Ten (or in my case seven) Things for Jo's Tenth Blogaversary

Hello Stitching Friends!

When Jo from the blog Serendipitous Stitching recently celebrated a tenth blogaversary she listed and answered a Ten Things Tag list. I really enjoyed reading the post, so I decided to join in the fun. However, I haven't kept an extensive record of my stitching the way Jo has, so my own list is unfortunately incomplete and only contains seven of the ten tags.

The tenth blog post you made

This was a post back in April 2015 and I was really happy to finally get around to framing a summer window.

I'm still hoping to finish the autumn and winter windows from the same series...

The tenth blog in your blog list

At the moment it is A Stitcher's Story which is written by the super sweet Vickie who displays the most gorgeous seasonal stitching projects on her cabinets and shelves AND adores poodles🐩🐩🐩! She has even designed a really cute Calendar Poodle SAL which is free on her blog.

A designer you have stitched more than ten designs.

This was a little bit tricky since I like a lot of different designers. However, the more I though about it I realised that the designer I have stitched the most is probably Lesley Teare since she designed my favorite go-to design for cards.

I have definitely sitched this design more than 10 times, haha! I have a feeling that designs from Joan Elliott and Emma Congdon come in a close second and third if you check out my WIPs and finished projects...

 

 A project that took/is taking more than ten years to complete

Since I am a periodical stitcher this tends to happen every now and then, and even more so since I also love to start new projects instead of finishing my WIPs. 

This Christmas scene was a loooong time in the making, but these days I put it up on my wall every Christmas. 

The pattern is from an old Swedish weekly women's magazine.

At the moment I should think that this sweet little girl is my oldest WIP. I started stitching her when I still lived in London 16 years ago. Clearly I wasn't too worried about fractionals back then, but whenever I bring her out these days all those fractionals makes me cringe. So she goes back in the UFO pile again...

The tenth colour on your current project. Do you use it a lot?

My current WIP is a seasonal design in four parts and DMC 964 is used for the summer and winter motives .

I certainly like to stitch with bright and happy colours, and this blue shade features in at least one more of my current WIP:s. 

Your tenth finish this year (or last year if you haven't finished ten so far this year)

Well, right now I'm working on the 10th and 11th finish for the year, so I'll just show you my ninth finish instead which I gave to a good friend of mine.

I'm ashamed to admit that I've lost the design details for this project...

How has your stitching style changed in the last ten years?

My stiching style has changed A LOT in ten years, that's for sure.

When I started this blog I was into Joan Elliott's pretty but complicated fairies... 

...and life-like animal motives.

I didn't see any limitations and thought I could stitch just about anything, regardless of size, beads or metallic threads. I think about it as my delusional phase...🙈😂😳. I just don't know WHAT I was thinking...?! Most of those projects are still UFO; do I need to say more..?! Although I might pick some of them up again since they're quite close to being finished...

Somewhere along the line I discovered designers like Emma Congdon, Durene Jones and Cheryl McKinnon and projects with blocks of bright colours...

...and a lot less time-consuming backstitching.

Maybe some cheerful sayings...

...and pretty nature/seasonal designs.

The urge to stitch pretty, complicated fairies or large animals with lots of confetti stitches has completely disappeared along the years.

The one constant cross stitching love has been Christmas projects....

....but I try to stay away from too much backstitching and/or tricky charts/details in my Christmas designs too these days. 

Overall, it seems I've moved away from complicated stitching and now just want easy, cheerful and uncomplicated designs at this point in my life. But who knows what kind of cross stitching projects I will like in 5 or 10 years time...😉😳😀???

Finally, I want to leave you with a short video from our morning walk today. We are really enjoying gorgeous spring weather here in Sweden😳...

Don't you just wish you were here?!😂

Happy Stitching,

Annie

A catch-up and old favorites comes out to play!

 Hello Stitching Friends!

It's about time that I get my act together and update you all on what stitchy things have been going on over here in my Swedish X-stitch nook, don't you think?!

Lots have happened since I wrote here last, and not all good. I've had some unwelcome issues (due to an unsympathetic doctor) with my medication which has led to sleep struggles, and I had to change my old Iphone to an android Samsung since I sadly couldn't afford to stay with Iphone. My beagle has had some health issues with his back and I have lost count on how many times we've been to the vet and doggy physiotherapist. And don't get me started on my finances...😱.

But my family and friends has managed to stay healthy and at the moment we are enjoying the Swedish winter with plenty of snow and cold temperatures; my favorite kind of weather!

As far as stitching is concerned, I did get quite a lot done before Christmas. I stitched some small Xmas themed gifts which I regrettably forgot to take pictures of. I also stitched this picture for my mum who enjoys spending time at her allotment.

I mounted the picture in a tray for her and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

My plan was to make a cross stitch tray for me too using this gorgeous wintry scene, but I didn't have enough time to finish it before Xmas.

Hopefully I can get it finished for this year's Xmas🤞!

However I did manage to complete another project. I stitched this Christmas picture some years ago and I finally got around to framing it which felt really nice!

You can't really tell but it's stiched on goldish aida and with a gold-coloured frame it looked really festive and looked good on the wall next to one of my other cross stitched Christmas pictures.

After Christmas I looked forward to working on this project for myself...

...but I haven't managed to get further than this yet.

The thing is that the last couple of years my eyesight has changed and  now I need a new pair of glasses. In the last month or so, the switching of mobile phones and staring at digital screens for hours has made it worse and I find it a bit of a struggle reading some charts😞. Hopefully I can find a way to afford new glasses this year but meanwhile I've looked for ways to still enjoy cross stitching.

So last week I got to thinking of my old Prairie Schooler charts, dug them out from my stash, and realized that they would be perfect to use and stitch right now! The charts are so large, clear and easy to read, and they don't use too many colours AND the pictures are easy to stitch without too much details. So, all in all very easy on my eyes! Yay!!!

Most of my Prairie Scooler charts are Xmas-themed, but I don't mind that. I made a start on the smaller of these two January charts...

Of course I had to start with the dog, although I think it looks more like a wolf...😳😉.

I also made a start on Reindeer Round-Up....

...and of course the reindeers are the most fun to stitch.

I also spent a weekend working on The Night Before Christmas....

Simply adore this pattern!

In between my eyesight and the fact that I feel so tired all the time, it is a bit of a struggle to get a lot of stitching done. However, I'm enjoying it and there's no rush. I'm just so grateful that I bought those gorgeous PS charts back in the day!

Hope you're all well and Happy Stitching💝,

Annie

Progress on winter scene and a little snowglobe

 Hello Stitching Friends!

In the last couple of days I've done quite a bit of stitching. I can't show you everything (some secret Xmas projects), but I have spent some time on my current favorite Xmas project adding some little cones...

Thus I progressed from here...

...to here...

It feels as if I'm well on track to finish this before Xmas! 

I've continued working on some small Xmas projects, like this little snow globe designed by Emma Congdon from CrossStitcher magazine October 2020.

I had to improvise with the colours, but I'm reasonably happy with it. And once I had turned it into a little box I was even more happy.

As always my dogs are close by when I stitch. Either they steal my crafting spot when I take a break...

...or they make sure to keep a very close eye on me😂.

Take care and stay safe,

Annie

Christmas stitching

Hello Stitching Friends!

I've been meaning to write a post for several days, but I have so many various craft and Christmas gift projects on the go that it didn't seem as if I made any real cross stitch progress to share with you. An hour or two on a single cross stitch project isn't that much progress to show really, is it...?

The most exciting thing that has happened in my own cross stitch world is that an aquaintance gave me a Christmas cross stitch project that she didn't want...and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it😍!!! As if I didn't have enough cross stitch projects on the go already😉...!

Of course I had to make a start at once...

....and I look forward to when I have more time to spend on this lovely Xmas picture! Which will most likely be after Xmas...

I'm also stitching various smaller Christmas projects... 

...which I have secret plans for.

Due to all the vet bills etc I'm really short of funds this year, and I'm desperately trying to think of new ways to turn my cross stitch pieces into Christmas gifts.

Sadly this is all the cross stitch progress I can show you for now. If only the days had more hours for crafting this time of the year🎄🎅🎁.

Stay safe💝, 

Annie

Halloween stitching

Hello Stitching Friends💝,

I don't know about you, but when I have really bad anxiety or feel very worried I find it really difficult to cross stitch. It's like I can't still my mind enough to focus on the pattern and the counting... That's what happened the last time I stopped stitching in 2016; I was so worried about my life in general that I couldn't find enough peace of mind to stitch those crosses😞. Crochet and knitting is easier to do at those times since it is more repetitive and you can just let your hands do the motions without your head really connecting...at least if you have been knitting and crocheting for as long as I have😉.

Lately my beagle has had serious health issues and I have been very worried about him and what is going to happen and how I'm going to cope with even more vet bills etc... so I didn't lift a cross stitch needle all week. Over last weekend I pulled myself together though and did a little bit of stitching; if for no other reason than having something to show you this week. Then my furbaby got worse and I HAD to take him to the vet in the beginning of this week. Now he's on strong pain relief which seems to be helping and it is such a huge relief to have both my furbabies feeling better. 

So, I managed to pull out my favorite Christmas project and it's starting to come together really nicely.

I'm so in love with this piece😍! Even if stitching with three threads and not being able to do the loop start is driving me slightly nuts😁.

My sister has the magazine reader app Readly and when I had a look at cross stitching magazines I found this colourful Halloween project...

 ...which I immediately fell in love with! 

It is only in the last few decades that Halloween has been celebrated here in Sweden (due to influences from America), and then mostly by the younger generations. Personally I don't celebrate it at all, BUT I do love Halloween designs. And having been inspired by magazines and other stitchers I have been known to stitch a bat or two😉🎃.

So, going back to the Halloween design I saw in Cross Stitcher (October 2020) I really wanted to stitch it. After all, it has probably been over a month since I had a new start which is way too long😂. The design called for light purple fabric which I didn't have, so I decided to replace it with off-white aida fabric. And I search through my stash for appropriate thread colours and came up with this...

Then I spent Sunday afternoon gridding my fabric, so I haven't actually stitched that much on it...

 

...yet! But I really look forward to adding an Halloweeny element after another to this piece!

The one other Halloween WIP project I have is this design, Cats, Bats & Witches, by The Prairie Schooler.

I managed to stitch a bit on it too, and maybe I can actually finish it this year.

Then, of course, there is the larger version of this chart...

...which I'm sure I'll make a start on one of these days. Especially after I get some more DMC 3371!

And finally a sweet picture of my two darling boys enjoying the Swedish autumn!

Hope you're all staying healthy and have time for lots of stitching!

Annie