Cross Stitch Collection

I`ve been (literally) snowed under for a week now - although if I`m honest, it could be a lot worse than the couple of inches we`ve had so far: I could be staying in e.g. Ballater and spend my precious time shovelling two feet of snow, instead of sitting in my cozy living-room, furiously stitching. OK, at the moment NOT so furiously, since I`ve had a little mishap. The design I`m working on now is a mandala-type intricacy by Durene Jones for Cross Stitch Gold - actually, it`s more like a henna tattoo, using a lot of DMC 902 (garnet) as the basic colour with some pink, orange and electric blue to accentuate and, of course, a lot of gold (metallic thread and beads as well) to make it sparkle. Unfortunately, I only got one skein of garnet and it looks like I`ll need more like four, and Anne must be on holiday or off sick because it`s very unlike her not to answer my email for days - anyhoo, after running out of the main colour, I did whatever else I could but now I just have to wait for the replenishment (unless Hubby takes me to Kirkcaldy on Saturday - I will NOT drive in the snow! - where I can buy some). In the meantime, I`m itching to get on with my little chefs but I don`t want to get another big project out, in case I get too absorbed in it and then I wouldn`t want to go back to "the job". So as a something-in-between, I started to play with this cross stitch clock I`d picked up a few weeks ago for £3 in a charity shop:

I think I`ll give it to my mother-in-law for her birthday (unless I decide to keep it in the meantime). Of course, I could also use this mini-break to get on with my knitting: I want to make some hats for the Woolly Brew girls` new appeal and my second teddy square, technically, couldn`t even be called a square as it`s only 5 rows so far but last weekend I got a far more important job from The Boss. Gregory came to me with a fully developed picture in his head concerning a little alien that he wanted me to stitch for his gang of teddies to experiment on (?). So I "just" had to follow his instructions and make it the right size (he made me unpick the legs twice because they were too long and too wide!) - so here`s the result:

He even drew the eyes on a piece of paper so I had a template to follow, and he showed me (the little control-freak!) the angle he wanted me to sew them on - as a consequence, my Hubby says it looks more like a little green pig with his blue ears flopped over his eyes, as if playing Peekaboo... Anyway, now that I have the time to write, I thought I`d add some photos of the works I`ve done so far for Cross Stitch Collection (at least the ones that have already come out). As another first, I shall attempt to add a link, rather than a photo, to my blog - starting with the retro Xmas trees that appeared in issue 216. Then there were the thank you cards I stitched for issue 218; and the latest issue (219) has my Mothers` Day owls in it but I couldn`t find a link to this magazine just yet, so here`s a good news-bad news situation: I`ll add my own photos which are much less artistic than the ones taken by a professional photographer... on the other hand, if the links above didn`t work, at least you`ll SEE these, right? OK, I think it`s a nice, long post now so I`d better go and get some work done, not to mention that a picture is worth a thousand words anyway - so here`s another 4000 words` worth:

UPDATE: since this post, I`ve found these too here.

I don`t write often but when I do, I write a lot :)

I thought before I disappear for another half a year, I`d better do something about the promised photo montage - and I have to say, the project didn`t start out too well. Trying to save myself the trouble of going through six months` worth of photo archives, I thought I`d just simply look up e.g. Bothy Threads` website and cut-and-paste pictures from there... Problem is, I could only find 1 of the 3 (Hen Fun) and the other two, Sand Castle and Paddington Sports are either not available yet or they`ve been re-named. In either case, I don`t think I should attach their pictures here from my own collection but here`s the official version of my first one:

This week so far hasn`t been a great success story in general, anyway. After posting my latest assignment last Tuesday to Anne for Card Shop (some lovely Fathers` Day cards by Jenny Barton, by the way), I experienced that "school is out for the summer!" feeling for the second time since last May: I had no other job lined up, so I was free to do whatever I wanted to do. I was spoiled for choices and my head was reeling... Should I get my La Scapigliata out from its hiding place where it`s been gathering dust (just kidding! It`s safely packed away, especially as since I`ve started working on it, we`ve moved house AGAIN!). Or should I knit for a change? Or start a new stitching project? Eventually, I decided on the latter and started something for my Gran`s 80th birthday this April. There was a freebie calendar that came with the World of Cross Stitching (issue 195) that, incidentally, contained one of my works, the cat bride by Margaret Sherry (top right):

I started to stitch the three little chefs (bottom, middle) because I like to stitch useful things (i.e. not only pictures you hang on the wall) and I thought this bluish design would go well in my Gran`s kitchen, so I`ll laminate it and add another laminated white paper under it, so she can write her shopping list on it with a marker. But in order to do this, the stitching shouldn`t be bigger than A4 - so what did I do? Like a rookie, I cut the fabric first (to my defence, the pattern DID say it`d be 25x14.5 cm on 14 HPI aida) and I`ve already done the dog`s apron and half of his legs when I realised I was running out of space. So I unpicked the whole thing and duly got side-tracked by the usual "so is this piece of fabric wasted now?" dilemma - so I started to stitch a teddy with a birthday cake for my Mum (whose birthday is in February - my Mum`s, not the teddy`s!) which I managed to muck up THREE consecutive times, after which I decided that this piece of aida is cursed and threw it away, while my Mum`s birthday stitch has gone to the back burner for the now. Anyway, a couple of days ago I re-started the 3 chefs on 16 HPI and I got this far:

So far, I`ve only had to frog it once and luckily, not the whole thing just some of the white at the bottom - I kept miscounting until I photocopied and enlarged the chart so I can mark the squares off with a felt pen (I just hope it`s not a sign of my eyesight getting worse! Although that`d still be better than me getting sloppy - especially as I got an email from Anne yesterday and a new job is in the post so I`d better get my act together!). Oh, and in the meantime I knitted a reversible teddy square, as the first installment of (what I plan it to become), a baby blanket made up of different coloured squares, probably for my (also un-visited for the past six months!) Etsy shop since Gregory is, sadly, not interested in these kind of things any more:

still alive

My goodness gracious! This morning, out of the blue, I`ve decided to check my long-forgotten blog to see if it still existed at all and I`m shocked to see that I`m half a year older than I was when I wrote my last post! So for the benefit of those 3 or 4 people in the world who might read this - what happened in the past 6 months? Well, as my son said the other day to my Mum, `I can sum it up in one word: she`s been STITCHING`. At the end of May 2012 I started to work for both Immediate Publishing and Future Publishing - the first owns magazines like the World of Cross Stitching, Cross Stitch Crazy, Cross Stitch Gold, Cross Stitch Card Shop (as well as Knit Today and hundreds of other titles), and the latter publishes Cross Stitcher and Cross Stitch Collection, among others. All these magazines have featured at least one of my works since last summer and when I have the time+inclination, I`ll add a montage of the photos here. At the same time, I did some model stitching for Bothy Threads and Twilleys of Stamford, plus I knitted 4 jumpers for a local designer - I find knitting relaxing in-between stitch sessions as it exercises other muscles in my hands (not to mention knitting is safer while watching the telly). Anyway, so as not to leave my readers (?) without a picture, here`s one of the Dachshund I managed to finish for my Gran and Uncle`s Christmas present:

teachers` thank you cards - finished!

The weekend is not even over and I have all five thank you cards finished for Gregory`s teachers and the driver... Is that efficient or what? I`m well-chuffed, especially that it means now I can get back to my other stitching/knitting :)))

bear madness continued

This week Gregory is in "cops and robbers" mode and gave me the orders to make these outfits for his teddies. So far my task was easy - wish me luck with the policeman uniforms...!

La Scapigliata update

The past week or so I haven`t had much time to stitch: Gregory`s turned 7 this Monday, so last weekend was about the family celebration, then on Monday they had some birthday cake in the school, plus I`m fighting a serious addiction to Bejewelled at the moment... but yesterday I managed to squeeze in a whole day`s worth of stitching, so my lady now has a neck!

La Scapigliata on 6 June 2012

Since it`s almost midnight, this is just a quick photo update from bloodshot-eyed yours truly, who today swapped her knitting needles for her tapestry needles for a change (a sure sign of my exhaustion is when I start to talk about myself in the 3rd person). So here`s the photo, which I`ll try to put in the middle this time (just like last time, but Blogger seems to have a mind of its own - yup, I`ve just checked the preview and the picture`s on the left again... why? Oh, this is even better: checked it again and now the pic`s in the middle but it divides the paragraph! Grrrr! When will this stupid man-made computer stop trying to think FOR me?!? And by the time I finished typing this little rant of mine, it pushed the photo to the right! Aaaah, I give up... better go to bed anyway). So here`s the photo:

apple with toothpick

Just a quick post to show how much DPNs do NOT intimidate me any more: I started to knit a wee green apple with toothpicks! I`m using two strands of embroidery (or crochet???) thread and it`s pretty slow going, not only because it`s fiddly to work with toothpicks (plus they don`t slide) but also because they`re so short, they dig into the fleshy bit under my right thumb so I have to take regular breaks. Yes, I know (or at least I think) that there are proper DPNs this size but I`m all for using whatever I can find around the house. Another topic: last Friday we, parents were invited to the kids` Jubilee Garden Party at school. They were so sweet, singing their little songs while covered in Union Jacks, plus I finally had the chance to meet all the other parents, and quickly discuss the details of next Saturday`s Jumble Sale. Since Gregory took the stegosaurus to school the other day for Show & Tell, word has started to spread that I can knit a dinosaur, so I decided that I`d make another one as a raffle prize (I can`t really take anything else: as I explained it to the mum organising the event, by the time my son`s finished with his "unwanted" toys/books/clothes, they`re usually pretty useless and only good for the bin). Anyway, so here`s the other steg I knitted for the sale:

Stegosaurus

I have to say, with this weekend`s project (which I found here: http://jwgh.livejournal.com/475358.html) I have entered the dangerous territory of knitted dinosaurs - Gregory already picked a T-Rex as the next candidate for my to-do list. So the fruit bowl is on hold for the moment, since the last update I`ve only made a lemon and a tangerine - of these I don`t have a picture at present but here`s the "steg":

Oh, and a totally unrelated subject: Gregory`s lost yet another tooth on Saturday, the second one within ten days - if it goes on like this, the Tooth Fairy`ll go bankrupt! :)

first encounter of the DPN kind

The major story of this day: Bigyi, who was lost, has been found! The silly fluffless bear disappeared last night (on account of being thrown about in the garden, where he managed to disappear in the hedge). I`m half-asleep while I`m writing this, since we looked for him till about half past eleven last night, but the main thing is that this morning Bigyi finally reappeared, with not a scratch on, so Gregory`s world is a happy, safe place once more. Elsewhere, in the normal (?!?) world, thanks to a lovely visit from a friend of mine, I had my baptism of fire with the dreaded double-pointed needles. So far I avoided any knitting pattern that involved these and tried to opt for the "flat" version, made with straight needles - like the closed banana on the second picture below. But thanks to Jo`s tutorial, now I have knitted my very first item "in the round", a peeled banana! Yay!

The fruit bowl is coming along nicely, by the way: now I have an open and a closed banana, plus a slice of watermelon:

EDF Energy`s ZINGY

This week the Little Man`s "all time favourite EVER" is the EDF Energy advert, where Zingy`s first all sad behind the rainy window, then gets uber-cheerful and dances in the birdbath. Gregory finds it hilarious, so much so that he just got home from school but we already had to watch the ad 3 times on YouTube. So how did I spend the day, instead of cleaning the house? I knitted a Zingy for my son, of course! And what was his first reaction? "This is pink, not orange..." Well, I guess it`s time I stocked up on some more shades of yarn - then maybe I can make a Zingy #2...

another pear and a Rudolph

Just a quick post (while Blogger`s still working, ha!) to show you yesterday`s crop: another wee pear for my never-rotting fruit bowl and a Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer head Christmas decoration (don`t ask me why!):

new project(s)

A few days ago (on Thursday, 17 May 2012, to be exact) I started on La Scapigliata (`The Tousled One`) by Leonardo Da Vinci - or, in this case, by Maria Diaz, since she designed the cross stitch pattern I`m working from. Here`s the original:

And this is where I am just now:

Not too impressive yet, I know, but 1. I`m working on evenweave, which to me always means slower progress then aida, and 2. in the evenings I`m knitting wee projects so that by the end of the day I can feel that I accomplished something. At the moment I`m knitting a fruit a day: I found the patterns in the June 2012 issue of Knit Today for this pear and apple, and following Gregory`s suggestion, I`m going to create my own patterns for other fruits as well (next on my agenda is an orange). I thought I`d create a never-rotting fruit bowl as a centrepiece for my table. Updates to follow!

Celtic birds - finished!

Today, the 16th of May, 2012 is a special day for 2 things: 1. Gregory has lost another tooth (which reminds me: one pound off housekeeping money to reimburse Tooth Fairy...), and 2. I finally finished the Celtic bird cushion that I started months and months ago, although in fact I only worked roughly 10 days on it in total. Now all that`s left to do is to turn it into a cushion but I have plenty time for that, since I decided to give it to my mother-in-law for Christmas. And here`s the last photo that looks like all the previous eight (I promise I won`t post any more of it):

coastal fridgies

Here are the first four of my Coastal Fridgies series (4x5 cm fridge magnets worked on plastic canvas):

Mothers` Day prezzies

I`m writing this on 30 March, the day before we`re going on holiday, but just in case my husband wipes our computer (again) while we`re away, I thought I`d better save these pictures that I promised ages ago. So here are the presents I made for my Mum and my Gran for Mothers` Day, which in Hungary is the first Sunday in May. For my Mum I made a new glasses case to replace her old, tatty one; it`s my own design, based on the eye chart you have to read at the optician`s (the letters make the word GLASSES CASE in Hungarian).

And for my Granny I made a bell pull, not that she`s got any bells to pull in her house, but because I had this mini-doweling and some patterns for alpine flowers that I thought she`d like. In other words, it is something she can hang on her wall but it`s not the traditional framed picture either. I can`t wait to find out what she thinks of it!

another wee flower

Since I`ve been patting my own back for the past hour, I thought I`d better share it with the rest of the world: I`ve finished the 25 cards! Although I can`t post pictures for another month, the main thing is that they`re done - now I just have to cross my fingers/toes so that they won`t get lost in the post. I`m so happy that I thought I`d "surprise" myself with another knitted flower - here it is:

Elsewhere, in the crazy world of our teddies: I can report that our Bigyi family is growing, thanks to the two new Ikea bears we found at a car boot sale on Saturday (plus there`s an "honorary Bigyi" with the blue T-shirt on, he`s the baby):

little knitted flower

The cross stitch related posts are still on hold but in the meantime, here`s a little flower I knitted last night while watching Midsomer Murders (it was the one with the orchids AGAIN, I mean, why? How many more times?), anyway, here`s the pic:

Earlier yesterday I registered on the Let`s Knit Magazine website, and that`s where I found this 5-petal flower pattern, free to download. It`s supposed to be a brooch but I crocheted a wee brown strap and put the flower on a keyring instead. Actually, this little flower represents my (almost) ultimate crafting dream: a bit of knitting, a bit of crochet, a few stitches with a needle, and in just a couple of hours you`ve created something that`s not only pleasing to the eye but useful as well. What more could you ask for? I know, I know... something to do with CROSS STITCH, for crying out loud! Actually, I`ve been toying with the idea of stitching Da Vinci`s La Scapigliata by my favourite designer, Maria Diaz - maybe I`ll give it a go just so that I could FINALLY put some photos up here of cross stitched stuff... Mind you, my Celtic birds are not finished yet, either... Hmmmm, decisions, decisions - and all the while I have stupid cards to mass-produce, arghhhh!

just call me Miss Organised

I know that it has not much to do with cross stitch AGAIN but the xstitching I`m doing these days is top secret, i.e. I can`t post photos until my Mum hands them over to the recipients (for those who don`t know what I`m talking about - and that includes me - I can leak this info: my Mum`s retiring and she wants to give some farewell present to her colleagues (ALL of them!) and this means I have to stitch 25 identical cards). I`ve been working on these for almost 2 weeks now and have only 10 more to go but if I`m honest, I can barely look at the design now - and it`s my own too! Anyhoo, the past couple of days I made this as a let-me-get-away-from-the-cards project:

"Oh, very nice... but what is it?", I hear you ask. Well, let me unroll it for you:

Ta-dah! It`s a knitting needle and crochet hook holder, based on the chefy-knify-thingy idea - now is that anal or what?

Ellie, the elephant

Finally, after 5 days of on-and-off knitting and sewing up, Ellie is finished! She`s 28 cm (11") tall and I found the pattern among the free craft project ideas on the Woman`s Day website. I have to say, I only made it because I was curious to see if I could, but I don`t think I`ll make a lot more of these big cuddly toys: Pandy and Ellie gave me way too much sewing to do and - believe it or not - I HATE sewing: as opposed to cross stitching, where you create a picture with your sewing, the mere binding of two pieces of fabric together by hours of stitching seems such a waste of time to me; after all, that`s what a sewing machine is for, isn`t it? OK, philosophising is over, here`s the picture: