Birthday gifts and new seasonal designs

 Hello Stitching Friends!

It was my sister's birthday in the middle of April, and since she and my brother-in-law have become caravan lovers in the last few years I decided to stich her something with that theme. Instead of making a birthday card, I stitched a little hanging ornament for her which I decorated with matching beads. The words on it says something like 'Home is good but caravan is better'.

Sadly I have lost the chart details for this little caravan. I used threads from my stash.

My main gift was a stitched picture of a couple relaxing in front of their caravan and it wasn't difficult imagining it being my sister and brother-in-law.

This is a kit from the Danish company Permin.

To personalize it I decided to try to match the look of the caravan in the picture with their own caravan, so I changed the original green stipes on the caravan to reddish stripes. 

I think it turned out quite well. And thank goodness for that because it was a MUCH more challenging stitch than I thought. Lots and lots of colour changes and lots and lots of backstitch and areas with cross stitches in just one thread. I really had to push myself to get it finished...but I'm glad I did.

So, having struggled with that project for quite a while, I was so happy when it was finished that I just HAD to start some new fun projects! You understand, don't you?😉

Having access to an online magazine site, I found this cute little Christmas SAL in Cross Stitcher magazine.

A  three part Christmas SAL designed by Susan Penny.
 Published in Cross Stitcher magazine, issues October/November/December 2019.
 

The finishing details were really simple and I love Christmas projects so I thought 'why not?' 

And then I found a REALLY cute little calendar project in the Januari 2021 issue of Cross Stitcher magazine. The colourful but simple seasonal motives by Cheryl McKinnon are really cute, and I decided to put them all together and turn them into a big sampler. 

I'm taking my time with this one, enjoying the slow process, stitching a little here and there whenever I feel like it. I have yet to start the November and December months as you can see. I'm constantly amazed at how Cheryl McKinnon can create such cute little details with just a few stitches! Like the two little sheep in the top right corner; so simple but so perfect😍👌. 

I have also learnt a new stitch from Youtube; the clever pin stitch🙌. I tried it on a single black cross stitch as seen below...

...and it worked pretty well I must say. I need to invest in a better pair of scissors though, to be able to cut the thread REALLY close to the fabric. But I will definitely use the pin stitch again, that's for sure. 

But the project I have spent the most time on lately are these gorgeous four seasonal trees designed by Cheryl McKinnon. As you can tell, she's quickly becoming my favorite designer at this point in my life.

Seasonal Trees by Cheryl McKinnon.
Published in Cross Stitch Crazy issue 260

As soon as I saw these colourful seasonal trees I fell in love. All those seasonal motifs😍😍😍! But instead of having to get four different frames/hoops for them, I decided, once again, to put them all together. As usual I didn't have all the thread colours I needed when I started this project, but I used a small part of my tax return to order some more DMC threads.

In the beginning I had most of the spring colour threads so that is the tree that got the most attention. Now I have received the missing colurs too, but I really want to finish the spring tree.

I haven't decided how to finish this project yet. Turn it into a cushion? Or a hanging? Oh well, knowing me I'll have plenty of time to think about it before it's time to decide🙈😂.

Hope you are all well? My mum and dad have finally had their first covid vaccination which is a relief, and it looks like I might have my first one some time in the next couple of months.

Annie

A week of easy stitching

Hello Stitching Friends❣

How are you doing? Today, the 1st of May,  is a public holiday in Sweden, but it's also my nephew's 19th birthday so we had a very small celebration at my sister's house. No hugs and with space between us and everyone taking their turn to head into the kitchen for cake. It feels weird but at the same time it's the new normal. Above all it feels important to still celebrate and keep it as normal as possible for the 'kids' even if the world is upside down.

But now I'm back home and looking forward to a weekend of relaxation and stitching. The week has been a bit of a struggle for me both physically and mentally, but I have still managed to stitch almost every day. However, when I'm tired and feeling a bit down I normally stay away from big projects, and I also like to perk myself up with a new start or two😊. It's always a nice mental pick-me-up😉!

One day I started and worked on this little project by Emma Congdon from Cross Stitch Collection issue 241.

The original chart was stitched on perforated paper, but since I didn't have that I used an aida ribbon instead. I also made a counting error, but I chose not to rectify it since it isn't too obvious. The pattern had an uneven number of squares, whilst the aida ribbon had an even amount of squares so I wasn't able to center the design perfectly but I think it looks ok still.

I also spent a few hours on my Ursula Michael design.

I made a start on the dark green section, and I also started to stitch with purple. The purple colour replaced the yellowish shade that just wouldn't stand out enough. 

Here is a much more accurate picture of the gorgeous aida shade😍 (I wish I could afford to buy many more pieces of coloured aida) and in the background lies one of my stitching buddies, my 8 year old Beagle.

And on the other side is my other crafting buddy, my 11 year old Dachshund/Chihuahua/Beagle mix.

One day I felt particularly out of sorts and really didn't have much energy for anything, so in order to get a little bit of stitching done, I decided to start a new little cute seaside picture.

These are just super cute and they come in a set with three Swedish seaside motifs and three little flexi-hoops.

And the black-and-white chart is really clear and easy to read.

Normally I definitely prefer a coloured chart but with this particular Swedish cross stitching brand, Svarta Fåret, I don't mind the black and white at all.

In the beginning of the week I also added some more green leaves to my summer picture and as soon as I have a good day again I look forward to working on this for a bit.

When I'm too tired it's just too much hard work trying to keep my place on the chart, even though I have stitched gridlines...

And finally, I actually have a FINISH!!!

Cross Stitcher issue 304. Design by Susan Penny.

When I went through my old cross stitching stash I found so many needles that I decided I needed another needle case for storage. And luckily I had this gorgeous freebie kit from 2016 lying around!
I loved how it turned out😍😀!
It's quite large and have four felt 'pages' so plenty of space for lots of needles. Simply perfect!

Well, that's all for now. I actually fell asleep for a bit 😴 in the middle of writing this post 😂which is an indication of how this week has been for me. However, now I hope I have a nice weekend full of lovely cross stitching ahead of me.
I hope you do too💝❣

Thank you for reading and Happy Stitching!

Annie

This week's stitching:)

Hello friends:)

Here's a quick update on what I've been stitching on this week.

I have been working on The Prairie Schooler's Cats, Bats & Witches and I must say that I'm really enjoying this one:)

Even though I'm not really a Halloween person, I'm having soo much fun stitching all these little quirky motifs:) And the best part is that if I can finish this one soon - which feels quite doable - I have an even bigger design like it to tackle after that, lol!

I have also started Cross Stitcher magazine's SAL that they have been running all year. I feel in love with it straight away - since the first piece featured a cute Christmas dog! - and now that I'm stitching again I had to make a start!

Designer: Susan Penny

I have already had some issues with it though; the measurements the magazine has mentioned didn't seem to work - at least not to me! - so I have had to do quite a lot of frogging :((( And of course I don't have all the right threads, and I have still not decided if I'm going to use my stash or order the correct DMC ones. And the grey aida I'm using is not perfect for the white snowy details - they tend to blend into the fabric - but I'm perservering! And loving it as I go, since the little Christmas motifs are so cute:) 

Hope you are all well!

Annie