card with just one of those roses on it...? So all in all, a very good issue of WOCS, full of versatile, usable charts - I`ve already put Amanda Gregory`s blackwork flowery cards on my to-do list, all six as a sampler (as I don`t really do cards). So one day, when I have loooooads of time... 😉🤣😂