festive mice, adventures in cross stitch and returned projects

The latest issue (312) of The World of Cross Stitching is in the UK shops and the freebie this month is a set of 12 gift tags with Lucie Heaton`s Christmas mice on them:

Issue 17 of XStitch Mag is also available now as a digital download (here). It`s called Adventure and I have 3 pieces in this issue - the first one designed by the man himself, founder of the magazine, Mr. XStitch:

Then there`s a trademark modern take on floral samplers by Peacock & Fig:

And, finally, here`s the ultimate adventure - reading - summed up in a pic by SewModStitches. On the one hand, it`s just a book, lying in front of you, but as soon as you open it, there are entire galaxies in there for you to find. 🤩

In other news, I`m stitching like a woman possessed (I have about a month to wade through 20-odd projects) but I got a lovely boost the other day: some of my old projects that WOXS had finished with found their way back to me and I couldn`t be more chuffed - remember this 1920s house by Maria Diaz? I love everything about it, the house, the car, the couple`s clothes, the colours - can`t wait to see it framed on the wall! 😍 I`m also very pleased with the St. Ives harbour scene and the cards as well, this package was like an early Christmas present from postie. 😃 Hope you`re all keeping well, happy stitching! 😊

Klimt and robins

Two remarkable things have happened recently in my life: I`ve been awarded British citizenship and, after not being able to meet up in person for 18 months, my mum was here with us when I was notified, so it was even better that we could celebrate together. 😊

Also, having been nowhere for about a year, except for mini walks to the post office or the local shops, it was extra special to go on a proper road trip with DH, DS and my mum. We decided on a westerly loop and spent one day/night in Oban, then went to the Isle of Skye to see the Fairy Pools, and finally came back to Fife via Blairgowrie to see the famous beech hedges there (see pic/info here).

We also had a lovely lunch and wander around in Blairgowrie, where in one of the charity shops I discovered a Klimt frame for a mere £2.50 - if the kind person who donated it reads this: thank you for the perfect keepsake that`ll always remind me of this glorious time in July 2021! 😊

Since the frame already had The Embrace on it, I thought The Kiss would be a fitting companion, so I went on to Etsy and purchased the chart (from here) that`s small enough to fit this 10x15 cm frame. I wanted it to fill the aperture as closely as possible, so I did a little number crunching and decided that 4 over 2 on 18ct aida would give me the result I was after. I knew there`d be a gap on the top but I didn`t want too much of the stitching to disappear under the embracing couple, so I copied the artist`s signature on graph paper and added that in the blank space on the top. All in all, I`m very pleased with the end result and as I said, it`ll always remind me of this great Summer. 😊

In other news, the latest issue of The World of Cross Stitching is in the shops now, with the cute little Christmas robins card by Emma Congdon as the freebie. I`ll be honest: when I saw it last month at the back of issue 310, it looked familiar and I could have sworn I`d stitched it but since I couldn`t find a photo of it anywhere in my folder, I concluded I must be bonkers. So in a way, it was a lovely surprise (and confirmation of my sanity 🤪) when I saw my name under Stitched by - and as luck would have it, the very next day I came across my photo of it too (it was saved in my Crazy folder as originally it was for that magazine 🙄🥴🤦‍♀️). Anyway, hope you like them and thanks for visiting my blog - happy stitching! 😊

recent(ish) publications

I have loads of pics to add so I`ll keep the blabla to a minimum (if I started to detail the events of the past X weeks since my last post, we`d never get to `the good bit`) 😉

I`ve got a couple of cover kits to show you, one`s Durene Jones`s home-sweet-home hoop from WOXS 309 and the other is from issue 310, a sweet little time-for-tea card from the artwork of Lynn Horrabin that`s been converted into a chart by Fiona Baker.

In issue 310 of The World of Cross Stitching, there are also 4 Keep Calm designs by Siobhan Harrison from April Rose.

I got these lovely pastel fabrics to work on - hehe, the pink one was so pastel the design hardly showed up on it 😂, so the stitching hand was reworked on grey by one of my favourite colleagues, all-round good person and fabulous model stitcher Karen Purnell.

There have been a few new issues of the Disney Magazine too that had some of my stitching... well, they all do, technically, because of the step-by-step tutorials of each character of the 4 main samplers, but I mean "extra" pieces like this Mickey bunting, or the baby cube, and this Winnie and friends picture from issue 44 - but I`ll add a step-by-step first so you know what I was on about above 😉

And if you think this 👆 was cuteness overload, wait until you see Pugasaurus from issue 16 of XStitch Magazine! 😁 Designed by Sweet Annet, this pooch in a dino costume is one of my faves from the Cute issue. Hope you like him and all the rest too, thanks for scrolling all the way down here and happy stitching! 😊

The World of Cross Stitching 307, 308 and Disney 32

Today is one of those semi-free days when I posted a project this morning and I`m yet to start the next one (no matter how reproachfully it`s staring at me right now), so I thought I`d update this blog before Blogger revokes my card. 😉😆

Plus the sun`s just come out and since it only happens once every 3-4 days, and even then only for half an hour, I quickly grabbed my camera to take a couple of pics of the freebies that came with this and last month`s WOXS magazines (I forgot to post last month, ooops!😧), so here they are, in chronological order:

This Ed Hedgehog illustration from Country Companions was converted into a cross stitch chart by the talented Fiona Baker, and I love the finished card:

Fiona also designed one of the two freebies that come with issue 308 this month: these 8 gift tags will cover you for pretty much every occasion that might crop up 😉

And the 4 wee cards that are more summery than the weather atm were designed by Durene Jones and have instantly shot to the top of my list... because puffin 🤷‍♀️😍😍😍

How cute are these? I`ll either make a fob with the puffin and the VW camper, or find another 2 small-but-summery designs and maybe make a cube, but also on a keychain so I could hook it on my bag...? We`ll see. Planning (daydreaming?) is the easy part. Finding the time? Meh...

In other news, there`s been an issue of the Disney magazine recently that had one of my stitchings in it, a pillow trim with characters from The Good Dinosaur, also designed by Durene Jones. Hope you like it, and happy stitching! 😊

WOXS 306 and more Disney

The latest issue of The World of Cross Stitching is in the shops this week and beside the cute little fox freebie, there`s also the lovely bees hoop that I stitched - are you ready for this? - at the end of 2019! 😮

The cover gift, Lee Holland`s adorable fox comes with a pretty pastel card, and the hoop with the bees - designed by Durene Jones - is not only folksy but has such a great, summery feeling to it - I love the cheerful colours on both! 😊

There are also new issues out, or about to be published by Hachette Partworks, and since the covers of the magazines coming out in the next few weeks can already be seen on their website, I thought I`d add them here in a bunch. For issue 28, I stitched this gorgeous pic (have I mentioned blue is my favourite colour?) of Mickey and Pluto in a hot air balloon, and their bestie, Goofy is featured on a stationery set in issue 29.

The publisher also surprised their premium subscribers with a special Spring edition, full of Disney charts, so here are my Mickey & Minnie Valentine`s card, a cute hoop with Woody and Little Bo-Peep from Toy Story, and a sweet Minnie Mouse design that`s been turned into a cushion. Have a great Easter and Spring holiday, people, and happy stitching! 😊