hot chocolate recipe

Issue 341 of Cross Stitcher is out this week and I was chuffed to see my hot choc recipe on the cover:

This chalkboard design by Emma Congdon took 24 hours to stitch and I enjoyed every minute of it. Not only because I`m one of those weird people who actually like stitching on dark fabrics (when they`re called for), but also because it grew so amazingly quickly, thanks to 80% of it being lettering. And the XS bits were fun too, I loved working on the cup, I thought those warm cappuccino, caramel, hazelnut and other-yummy-stuff brown shades blended so well to create a realistic looking hug-in-a-mug. I don`t have too many photos for this project but I thought I`d string them together in a mini film (I haven`t done that for ages). Hope you like it, 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! 😊

flowery bookmark and Sleepy Guy

Things have piled up a bit lately, so I`m not sure what mags came out when, I just know what looks familiar and this Cheryl McKinnon bookmark from Crazy 252 is def mine - ooh, just spotted the felt flowers that were added to it, how lovely! 😊 I have my BEFORE pic and this month I got a copy of this beautiful pro photo too of the AFTER from the magazine:

Also, in my last post, when I showed you Peacock&Fig`s mermaids from issue 6 of XStitch Magazine, I forgot to add another model I stitched for this Mixtape issue - a collaboration of Lucie Heaton and her son, who created the original graffiti that Lucie then translated into cross stitch. It was great fun to stitch, I loved working on the bright yellow aida and every time I looked at Sleepy Guy, I pictured an overworked Elvis impersonator and had a huge smile on my face (plus, hello, blocky stitching - yes, please!). Happy stitching, folks!

swans and mermaids

Happy New Year! 😊 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. 😉

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! 😊

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. 😊

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! 😉). 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. 😂 Happy stitching, peeps, and Merry Christmas! 😊

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?!?* 😮😁🤗

*Answer: 1 in 800 😉

festive animals and calendar girls - Cross Stitcher 339

The latest issue of Cross Stitcher is in the UK shops now and I have loooooads of pictures for this one... of the not-well-lit-but-informative (perhaps) kind.

First up, the festive animal hoops designed by Durene Jones. I loved working on these, not just because of the Christmas theme but also because I was reading a book at the time in which there was a family tradition of picking out the tree together and it was mostly the father`s thing but after he suddenly died, the family kept on doing it every year in his memory. So one minute I was going Awwwww! while stitching the dogs, and then I started on the cats and giggled every time I looked at them because I pictured my husband with the Christmas lights, doing The Detangling (another annual tradition, I`m sure, in many households).

I love stitching pieces that evoke such feelings and I also have a couple of photos for these hoops to show what a difference adding the backstitch made - I was in a stitching frenzy at the time, so I forgot to stop and take a pic for the first one, but I remembered (just!) when I started the BS on the cats and by the time I got to the fox, I was fully cognisant and stopped after I finished the XS to take a photo (let`s focus on this fact and not the quality, shall we?). So here they are:

With this same issue of Cross Stitcher, readers (of paper copies, I`m afraid, not digital) get a CD-case type calendar, designed by Maria Diaz. I stitched 4 of the 12 wee calendar girls and they were great fun to work on - you know that "same, but different" feeling? The same little girl every month was just familiar enough to make it quicker to stitch e.g. her hair but not enough to get boring and "same old, same old" because she wears/does something different each month. And on top of that, I got May, June, July and August - what`s not to like? 😉 It was a nice wee breather among all those Christmas projects. Happy stitching!

Double Dog and Fizzy Moon

I almost forgot to post about Double Dog! 😲😱😂

This cute little pup, designed by Makiko, is the free gift with the latest issue of Cross Stitch Crazy (250). As far as I know, he has no name - only I call him Double Dog, because I got to stitch him twice, once in May and once in July. Yep, some of the Christmas stuff gets prepared that much in advance (so no wonder the odd pup goes walkies occasionally). 😉 But the main thing is that he and his little robin friend reappeared for showtime:

And still on the subject of Christmas cards: last weekend I did some private stitching (IKR? 😱) and finished this Fizzy Moon for my mom-in-law. Hubby chose it from my stash (clearly, a man who has no idea of what backstitch is), but it got done and after my freshly ordered super-sticky double sided tapes arrived, I even made up the card so am well pleased with my effort - hope she`ll like it too! 😊

polar bear and printer`s tray

OK, if I don`t post tonight, I might never do (I know I`ll be snowed under for the next week or two). #accidentalpoem

Last week, issue 275 of The World of Cross Stitching came out and the free gift with the magazine is this cute little polar bear cub, designed by Angela Poole:

Isn`t he a sweetie pie? 😍 I stitched him around the same time as that two-sided snowman bauble, i.e. still during The Great Metallic Shortage, so the sparkly snowflakes were added later, and I love how they appear in the clever aperture card:

And today the latest issue of Cross Stitcher (338) hit the UK shops, with my printer`s tray on the cover:

This folksy project was designed by Faye Walsh from Little Dove Designs and I had great fun with it. As you can see, I got one big piece of aida to stitch it on, which was then later cut to size and fitted in the tray`s compartments. I always enjoy simple designs with hardly any backstitch between two fiddly, labour intensive pieces, and this printer`s tray project with its bright, cheerful colours was a breath of fresh air. I took close-ups of the individual patterns, hope you like them, happy stitching! 😊