Large projects...how on earth do you do it?!

Hello Stitching Friends❣

This past week I brought out one of my biggest cross stitch projects ever, VICTORIAN STREET SCENE by Sandy Littlejohns and Deb Lester, from Cross Stitch Collection issues 97-99. 

I should think that this stunning design is over a decade old and I fell in love with it when I saw it being sold as a kit later on in the same magazine. My dad gifted me the money for it as a birthday present and the pattern, threads and the fabric became mine. I think that at the time I had an extraordinary belief in my capabilities 😉😂 and I imagined myself stitching all sorts of projects regardless of the size…!

Before I lost my cross stitch mojo around 2016 I had managed to stitch this much:

And in a little bit more of a close-up...

As you can see I started stitching the fun bits. The colourful dresses…

...and festive trees as well as the structure of the buildings in the background.

Now that I'm back stitching again I immediately thought of bringing out this project and making some more progress. However, when I finally did I actually ended up feeling so deflated😔... How on earth am I going to finish this??!! There are sooo many stitches to be added, and sooo much background and several time-consuming areas with A LOT of different colours😳...It just feels impossible..! I still love the look of the finished picture and can just about imagine the elation I'd feel if I ever finish it, but I just cant imagine the work and the time it'd take me to get there...

Still, I spent two days stitching on the left side of the picture, but it felt like the difference is nearly invisible. I went from this...

...to this…

And the worst part was that I didn't really enjoy myself since it almost felt pointless spending all that time stitching and getting nowhere… or so it felt at least.

So I need your help and encouragement🙏❤! I know that some of you stitch HEADs and other super large projects so how do you find the motivation to stick with it? What are your tricks and tips of the trade and for carrying on?! Right now I am desperate for some assistance since I'm finding it VERY hard imagining myself ever finishing this gorgeous project. And I also realize that THAT would be a shame..!

Meanwhile, I'm going to spend this weekend stitching much smaller projects and adding another start to the Spring into Summer New Start Binge.
Have a lovely stitching weekend!

Annie

Memories of Grandma Mary's stitching!

Hello Everyone!

 

I come from a family of crafters. My maternal grandmother made fur coats and in her spare time she used to knit and cross stitch. As she is now near to her 90s, she can 'only' manage long stitch these days. My late grandpa painted pictures and enjoyed making things. My dad has always been very handy with wood and amongst other things basically built a whole large family boat! As you may already know, my mum also enjoys lots of crafts. She's very good at lace-making, and have throughout the years crocheted numerous granny square blankets and knitted lots of different things. Both my great grandma and grandpa on my mother's side used to cross stitch and made big tapestries:) So, when I think about it, lots of creative talants and inspiration!

 

However, being a cross stitcher myself (as well as a knitter, sewer and crocheter of course) I must say that my paternal grandma Mary's accomplishements are extra-special to me.

 

Grandma Mary and Grandpa Axel

Sadly she is no longer with us, but the memories of her are still vivid in my mind, as is all her crafty accomplishments! Amongst other things, she made the most beautifully knitted jumpers with amazing motives in multiple colours; things I could only dream of knitting. And she cooked yummy sunday dinners with meat from elk/moose:)) But what I mostly remember about her is all her cross stitch projects, and how she used to sit on her old sofa with huge charts on the table in front of her, and a large piece of fabric in her lap:) Looking back it really grieves me that I really never took opportunity to sit with her and learn from her. At the time I was only a teenager who found cross stitch quite boring - it took sooo much time to stitch something! - and I preferred to sew clothes and knit jumpers and crochet doilies.

 

I do remember some things she did when she stitched though. I remember that she used to stitch gridlines so it is thanks to her that I save lots of time using gridlines when I stitch. She also used to mark off her charts as she stitched, but to me it looked messy and I don't do that. Having gridlines always helps me to keep my place on the charts anyway, so I have never felt the need to mark my charts.

 

I actually has one small black and white chart that she used once, and I can see how she has marked off all the squares as she stitched...

 

 

It feels amazing that she has used this chart herself maybe 40 years ago..! I quite like motive too so maybe I'll stitch it myself one day, although grandma has made it a bit difficult for me to see the symbols lol. On the front of the chart are lots and lots of small holes which I assume is from her doing her marking with a very sharp pencil...lol.

 

 

This is a very small chart for being my grandma though! She really liked to stitch huge designs, and the most impressive picture she cross stitched MUST be this HUGE picture of old-time Stockholm...

 

Yes I know the picture is huge, and it deserves to be!

...that now hangs on the wall at my dad's place. Can you imagine the amount of hours she must have spent on it?! Even though she was a fast stitcher, it still must have taken her at least 1000 hours!
Now that I really have gotten into cross stitch myself, and know how much time it takes and how much work goes into it, this project just baffles and amazes me no end! And HOW I wish I now could have had the chance to sit down with her and learn the 'tricks of the trade' from a Master! Just watching her stitch would have been amazing...!

Anyhow, the REAL reason I'm writing this post is because I want to show you a VERY special Christmas gift I received this past Xmas from my sister:)
My sister is another amazing crafter in our family! She does just about anything - except for cross stitch - and in the last couple of years she has learnt how to quilt, and she has made amazing quilts for everyone:) So when I remembered that I had a bag in the cellar filled with 24 cross stitched pictures of national flowers/greenery that grandma Mary stitched over 30 years ago, I asked my sister if she thought she could combine her quilting skills with grandma's cross stitching and create new stunning things like cushions that we could use in our everyday life, instead of the precious cross stitched pictures just being in my cellar year after year.

Luckily my sister though that was an excellent idea and she spent the autumn creating gorgeous cushions out of grandma Mary's cross stitches, and on Christmas Eve I received my very own beautiful cushion! I had the advantage at one stage to choose my favorite flowers out of the many grandma stitched and they looked amazing all together:

Some close-ups...

 

My dad also got a beautiful cushion from my sister (and his mum), and my mum got a small cushion too... 

 

 

 ...from her daughter (and former mother-in-law). My sister also sent cushions to my aunt and my cousin and I am sure we will all treasure our beautiful cushions, and the best of all is that grandma Mary's work is displayed beautifully and enjoyed by us all in our everyday lives!

Lastly I just have to share with you a funny - and a bit sad - story from grandma Mary's last years. She developed Alzheimer as she got older but that didn't stop her from enjoying her crafts to the best of her ability. And that became even more obvious when my mum received all of grandma Mary's craft things after she passed away. You see, amongst Mary's things my mum found about six cross stitched starts of the same picture!!! She must have started on the project, then forgotten that she has started on it, so then she would make a new start on the same project again ... over and over again...! I just don't know whether to laugh or cry about it! Talk about the project that never ends:)) I guess what really matters was that she could enjoy doing what she had always done!

 

Unfortunately it is quite a big project, and not at all my style...otherwise I'd be tempted to finish it just to enjoy the feeling of working on the same project that my grandma started. Maybe in some years' time I'll feel like finishing one of them; we certainly have enough versions to go around LOL.

 

Happy Stitching!

 

Annie

Happy New Year, and Thank YOU!!!

Hello Everyone!

One of the best things for me this year has been starting this cross stitch blog! It has given me sooo much joy and inspiration. I have enjoyed 'meeting' lots of like-minded cross stitch fanatics; I have enjoyed sharing my various cross stitch projects with you and I have been very, very grateful for every wonderful comment I have received! And I have found a very enjoyable way to keep my English language skills resonably alive! Simply a win-win all around! So THANK YOU SOO MUCH for being part of this wonderful experience!

I'm really looking forward to sharing many more projects with you in the new year, and to see what projects you all will choose to stitch in 2016.

So, on to real stitchy matters:) Today I was not able to work on Festive Flurry as much as I would have liked. I had to make rasberry ice-cream for New Year's Eve at my sister's, and I had another project to work on as well. This is as far as I have come now:

I have started to add faint outlines so maybe you can start to see what it is...? I realised that I had to start stitching the background too, since it is much more boring than the colourful buildings in the middle, and I don't want to risk being left with only the boring background and then loose my stitching mojo in the process...! Let's hope my plan works lol:)

Time to show you another Christmas gift I stitched this year. I stitched this picture for my dad, since he loves the sea and boats.

He actually built a large boat that we spend every holiday on when my sister and I were children and he still has the boat that is now over 30 (!) years old. The picture looked like a simple design, and it was, considering the limited amount of colours, but it was much more time-consuming to stitch the big blocks of colours than I imagined! I worked on it up until the evening before he received it and I must have spent around 150-200 hours on it. (I'm not the fastest stitcher around...) The design is from Cross Stitcher issue 292 and the designer is Lucie Heaton. I did change the words into the Swedish version of 'Every day is a gift' instead of the original 'Every day is a new adventure'.

At last I want to wish you all a

 

VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR,

 

and I look forward to catching up with you all in the new year!

 

Annie

My Little X-stitch Nook goes Xmas!

Hello Everyone!

Thank you soo much for your lovely comments on my previous post:=) They really warmed my heart...and made me carry on my happy dance for a bit longer lol! It really is a wonderful feeling when you have managed a finish, and the longer you have been working on it, the better it feels, doesn't it??

Anyway, now that we have reached the month of November, I decided to decorate My Little X-stitch Nook for Xmas:) I am a huge fan of Xmas - as you may have noticed already - and of course my cross stitch blog should reflect that:) I have added some special Xmas designs to the header that mean a great deal to me!

The first design to the left...

...you already know about:) My UFO that I have finished after a decade of hanging around...:)

The second design...

 

...was stitched by my mum and given to me as a Christmas present a couple of years ago. She made one for herself first, and when she noticed that I really loved the design - I adore old-fashioned Santas - she secretly stitched it again for me! Since I really don't like to stitch something over and over again, I really appreciate that mum made the effort to make me another one of the same design. And as a cross stitcher myself - and it was mum that taught me to stitch as a child - I know how many hours go into a project like this one..!

 

The third design...

 

 

...comes from a set of Xmas designs that my dad bought for me soon after I moved home to Sweden. This is one of the first designs I finished after I picked up cross stitching again here in Sweden, and I really, really like the design:) Initially it was a framed in a red frame but last Xmas my youngest furbaby got hold of the picture and destroyed the frame so this Xmas I have put it in a white frame. High above the reach of any doggy teeth... 

 

The forth and final cross stitch picture is the most precious one to me.

 

My mum stitched this a long time ago, and I remember it displayed on the wall every Xmas when I was a child. It really embodied 'Christmas feeling' to me as a child. When I was a teenager, I really wanted to have a copy of this work myself, so mum kindly let me have the chart and I started to stitch it. However, a lot of things happened in my life, and in my parents' life, and somewhere along the way my stitching and the chart went missing and have never been found again. My parents divorced and I moved to England...

Over a decade later I returned home to Sweden and at my first Christmas at home I saw this picture at my mum's again and it filled me with wonderful Xmas feelings and lovely memories of childhood Christmases! Once again I was filled with love for this design and my lovely mum noticed this. So then she did something amazing! She used this stitched design (stitched on 11-count aida) as an actual chart and copied the motive onto 14-count aida so that the next picture ended up a bit smaller. Then she gave me the original stitched piece and kept the new one for helself! When I think of the lenghts she went to to give me this lovely picture...to say that I treasure this picture is an understatement!
It is just a VERY VERY special cross stitch picture and symbolizes true Christmas spirit to me!

Love,

Annie

Stitchy gifts - received and made!

Hi everyone!

 

I have received a wonderful gift by Melanie (http://melaniethewipslayer.blogspot.se/ ) in the post !

It is a lovely little needle minder with a wonderful little Stitchy Bug! It is just soo sweet!

 

 

I also received a beautiful card from Melanie with a lovely Mirabilia design on the front !

 

Thank you sooo much for my lovely gifts , Melanie ! Receiving them really made my day and I'm really looking forward to using my cute little needle minder : )

 

Today I had to finish my gifts for my aunt's 60th birthday .

First up was the little stitched heart . . .

. . . that I have now finished putting together : )

Then I put together a doubled birthday card and it was all going very well . . . until I realised that I had decorated it upside down ! Oh nooo ! There was nothing left to do but to cut it off down the middle and write the greeting on the back of the single card . . . Oh well , it is the thought that counts , right ?

 

I'm not too keen on the finishing process when it comes to my stitching , but once I got going today I felt in the groove and carried on finishing a few more cards for future family birthdays : )

When I make cross stitch cards I like to decorate them in a simple way - or not at all - so the stitching can be the focus of the card .
 

 

This is a Durene Jones-design that I stitched a long time ago (I don't remember from which magazine either) . . .

 

. . .  so it felt really good to finally turn it into a actual card that I can use : )

 

Finally I finished putting together this little sweet picture . . .

I am not sure where this one will end up in the end , but for now I am VERY happy to be able to put it in my 'Finished Projects' box !

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Annie

Second framed picture in two days!

Hi!

Since I'm on a roll now I decided to frame my Spring Window too today . Whilst I stitched the Summer Window last summer , this Spring Window was a WIP for many years . . .

 I fell in love with the spring flowers on this design but this was way before I really got into cross stitching so it remained a slow-moving WIP for many years . However , last year I decided to get it out and finish it and by then I had cross stitched a lot so it didn't take me long at all to complete the picture . Then , of course , it stayed in a box for another year until today! So , you see , this finish has been a long time coming . . . : = )
Now I finally have these two pictures up on my wall and it feels pretty darn good!!!

 

Happy Stitching everyone!

 

Annie

A Summer Window on my wall - YAY!

Hi!

Today I've been working on different finishes for my secret projects . While I LOVE the actual cross stitch process , I DREAD the bit where I have to turn the cross stitching into something 'real' . I cannot afford having my pieces framed professionally so I have to frame them myself . . . I cannot afford buying expensive frames so it is always a struggle to find a matching frame in the appropriate size that is also cheap . . . It is just a big hassle! Furthermore , despite having sewn my own clothes in the past I still question my ability to sew pretty things incorporating my cross stiched pieces . . . I have a very complicated relationship with my sewing machine to say the least , so every time I have to use it is a big mental struggle for me. . .

The really good thing about today though is that I actually managed to frame a piece of mine that I stitched last summer! YAY! I just couldn't face the washing , and ironing and framing part of it all , but today I got it done! I used a really cheap and colourful frame from IKEA, and this is what the back of the frame looked like when I was done . . .

Luckily you cannot see the back once the picture is on the wall . . . haha! And this is what my picture looked like from the front when I had finished the framing . . .

It's a bit uneven and slightly wonky but considering how little it cost me to do , I'm quite happy to put up with a couple of imperfections in the finishing touches . . . It still looks good I think .
This 'Summer Window' design comes from a Cross Stitcher magazine issue that is more than ten years old , and it is part of a series of four seasonal windows . I have stitched the spring window too and hope to have that framed soon as well.

I decided to use satin thread for the white flowers to make sure that they stood out and didn't just fade into the white aida fabric and I  think it worked out very well : )
It's a wonderfully satisfying feeling to be able to put your own stitched picture on the wall . . .even if it took me a year to get it done . . .!

Happy stitching everyone!

Annie

My cross stitch header!

My clever sister (who you can find here ) helped me to create my gorgeous blog header .
And I just love it ! My stitching looks even better then it does in real life !

Let me tell you about my favorite cross stitch projects and what they mean to me ...

This gorgeus poenix is by Joan Elliott from one of her cross stitch books . This was one of my first larger projects that I stitched , and one of the first times I stitched with metallics and varigated threads . I just LOVE the colours and how it came out in the end - although there was A LOT of backstitching...

 

This tulip design is from The World of Cross Stitching and was the design that got me back into cross stitching once I came home to Sweden . I saw it on the front of an English cross stitch magazine in a  Swedish newsagent , fell in love with it and just had to stitch it! And that was it ; I was hooked again !

 

This tiger is my favorite completed cross stitch picture so far ! It is soo stunning ! The pattern is from Cross Stitch Collection and was a joy to stitch . I would like to stich more wild animals in the future , especially when they look as realistic as this one ...

 

 

Finally, as a dog lover this picture was a perfect project for me ! It's a Joan Elliott design from Cross Stitch Gold . I decided to change the saying from ' A House Is Not A Home Without a Dog !' to 'A Flat Is Not A Home Without a Dog ' since it was more fitting to my own life :) Now it hangs in pride of place on the wall of my living room !

 

Happy Stitching ,

 

Annie