sunflowers, returned stitches and Monarch update

Just a quick post because I`m in a stag-stitching frenzy, but issue 283 of The World of Cross Stitching is out now, so I can share my one and only pic of these cute little sunflowers in vases that are this month`s free gift:

Created by Fiona Baker, this cheerful little motif has been turned into a lovely wee needle case:

On Monday, I had another Super-Postie: two of my old stitches have been returned, both by Carol Thornton, the ladybird and the Spring cottage - yay, can`t wait to have these framed too!

Framed `too` because a couple of weeks ago I had some returned pieces framed - I`m not sure if I`ve added pics of that great event here or not but rather than scroll back, I`ll just add them here:

And finally, a quick update on The Monarch of the Glen: I finished Page 6 of 12 last night and am about to start on Page 7, woohoo! Happy stitching, peeps! 😊

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! 😉

🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️

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!

Spring is here

There have been a few mags coming out recently and Spring is definitely in the air - not just IRL but as far as cross stitch charts are concerned.

In Cross Stitch Crazy 254, the cover kit is a pair of mice, designed by Helz Cuppleditch. I loved stitching both but my fave has to be the one in the hammock: 😄

Still on the subject of cover kits, I also stitched this month`s free gift with issue 280 of The World of Cross Stitching:

This birdcage bookmark is such an elegant design by Fiona Baker and a really easy stitch too, just a few quick backstitch lines between wee bits of cross stitch, so it`s an ideal last-minute gift, for example (it`s Mothers` Day on Sunday here in the UK. Just sayin` 😉).

Finally, issue 343 of Cross Stitcher has hit the UK shops today and in it Part 1 of 4 seasonal samplers by Faye Walsh is published, called Spring Is In The Air.

 It took 62 hours to stitch and I enjoyed it a lot - samplers made up of smaller pictures always build more quickly and I rarely have the chance to blend colours (as I had to here for the sea waves in the image in the centre), plus I liked the colours, the virtually no backstitch and the fabric too, it`s a beautiful lavender shade (in case you can`t tell from my photo 😂).

I took some close-ups of the individual scenes - my pics might not be exactly well lit but at least there are some details there that might not be spotted at first glance. Hope you like all these Spring-themed projects, happy stitching! 😊

Cross Stitcher 342

The latest issue of Cross Stitcher is in the UK shops this week and as it happens, this mag has several of my pieces in it too - they are like buses (she said, referring to her last post, `Immediate Bonanza`).

I stitched both the fresh and vibrant Spring sampler by Becky Spencer that`s this month`s cover star and two of the 3 bird-and-cup hoops by Felicity Hall (bottom left corner). Sticking to their chronological order, first up are the hoops.

This was the project I stitched around Christmas, and either because it was holiday time, or because of the amount of backstitch on each, I got the two smaller ones and another stitcher worked the top one in the green hoop.

The smaller one took 8 hours and the other one 10, and apart from the birds` tail feathers, they were an easy stitch. If I`m honest, the chart made my eyes water from time to time...

...but I got there eventually. 😉

And then because of the Christmas break, I had less time than usual to complete this Spring sampler - but after the birds, I relished the total lack of backstitch so I felt like I was sailing through it. 😊

14 hours

21 hours

30 hours

49 hours - finished

Since I`m a save the best for last kinda gal, I finished with the row of wee bird houses around the edge. For this mag, I have to keep a record of every inch of thread I use, so I thoroughly enjoyed cutting the lengths and knowing they`d be enough for 2 houses, 3 roofs or 4 middles - call me sad but I like the order and predictability of that. 😂 I love the finished cushion and I`m glad the colours show up the way they`re supposed to - I took my pics in the dead of winter so you can`t even tell the fabric was blue! 🤣 Hope you like all these Spring projects, happy stitching! 😊

hares bolster cushion - The World of Cross Stitching 278

The new issue of WOXS is in the UK shops and in it there`s one of my favourite collaborations with Fiona Baker who designed this project that is basically Spring in a bolster cushion. March hares running across fresh green grass, amongst crisp white flowers... yeah, as I said: SPRING! 😍

Since I`ve already had a discussion with a friend re: how you can`t shake out that napkin without covering your whole bed with croissant flakes, let`s just ignore that tray for the noo and concentrate on the cushion. 😉 I don`t think it`s that obvious from the above pic, but the hares are actually stitched on the over-dyed section of a large piece of aida fabric. 

Hmm, maybe not even here... I should have taken a photo of the blank fabric when it arrived... meh, too late. You`ll just have to take my word for it that it`s a pale, almost minty coloured aida and a quarter of it is over-dyed (by Sew-It-All. There`s an interesting article in the mag about how they work and what magic they can do with fabrics). So that section where I stitched the hares had an almost marbled effect, with darker greens swirling through the mint.

Well, thanks to the flash, it`s hard to tell it`s green but at least there`s the marble effect I was talking about. I loved this stage: not only were the three "bunnies" quick to stitch, they also reminded me of a zoetrope - I kept wondering if I had had more time and stitched a row of them to form a cylinder, would I have been able to create the illusion of motion? 😆

The next step was to add the flowers. They only use 3 colours: the crispest white (B5200) and the palest greys (762 and 415) but I love how muted and delicate they are to let the black backstitch detail pop:

Perhaps not for those who can`t stand backstitch, this project took 47 hours to finish (14 of those for the BS), but I think it is worth the effort for the end result, whether someone makes it into a cushion of frames it. There`s also a splash of colour at the bottom with the pink lazy daisy stitches (there`s also a handy tutorial in the mag on how to do these - hence the 3 little pink flowers missing from the middle of the bottom of my pic), and there`s even some added bling in the form of sequins attached to some of the flowers, so there`s plenty going on here to keep a stitcher busy and entertained. Have fun, peeps, and happy stitching! 😊

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!