Ultimate Cross Stitch Fantasy!

Hi all !

 

I am soo excited !

I received my tax returns the other day , and I decided to treat myself to a wonderful up-coming magazine , Ultimate Cross Stitch Fantasy !

 

I pre-ordered it online from England and I just can't wait until I have it in my hands ! I am sure I'll find many new projects to stitch in this beautiful collection ! !

Lately I have really struggled to find enough time to stitch properly . The Lavender Fairy is very slow-going because of all the Kreinik ' bling ' I have to add .

At least I have managed to stitch all the Kreinik on the four top wings , and I am now working on the other four wings . I have also added some Kreinik to her hair and stitched the necklace ( minus the beads ) .

 

After I had finished stitching Joan Elliott's Unicorn for my sister in April , I promised myself that for a good while now I would only stitch for myself and without any deadlines . No stress and no pressure ! ! ! I bet you can guess what happened next . .  ? ? Well , here I am , two months later , and stitching a gift with a deadline . . ! I am so annoyed with myself . . . ha ha ! Still , I hope that it will be an appreciated gift . I will keep the progress secret until it is done , but it has obviously taken up some of my time . The only problem is that I have to order some more threads , so I hope I'll still be able to finish it on time . . .
Why do I do this to myself ? ! ! 

Hope you all have a nice weekend ! Personally, I am going to enjoy a lovely Swedish Royal Wedding on the telly tomorrow !

Annie

The fairy starts to sparkle ! ! !

Hi all!

 

The last couple of days I have been able to put in some stitching time on my Lavender Fairy . Yay !That means lots of Kreinik Very Fine (#4) braid ! I love stitching with it since I find it so easy to handle compared to other metallic threads . I also love, love, love all the sparkly effects : ) )

 

I have stitched the stems of half of the lavender flowers in green Kreinik :

 

As usual the picture does not do justice to the effect of the Kreinik and I tried to take a close-up of the stems to try to capture the lovely sparkle . . . to no avail . . . Oh well , you just have to believe me when I say that it looks gorgeous !

I have also started to add bling to the wings with more Kreinik but in another colour ! This too looks so wonderful ; I really have to focus on carrying on with the stitching instead of just admiring how it all looks : )

I have also started to stitch all the little cute flies that fly around the fairy , but they are very hard to make out at this point in time . They will really start to stand out once I add the beads later on .

 

So this is how Belle looks in full view at this moment :

 

 

I just love adding all the bling to my Belle , but it is a VERY time-consuming business ! ! It feels as if my stitching speed slooows down as I am doing this  , but at least she will look fabulous when she is done ! I just cannot wait to put her up on the wall in my living room ! ! !

Happy Stitching everyone !

Annie

The Joan Elliott world is my oyster!

Hi all!

Since the first moment I saw her cross stitch charts I fell in love with Joan Elliott designs . I loved the details and the colours she used and the subjects - just the overall feel of her designs : ) However , a lot of them felt very much out of my stitching reach since I had never used beads - how scary! - and I found metallics really challenging to stitch with .
However , I challenged myself to use beads for a gift I made last autumn . . .

 



 ...using a Joan Elliott chart . I used slightly larger beads that I had bought cheaply at a craft sale and the process of stitching the beads to the fabric was such an exhilarating experience , and the the whole stitched piece looked sooo good with the added beads that I was truly HOOKED! Then I decided to stitch the beautiful Unicorn by Joan Elliott for my sister's 40th birthday , where I got to use Kreinik braid #4 which was a very nice experience ! I found Kreinik very easy to use compared to DMC Metallics . I also used the small seed beads for the first time , and although they did their best to escape from me , the beading was a lot of fun : )
So , now that I had conquered my big fears as far as JE designs was concerned , it really dawned on me the other day that I CAN in fact stitch ALL of her charts that take my fancy ! WOW ! Of course it would be quite expensive , since I would want lovely ( hand dyed ) fabrics and beautiful beads and Kreinik , but still , I could do it ! And I also realized that I have quite a few of her charts already since I collect cross stitch magazines and have quite a few bookazines with some of her patterns . Of course I had to get out back issues of the magazine that often has her chart , Cross Stitch Collection magazine , and I made a list of the JE designs that really took my fancy !

So here goes:

CSC issue 225

 I love this Fabulous flapper ! Who doesn't love the Charlston Era with all the fun dresses and headpieces etc ? ! And look at that necklace . . . lots and lots of beads : )

CSC issue 229

 I LOVE christmas ( which is why I have a Christmas blog! ) and I love vintry christmas designs ! This Christmas Rose Angel would be perfect christmas gift for someone : ) Those christmas roses are stunning !

CSC issue 204

 I love all the green foilage , poinsetta flowers , and christmas roses that surrounds this Winter Goddess ! The greens and the reds are really beautiful and there are some lovely gold beads and Kreinik braid used as well : ) It is just a very festive design , and the chart that comes with it is very easy to read , which helps a lot !

CSC issue 212

This Sweet Pea Fairy is simply stunning ! However, it is a rather elaborate and large design so I don't think I'll be stitching it yet . I feel I need a little more stitching experience before I tackle it . It is definitely on my to-do list though ! I've always liked Sweet Pea flowers and this design really reflects the beauty of Sweet Peas : )

CSC issue 214

This Dragonfly Fairy is definitely one of the charts I am thinking of doing next : ) I like those muted colour and the easy, breezy feeling of this design ! I would definitely have to find the perfect hand dyed fabric for it though , since the fabric really is in focus on this design .

So those are my stitching dreams/plans for the moment ! I love the fact that I have lots and lots of beautiful , inspiring , beaded projects on my to-do list ! Whatever else life throws at me , I know that I have lots of lovely stitchy moments to look forward to in the future : )

Oh , I mustn't forget to show you my progress on my present JE project !

 

At the moment I'm looking to do some of the backstitch on her skirt so I'm trying to finish all those dress folds . It is now possible to see where some of the beads will be positioned on the dress too : ) The hair is also basically finished and just waiting for the beads and Kreinik decorations . I love the feeling of the hair , the way it just falls freely on her (invisible) shoulders . Yes , I know , I'm dragging my feet on the skin areas . . . just bear with me !

 

Now I bid you all farewell for this time because I'm going to return to stitching my Lavender Fairy by Joan Elliott : )

 

Happy Stitching Everyone!

 

Annie

My secret projects are not so secret anymore!

Hi all!

The last few days have been crazy busy over here! It was my sister's 40th birthday and my mum and I worked hard to make it a great celebration for her , so Friday , Saturday and Sunday were all spent dealing with party business . There was no time for relaxed cross stitching on the sofa , or watching my favorite English murder mysteries such as Midsomer Murders or Lewis . . .

I made a birthday card for my sister . . .

 

 . . . using a cross stitch chart designed by Angela Poole from Cross Stitch Collection issue 200 , and I also made a little brooch/necklace for her using a self-cover button , felt and ribbons .

Finally I could also give my wonderful sister her birthday present that I have been working on for the last couple of months . Knowing that she likes unicorns , I decided to cross stitch Joan Elliott's beautiful design Magical Unicorn for her :

 

This was the first time that I stitched with Kreinik braid #4 and Mill Hill Seed beads and I absolutely loved using these embellisments . The Kreinik was soo easy to stitch with compared to other metallics and sooo sparkly , and the beads were so much fun to attach and made the unicorn look fabulous ! According to the chart I used (which came from The World of Cross Stitching magazine issue 189) the stitching time was 90 hours, but my own stitching time is normally double the time they state in the magazines so with the beading and the Kreinik I estimate that it took me about 200 hours to stitch this beautiful unicorn !

Close ups :

 

 

I made a couple of changes to the design compared to the original chart . I cannot afford the beautiful hand-dyed fabrics so I picked an blue marbled aida instead as an economy alternative , and I decided to use varigated DMC tread for the forest in the background . Both these changes worked out well I think .
Although this was a time consuming project I loved stitching it and I definitely want to stitch a Joan Elliott design with beads and Kreinik again sooon ! In fact , I have the Lavender Fairy in my stash . . . hm . . .

Yesterday I also visited my VERY good friend T who also celebrated her birthday this weekend , and for her I had made a big bag in which she can store some of her stash of knitting yarns : = )

 

I added two stitched decorative cross stitched patches . . .  

. . .using this wonderful little design by Emma Congdon from the Cross Sticher magazine issue 288 . I LOVE this stitching related design and have stitched it several times , although I have had to change the colours since I didn't have the exact thread colours from the original chart .

So . . . now I have to decide if I want to pick up a WIP. . .
or if I should make a new start. . .
or maybe two new starts. . .
or maybe all the above. . . ? ? ?

Such lovely stitching decisions to be made ! ! !

Happy Stitching everyone!

Annie