window CK, movie night and Disney: Let`s Celebrate!

Remember when last Autumn I said I was super busy working on a big batch of cross stitch projects? I`ve been itching to see them in print ever since, and yesterday postie delivered my copy of the book at long last, so I thought I`d share some (= looooaaaads) of pics of this special edition of Hachette Partworks` Disney Cross Stitch, titled Let`s Celebrate! 😊

But first, before I get too engrossed in attaching photos (lol, and before the next issue of WOXS is out), here`s the free gift from issue 318 of The World of Cross Stitching, designed by Fiona Baker:

Also out this week, in issue 19 of XStitch Magazine, entitled Yay!, is this cool movie-themed design by Sweet Annet:

So, as mentioned earlier, here is my copy of the Let`s Celebrate! special edition that arrived yesterday:

It is jam-packed with fab Disney designs to celebrate every occasion from birthdays to the arrival of a new baby to having someone as a friend. I stitched 24 of the 57 designs, some of which have been turned into cards, others into banners, cushions, or pictures framed in hoops, and some were sewn onto a bag or straight onto a Rico hand towel, like this first pic. I`ll add a few photos of the finishes from the book at the end, after the long, loooong list of my own pics. Hope you like them, thanks for visiting and happy stitching! 😊  

cottage kitten - The World of Cross Stitching 253

Since I`m almost back to normal flu-wise and, happily, I`m at least several days away from that panicky stage where the idea suddenly hits me that I was hugely mistaken when I thought I was getting on surprisingly well with my current project, I have decided to post about the latest publication before I end up like with the last one, losing track of time.

I`m not sure when Issue 253 of WOCS is coming out, probably next Mon or Tue, but I`ve already received my subscriber copy and I was pleased to see that my little kitten is on the cover of the magazine.

I tried to look up who the designer is but could not find it - there is an image in the mag of the original artwork that has been translated into a cross stitch chart but to find out more about the artist, it seems I would have to register with Image by Design, which I don`t want to do (not that it`d be too much of a hassle, but because I`ve registered on so many sites lately that I`m running out of password ideas).

I know I always say this but I loved working on this project. Which is probably a good thing, come to think of it: it might even be a prerequisite of being a model stitcher, the ability to find something lovable in every project, otherwise cross stitch would become a chore and that`d be pretty dismal. And there was plenty to like in this one:

First and foremost, I love stitching in blocks, both in shapes and colours. This project had `daily blocks` on the one hand - the kitten, the curtain, the leaves, etc. - and on the other, nice big chunks of blue, yellow and greens, when I could just thread a dozen needles and off I went. I admit, I`m not the biggest fan of tons of backstitch, although I don`t hate it as much as some, because as I have said it before, I like the way it brings the pieces alive and besides, it usually means I`m towards the end of the project, near the finish line. There was plenty backstitch to be done here - if I remember correctly, those leaves almost reduced me to tears 😉 - but I quite enjoyed adding the details to the fur and especially the beams (how clever is that play with shadows under the window ledge and the thatched roof? Love it!). Anyway, the whole project took 85 hours and since I only had about two weeks for this one, I didn`t stop to take photos as often as I usually do; however, I still have a few pics that I managed to string together in a mini video to save scrolling time. Hope you enjoy it, happy stitching!

4 seasons windows - Collection 271

In the UK shops now is the latest issue of Cross Stitch Collection and in it is the Seasonal Windows pic I stitched sometime before Christmas. It`s a Maria Diaz design and I enjoyed working on it a lot because one, I love her work, two, I love 4-seasons pictures and three, it is a really fast-growing project (once the walls and window frames are done, the middle fills out very quickly and there`s hardly any backstitch). The whole project took about 45 hours and as there are not too many colours and no fractionals or French knots, this could be an ideal `first big project` for somebody new-ish to cross stitch who`s ready to tackle something larger.

As I was working on this just before Christmas, I don`t have too many photos, I only took one at the end - but as the evenings were long and dark (they still are, by the way), my piccie turned out darker-than-usual too, so I took one close-up of each of the 4 windows too, these are a bit brighter. But I`ll add the photo from the magazine as well - not only is it much better lit than any of mine, it also shows the finished picture in its frame.

Hope your New Year is promising so far - happy stitching! :)