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! 😊

 

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!

It`s beginning to look a bit like Christmas...

Is it August yet? Oh yes, it`s the 2nd - then it`s not too early anymore to put my Santa hat on, tee hee! There are two publications in the UK shops this week and they both signal the start of Festive Stitching Season - yay! 😊

First up, my little Popcorn bear, this month`s free gift with Crazy 233.

He is not TOO Christmassy as such, is he? No, not yet. Apart from that tentative robin, he could be skiing in the Alps for all we know, right? That is, if you don`t use the aperture card... 😉

But here`s something that couldn`t be more Christmassy if it tried: a stocking with an elf and presents in Gold 140:

This lovely Faby Reilly design looks deceivingly smallish in the photo but IRL it is MASSIVE! Here`s how the project arrived:

I didn`t think of measuring the fabric but judging by that IKEA cushion under it, it must have been around 70ish x 90-100 cms. The chart was on 4 (well, 3 and a bit, really) A3 sheets and besides the threads, I also got a summary of the specialty stitches featured in the design.

If you need to brush up on your eyelet sts and spider web sts,
Faby has great tutorials on her website.

So as usual, my first task - being a `hand-held stitcher` - was to figure out how to handle this huge piece of fabric. I had to use my biggest binder clips but these, combined with the weight of the fabric, made the whole thing so heavy that I had to rely on my trusty magnets as well (I have a magnet board that holds my chart and the whole thing swivels on a Lowery frame so this time I just attached the top binder clip to one of my strong magnets and it took the weight off my left hand).

That`s the bottom right quarter of the fabric and those few blue stitches are the middle. Since I want to hold as little fabric (especially stitched, i.e. even heavier!) in my left hand as possible, for as long as possible, I had to get to the rightmost part of the stocking - which meant a wee bit of skipping:

I loved this look btw - it`s a bit like a map, isn`t it? And the `Lego colours` just make it so cheerful! 😊 Once I reached the `toe`, I could really get going. 

10 hours

26 hours

48 hours

Once I started the top half, I could finally take the binder clips off, and as an added bonus, the bits with specialty sts grew really fast because they covered large areas quickly.

Finally, after 88 hours, it was all finished. Excuse the even-more-than-usually badly lit photo - I had to take an aerial shot so I`m standing on a chair here and the flash just couldn`t cope. 😁

Anyway, here`s a much better picture, with proper lighting and the stocking all made up - looking fantastic, even if I say so myself. 😉 Happy stitching!

Rudolph stocking - Cross Stitcher 312

Just a flying visit this time because I have a pressing deadline... make that deadlines, actually. So in between 12-hour stitching sessions, I took a wee break today to walk to W H Smith and buy the latest issue of Stitcher that has this gorgeous reindeer stocking in it, designed by Susan Bates. It took only 28 hours to stitch so compared to some of the stockings out there that you look at and think that a lifetime wouldn`t be enough to stitch all those details, this one could be an ideal choice if you wanted to make a stocking before Christmas 2016. Happy stitching, peeps! :)

My finished stitching with the (now trademark) bleached photo with the flash :D

The sewn up stocking in Cross Stitcher 312