George, the handsome hippo

Do you remember Gloria, my glorious diva of a hippo? Well, I put her up for sale in my Etsy shop, and a couple of weeks ago someone saw her and - as expected - fell in love with her. Only problem was that this lady wanted a boy version for her (yet) unborn nephew, and preferably in grey. So I slightly amended the original Alan Dart pattern and came up with this:

I think he`s just as gorgeous as his big sister - pity the lady who`d ordered him never contacted me since! I hope she still wants him... then again, I wouldn`t mind keeping him at all! I`ll keep y`all posted.

Elsewhere, in my little dreamworld of freedom (=I haven`t had any commissioned stitching for over a week now), I stitched this freebie from the latest Crazy and made it up for my MIL for Mothers` Day - I hope she`ll like it, I wanted something cheerful (she had a heart operation a few weeks ago and she`s still not 100% but she`s getting there). So here are some colourful birds to cheer her up:

And as there`s still no sign of any model stitching in the pipeline for the noo, you won`t believe what I`ve unearthed from the bowels of my cupboard: La Scapigliata! Yes, I started working on it last night and I hope to finish it before the next commission arrives - again, I`ll keep y`all posted of my progress. Happy stitching!

Cross Stitch Gold 109

I might as well come clean: I have no idea how it`s already the middle of February. All I remember is, it was Christmas, my parents were here, then they flew back to Hungary on 12 January and I started to work like crazy on my latest commission for Collection (a massive, 180x180 picture by Maria Diaz with stunning detail, partly thanks to the miles of backstitch and 320 French knots, eek!), for which my deadline was 3 February. Eventually, I was a few days late with this one, due to a cold `epidemic` that swept through the whole family (Gregory brought some bug home from school and I got it from him, then DH from us), so in my capacity as a patient-and-nurse, I lost a week or so of precious stitchy time. Luckily, I managed to more or less make up for it by stitching solid 10 hours per day for the past couple of weeks. Now I`m working on a Durene Jones gorgeousness for Gold - and this reminded me that the current issue of Gold has my bunny wabbit in it so here I am to share.

Another confession: I didn`t take progress piccies for this piece, only one photo of the finished piece, front and back. Now before you accuse me of `stitchers` snobbery`, I couldn`t care less what the back of anybody`s work looks like - I know it`s a hotly debated topic in many stitchy circles but I, personally, don`t care how others work, I just try to make mine as mess-free as possible (couldn`t do it any other way with my slight OCD, lol). Anyway, thanks to Amanda Gregory`s clever design, it was almost impossible to make a mess of this rabbit`s back (until I started the backstitch, that is), and I liked the mirror-effect so much I took a photo of it.

   

It`s such a cute little bunny, isn`t it? I stitched it just before the run-up to Christmas, around the time when the shops started to put their festive CDs on, together with their fake-tree decorations, and in the middle of all this, I was stitching for Easter. Never mind, in return I`ll be working on Santas and snowmen in June.

Talking about Christmas, I did some knitting while my parents were here - remember that big entrelac rectangle? My Mum claimed it for herself, and despite all my efforts to persuade her that I can`t turn a rectangle into a garment with arm and neck holes, she insisted that it`d make an excellent vest (=sleeveless jumper) for her. So with plain blue, I knitted a back for it, i.e. another rectangle, then started to sew up the two halves but got so frustrated that we packed up the whole thing into her suitcase, in the firm belief that if anybody can turn this into something wearable, it`s my Gran.

And for her, my Granny, I knitted a Fair Isle tam, similar in colours to the one that`s been her favourite for these past 15-20 years, and which hat is about to leave her after this rather lengthy partnership. Here are some pictures of my colour combo, a variation on this pattern, proudly donned by my lovely Gran who, you won`t believe this, is 80 years old - she hasn`t changed in looks for the past 20 years and no, it`s not just because she`s `always wearing the same hat`, lol! I hope to be as wrinkle-free as she is when I`m 50, let alone 80!

Cross Stitch Card Shop 94

This will be such a flying visit that if you blink, you`ll miss me. I`m in the middle of another Maria Diaz design, a huge Paris scene (cca. 13x13", about 33000 stitches, tons of backstitch and 320 French knots), plus 6 Lesley Teare cards - all to be finished within the next 10 days so I`m stitching from dawn till dusk, with only the occasional tea break (on the upside, though, I`ve lost some of the Christmas blubber, yay!).

Anyhoo, as I`m slurping my tea just now, I thought I`d share some (rather creased!) piccies of the Mothers` Day cards that appear in this month`s (?) Card Shop - I haven`t seen the actual magazine yet but I know it`s in the shops... I think...?

*stares into middle distance with a confused expression, having no idea which day of the week this is supposed to be, then shrugs and, without even noticing, picks up needle to continue with the cobble stones*

Cross Stitch Collection 232

Apparently, publications are like buses too. This week another magazine is in the shops with my stuff in it; this is the project I`d been working on when I said I was stitching something so stunning, it`d take your breath away when you saw it. Well, unfortunately, I don`t think that`s likely to happen any more - not if you see it in the magazine where, in my humble opinion, it`s been treated rather poorly (it, or its designer, is not even listed among the tags of this issue if you go and check The Making Spot). I think the same thing`s happened as with my glorious pink cushion that ended up looking more like a pincushion in the magazine photos: the props, the angles, even the distance don`t seem to enhance the stitching and while I can understand the attempt at turning it into a tapestry, in keeping with the theme (it is a castle, after all), but I`m afraid they didn`t pull it off. Actually, `pull it off` probably popped in my head because it looks more like a bell pull, or maybe a very ornate tie that somebody left lying on an old briefcase.

***Added on 20 February, for comparison: here`s the original photo the magazine`s photographer took, before the captions were added; on this, the stitching looks a bit bigger and more impressive:

Courtesy of The Making Spot

Back to the original post :) ***
You wouldn`t tell it was an A4-size picture, would you? And yet, it`s a 30x20 cm piece of wall-to-wall stitching. Luckily, I have my progress pictures that will probably (hopefully!) give you a better idea of the detail that Maria Diaz put into this design. So here we go:

4 hours

12 hours

21 hours

31 hours

38 hours

47 hours

And, finally, after 70 hours (photographed on a cushion, hence the lumpiness,
but I didn`t have the heart to put it on the floor!)

Cross Stitch Gold 108

Before I forget: Happy New Year, everyone! It`s been so long since I last posted, we`ve started another year since then! Hope you all had a lovely holiday season.

During the past few hectic weeks I didn`t have the time to write, nor do I know exactly when this came out, although I should - after all, it`s made me a cover girl!! Yep, my LOVE cushion is on the cover of this issue - yay! My progress piccies for this one are more like `one letter at the time` and I didn`t even bother with the L; the sequence was perfect for me as I like to work from hardest bit to easiest, from biggest towards the smallest, and in this case that meant E - O - V, and, finally, L, being the smallest and least difficult of the four. This also meant that I could stitch from right to left, which was a bonus: since I hold the fabric in my left hand while stitching with my right, this way I didn`t have to crumple already stitched fabby for too long, which makes the ironing a doddle. So, without further ado, here are the pictures:

the perfect sunset by Maria Diaz in Cross Stitch Collection 231

Uncharacteristically, for this picture in the latest issue of Collection I do not have too many progress piccies - only one, to be precise. However, I do have an interesting (?) story to go with it.

Have you ever wondered what happens if a model stitcher finds out halfway through a project that she can`t finish it before the deadline? I`m not thinking about running out of time and asking the editor for a few extra days, but rather of something serious that will prevent the stitcher from finishing a work completely. The latter happened to the stitcher who started working on this (I don`t know her, not even her name, all I know is that she had to go to hospital for some reason) and she couldn`t finish this landscape. So this is how I got the project - the first time ever I had to continue a work that someone else had started and I quite enjoyed the experience (mostly, because she did such a neat job that almost put mine to shame, lol!). I hope that whoever she is, she`s feeling better now and if she picks up this issue, she`ll like the fruit of our joint effort.

crocheted Despicable Me minion

I`m happy to report that in between stitching tasks, I managed to finish a crochet project as well in the past couple of weeks: I`ve made a strange hybrid of a minion, a weird cross between utter cuteness (with his goggles on) and a possessed jelly bean (without his accessories). You`ll see in a minute what I mean but first let me give credit to the designer of the pattern, which I found here. Truth be told, though, it was only a starting point for me - as always with crochet -, because I`m so hopeless at it: as I don`t see clearly what`s a chain and what`s not, I keep miscounting (even with a stitch marker!), plus I used different yarns from hers with different sized hooks... so as usual with my crochet attempts, this one belongs to the `Played By Ear` category too. And while the jury is still out on whether it was worth all the effort (although Gregory usually loves and appreciates everything I make, but maybe in this instance he would`ve been happier with the battery-operated model that makes all those cute sounds...?), but the main thing is that I finished something that I set out to do, and now I can`t wait to see his little face when he opens it at Christmas! :)

Mr. Cute! :) I deviated from the pattern (again!) and put wires in his arms
so they`re bendy. Unfortunately, I was concentrating on this so hard
that I didn`t pay attention and sew the fingers on the same way on both hands,
so now he has a thumb on the one and a pinky on the other, lol!

Alternative mouth, with slightly big and scary teeth. In the end,
I decided against it and sew a plain line for a smile :)

And without all his accessories... Unfortunately, his legs come off with his trousers,
and without the goggles he has this slightly demented look in his eyes
(I didn`t have brown felt so I ended up crocheting the eyes as well,
hence the fish-like, lifeless stare... oooh, quick, put those goggles back on!)

Kate Knight cushion in The World of Cross Stitching 211

The latest issue of WOCS contains one of my works, the one I simply nicknamed `orange tree` - it might be the Tree of Life for all I know, I just went for the most obvious (it is stitched on a gorgeous, tangerine coloured fabric, maybe Lugana, as far as I remember, but I might be wrong there). As usual, this has been a while, too - actually, it kinda seemed to go on forever: not only because it wasn`t what you`d typically call a stitcher-friendly project (out of the 86 hours it took, I spent over forty just doing the backstitch, and most of this you won`t even notice, e.g. the fiddly individual petals on the 70-odd blue flowers and green leaves around the frame), but also because I started it before my 3-or-4-week summer holiday and finished it after we came back, so it seemed that I`d worked on it for months. :)

I have quite a few progress photos for this project but I`d like to apologise in advance for the quality of some of these. I must have taken them in the evenings, under a reading lamp, or maybe behind drawn curtains - I remember it was very hot when I was stitching this, so I frequently had to darken the room just so that it wouldn`t feel like an oven. Anyway, here they are:

Every journey begins with the first step: a tentative start on Day 1
(photo DEFINITELY taken in sunlight streaming in through window)

Still at the stage of figuring out the best way to go about this design :)

And the solution: stitch dark outlines of flowers as reference points
(plus all 3 shades of green for leaves, so no need to come back later)

Backstitch defining not only flowers and tree but wee birdies as well :)

The above-mentioned fiddly backstitch: one shade darker blue for the petals
and 2 different shades of green for the tiny leaves

And, finally, the finished product - gorgeous, even if I say so myself :)

snowdrop fairy

Cross Stitch Gold 107 is out today and in it you can see the snowdrop fairy, designed by Durene Jones, that I stitched a few months ago. And if you check the `coming up in next month`s issue` section, there`s the LOVE cushion, also designed by Durene, that was also stitched by yours truly. Moreover, if you look closely at the Framing Tips section, you can see (and might remember) the Indian designs I stitched ages ago - these were, surprisingly, designed by Durene Jones as well.

So, in other words, this issue is full of my stuff - Gregory, bless him, asked me when I showed him the pictures if this meant that his mum was famous now but I had to disappoint him. I guess it`s pretty hard for an 8-year-old to understand that even if my name actually appeared under my work, that still wouldn`t mean instant world fame... I just hope he won`t send me on the X Factor or a similar show just so that he can brag about me at school! :)

I am stitching some cards at the moment and I thoroughly enjoy the respite of smaller projects between the larger ones - they`re ideal for this time of year, at least I can do my Christmas shopping and concentrate on some handmade presents (pictures of which I can`t share just now, for obvious reasons). Instead, I`ll show you a collection of photos I found on the Internet, while looking for something completely different. It`s a sort of montage of Christmas trees - enjoy!

I bet Hubby wouldn`t mind a tree like this ;)

This is what would happen if we had a cat :)

My ideal space-saver Christmas tree!

Whereas Gregory would probably want something THIS size...

And what we`ll probably end up with... :)

Gregory`s gloves

Boy, am I on fire - second post today! It is quite a surprise to me as well, I never expected to finish my second project in one day, especially as I`ve never knitted gloves before! :) /I found the pattern here/.

Yesterday morning the Wee Man complained that his hands were cold and that was all his doting mother needed: within 36 hours, here`s the first pair of (probably, many?) mittens to keep those cute wee fingers toasty. And, you won`t believe this, but he actually likes them! Mostly because he can give the thumbs up in them...

Oh, dear, another `flashy` photo... anyway, they`re supposed to be blue.
I think the 10-row thumbs could`ve been just 8 rows but hey,
at least the child can grow into them, right?
(Provided he only grows his thumbs and not the rest of his hands...)

cross stitch clock - finished!

It`s been a while since I found this clock in a charity shop (for £2.99, if my memory serves me right), so I don`t blame you if you can`t remember it. Here`s a close-up picture of the cover to remind you:

Please note the nice and airy foliage and that greyish streak that looks like a bubbling brook sprouting from the wall of the cottage (weird or what?). Alas, if I could only have followed this computer-generated image on a blank (plastic) canvas! But no, unfortunately, the pattern was printed on the white plastic with some icky brown paint that could probably only be removed by an atomic blast (I tried to scratch it off with my nails and other various implements, to no avail). 

So, as a consequence, I spent twice as much time and thread trying to cover these brown lines, and (after taking a Double Strength `Soditol`), I ended up making the pattern up as I went along. But the main thing is that it`s finished and I know my mummy-in-law will love it - now there`s only one question left: does the clock mechanism that came with the kit actually work? Maybe I should`ve checked before I started stitching...?

hubby`s hat - finished!

Since my last post I have finished and posted two commission stitches, so I thought I`d celebrate with a little knitting before I start the next one (on which my deadline is the FOURTH OF DECEMBER - I mean, c`mon, what would you do? Of course you`d knit too!). Anyway, I just finished it this afternoon - hours ago, actually, but the Wee Man`s been hogging my laptop with his Jurassic Park game - and I`m happy to report that DH loves it (i.e. the hat, not the Jurassic Park game) so much that I had to literally tear it off of him before dinner, otherwise he`d have worn it at the table too (shocking, I know). So here it is - nothing spectacular but `just the one he wanted`. Apologies for the poor photo, but for obvious wintry reasons I had to use the flash and thus the hat looks almost navy blue, whereas the yarn is, in fact, closer to dark indigo. And now onto my next project, the cross stitch clock I started over a year ago for MIL - happy stitching, everyone!

the fabled green hat

And here it is! The green hat I always wanted! (For `always` please read `for the past 3 or 4 weeks, ever since I first saw the pattern`). And if I`m absolutely honest, it`s not even like my dream hat because the yarn turned out to be stripy rather than speckled but it doesn`t matter, the main thing is that Teacosy #2 is finished and it IS really cosy, as I verified it this morning when I gave it a trial run whilst wandering around town, Christmas shopping. It was really frosty first thing so I was glad I had my new hat on, but by the time I was coming home, carrying 5 big bags, I didn`t need it (nor the scarf, the jacket, the big woolly jumper, etc.). I think I managed to grab the true meaning of Christmas this year again: I bought myself some sweeties, 5 pairs of socks, a giant mug for my green tea, 4 balls of wool... Just kidding! Some of that wool is for DH who, seeing my new hat last night, looked at me with puppy eyes and declared that he has never, ever, EVER had a hat that was knitted just for him... So guess what I`m doing tonight? And, of course, the other 4 bags were full of prezzies for others so I`m not as naughty as that (in case Santa reads this...?). Now I`m off to wrap and hide them before the Wee Man comes home from school, then try to stay in the Christmas mood with a nice cup of tea in my brand new big mug and carrying on with my stitching - of an Easter bunny!

DALD sampler finished!

*sigh* (That was a huge sigh of relief). Even though I loved every minute of stitching this sampler, I`m also glad in a way that after 4 long months of looking at it, it`s finally on its way to the (hopefully!) happy owner - a lovely 84-year-old lady who commissioned this for her granddaughter`s wedding. /I also hope that the granddaughter will like it too, lol!/

Since this was my pet project in between magazine works, I revelled in the luxury of not having to keep track of any detail, therefore I don`t know how many hours it took, only that I spent a total of about 2 weeks out of 4 months stitching this. And here is the end result:

 Apologies for the worse-than-usual photo but I finished it last night and couldn`t wait to take a pic - it would`ve been pointless to wait for the bright daylight anyway, it`s been so doom and gloom here lately. So the colours are not as vibrant as they should be... maybe a couple of close-ups will help:

Well, these don`t really do justice to the colours either, but at least I can illustrate what I enjoyed most about working with 2 strands on 18 HPI aida (tbh, this was the ONLY thing I enjoyed about stitching on such a high count fabric): the fact that every single cross sits there like a tiny little pearl. I think they`re awesome!