Showing posts with label swan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swan. Show all posts

Sunday, 6 January 2019

swans and mermaids

Happy New Year! ๐Ÿ˜Š Hope you all had a great Christmas and a lovely holiday. I was in that strange but familiar state for the past two weeks where you barely know what day or what time of any day it is - not to sound all bah humbug but I`m a wee bit looking forward to tomorrow morning when everything is (supposed to be...?) going back to normal. ๐Ÿ˜‰
A couple of weeks ago (I think. Sometime last year, anyway), issue 251 of Cross Stitch Crazy came out and the free gift with it is this gorgeous swan, designed by Durene Jones:


It took five and a half hours to stitch, which is always a welcome change between two big projects; I love when I can start and finish a picture, and a gorgeous one like this to boot, on the same day. And I also love the card that comes with the kit, it complements the design beautifully.


In between two mince pies, I also learnt that issue 6 (titled "Mixtape") of X Stitch Magazine has become available digitally, and in this, there`s a couple (or "wreath"?) of mermaids, designed by Peacock&Fig`s Dana Batho, that I stitched for Mr X Stitch. Here`s my photo of the finished pic, complete with beads... which, I`m just realising now, cannot be seen, so I`d better add photographer Stacy Grant`s professional pic too that you can find in the magazine. Have a great start to 2019, folks, and happy stitching! ๐Ÿ˜Š





Saturday, 15 December 2018

Arts and Crafts

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to be part of DMC`s new collaboration with the V&A that resulted in the launch of a new range of cross stitch kits based on the works of William Morris and other prominent designers of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Since now the kits are available in needlework shops, I can share my pics of the models of the three 7" hoops and the two bookmarks I stitched. ๐Ÿ˜Š

Golden Lily by J. H. Dearle

Myrtle by J.H. Dearle

Strawberry Thief by William Morris

Strawberry Thief by William Morris
Bird & Berry by C. F. A. Voysey

Around the same time, I was also lucky enough to be involved in Mr. X Stitch`s project at Standen House. This Arts and Crafts house belongs to the National Trust, and they entrusted him with this year`s Christmas tree instalment. Mr. X Stitch, not surprisingly, dreamt up a tree filled with stitched ornaments. You may remember that a few months ago, I also sent him this bauble...?


It turns out, mine was one of the over 800 (!) baubles that Jamie received and turned into mini hoop decorations. But at the same time, he also commissioned 12 big, 18" quilting hoops too, one each for the 12 Days of Christmas (luckily, there seems to be plenty of room on that 20-foot tree! ๐Ÿ˜‰). I got the 7 Swans A-Swimming:


You can find out more about the project on Standen`s site or from this BBC report, and there are quite a few pics on Standen`s Twitter page  too - my fave being this one of the dozens and dozens of mini baubles behind Jamie and my swan in the naughty corner. ๐Ÿ˜‚ Happy stitching, peeps, and Merry Christmas! ๐Ÿ˜Š



Update: Thanks to a Facebook share by the Royal School of Needlework, I saw this month-old video by the National Trust the other day, and to my great surprise, I discovered the bauble I`d stitched among the many hundreds - what are the chances of that?!?* ๐Ÿ˜ฎ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿค—

*Answer: 1 in 800 ๐Ÿ˜‰