Why I'm stitching Christmas charts in April...

 Hello Stitching Friends!

Finally spring has reached Sweden and Easter is just around the corner. Me and the furbabies are enjoying long leisurely walks in the warm sunshine and spending time on my balcony getting ready for summer. The grass is turning a lovely green and the beautiful spring flowers cheer me up whenever I go outside.

...OR NOT...😳!

That is certainly how I wish it was😳...but the truth is something entirely different. I guess there's a reason why whenever we Swedes talk about the weather in April we shake our heads and sigh... loudly. 

In the last week we've had a little bit of snow, which is quite late as well as cold for this time of the year. And then last night the weather Gods sent us a snowstorm along with 10 inches/20-25 cm of snow...😫!

So this was the view from my kitchen window today...

...and this is outside my house. Luckily the snow plows worked hard early this morning.

Piles of snow and snow-covered trees everywhere.

Check out the pile of snow on the other side of the road...😲

...and the snow-covered cars on the parking lot.

Normally I love snow. During the winter months (October, November, December, January and February) I constantly long for and pray for this amount of snow. But not now when the cold and dark winter is behind us and when we long for the warmth of spring😔😳😬.

Still, since I'm very much a seasonal stitcher, this weather certainly keeps me in the mood for  some Christmas stitching. I have a couple of Xmas charts on the go but the one that holds my attention right now is this festive design, Soaring Santa, by Emma Congdon. (The chart is called Santa's Coming on Etsy.)

Ultimate Cross Stitch Christmas Vol 19 
or 
Cross Stitch Crazy issue 223.

I'm not going as fast as I'd like with this one since I'm also trying to stitch a couple of Easter cards.

I'm also missing a couple of the main colours but I'm hoping to order them soon. 

Still, the Swedish April weather has certainly provided me with plenty of cosy stitching time indoors lately😉😜.

Hope that you're able to enjoy some WARM spring weather where you are, and that the weekend will provide you with plenty of time for stitching💝.

Annie

A Very Happy PS Dance indeed!

Hello Stitching Friends!

Today I finished The Night Before Christmas by The Prairie Schooler and I'm so so happy with it! 

The Prairie Schooler, Book No. 199
 THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Some finishes pleases you more than others, don't they?! Well, I just love this one and on the inside I'm very busy doing a very happy dance😁! I just love everything about this project. The pretty old-fashioned letters...

...and the gorgeous sleigh, and the sleeping cat and dog, and all the beautiful silvery snowflakes! It just amazes me that The Prairie Schooler ladies managed to get so much detail and Christmas feeling into a design with only SIX colours! Personally I also found it extremely relaxing to only have six colours to keep track of😊.

I did a couple of small changes to the design to make it my own. I changed the colour on the reindeers' harness/shackle (?) from green to red to make them stand out more. I also added an extra little snowflake above Santa's sleigh where there was an empty space.

I haven't decided yet what frame to use. Closer to Christmas I will go through my collection of frames and see if one of them will do my finished piece justice...

Now I'm trying to decide what PS Christmas project I'm going to start next. The two festive charts I'm deciding between are DECEMBER....

...and CHRISTMAS EVE.

Decisions, decisions... Maybe I'll live in the moment and start both of them...

Before I leave you I have to show you the gorgeous Easter flowers I have on my livingroom table.

I love surrounding myself with beautiful handmade things made by myself and by the people I love, and these colourful paper flowers are made by my clever and creative sister. I wanted something happy and cheerful for my tables and begged asked my sister to help me and these colourful blooms are what she came up with💝. Do I need to tell you I was well pleased😍😍😍?!

And if you want to fold your own spring flowers my sister has a Youtube channel, THE PINKLADY DIY , where you can find a 'Fold a Tulip' tutorial🌷🌷🌷!

Now I'm off to make some Fried rice for dinner😋! 

Hope you are all ok and finding time for some stitching💝.

Annie

A wolf, an elephant, and a little bit of Xmas

Hello Stitching Friends!

I cannot believe what has happened in Europe and Ukraine since I last posted on this blog😨😢💔... 

However, if I'm going to stick to cross stitching, you may remember that during the Winter Olympics I had decided to try to work on Emma Congdon's Christmas Town every day during the competitions. I managed to stick to that goal pretty well so now the town has progressed from this...

...to this! 

Cross Stitcher magazine, issue 285

Now there are mainly white areas left to stitch. However, with everything that has happened lately I have found it hard to motivate myself to work on it. But I'm trying, and I'm determined to finish it.

Another project I have been working on after Christmas is the collection of three animal siluettes by Durene Jones.

I have now finished the wolf siluette.

Cross Stitcher magazine, October 2021

And I also finished the elephant siluette, but a friend of mine saw it, bought it, and it now hangs on her wall.

Cross Stitcher magazine, issue 379.

So now I have to stitch it again if I want the complete set😉.

As far as the polar bear is concerned I still have a long way to go...

Cross Stitcher magazine, issue 379.

After the Olympics I really wanted to stitch something cheerful and colourful so I made a start on the sampler A Song for Spring by Cheryl McKinnon.

A Song for Spring designed by Cheryl McKinnon.
From Cross Stitcher magazine issue 354 (March 2020)

In the last week or so I have struggled with my stitching/crafting mojo and suddenly I felt like picking up one of my Prairie Schooler Christmas projects again. There's something really relaxing about stitching PS charts. I only wish I had more of them.

The Prairie Schooler, Book No. 199

As you can see it is coming along nicely.

That is it for now, I guess. I've really struggled writing this post; my brain and my heart are just all over the place😔... I hope you are all well and staying safe in this crazy, scary world😔. 

Annie

A dangerous discovery

Hello Stitching Friends!

Hope you are all ok? I've been very busy this month watching all the fotball/soccer games in the ongoing UEFA EURO 2020, and although I've been cross stitching every day I haven't found the time to write about it. 

But now Sweden is out of the tournament and with only 8 countries remaining for the quarter finals I have some time to spare again😉😁. Until the Olympics start...but that's another story!

Except for the fotball, my wonderful niece graduated from school this month which is a very big deal of course! 

And we were able to have a family celebration to mark the occation. (Luckily the older generation in my family are all fully vaccinated now and I'm getting my second shot this month.) Of course I stitched a card for my niece Linnea and the chart is designed by Emma Congdon. I used my own colours for this one.

I really had every intention to try to finish some projects this summer, but who am I kidding😂🙈?? Of course I still have those intentions, but I just HAVE to start some new projects; life wouldn't just be any fun otherwise😉😊! And then there is Christmas coming up in (only) six months which might require some new projects... There's just always a good reason to start a new project, isn't there?!

So this month I started work on this cute picture which I plan on displaying in my hallway, for obvious reasons😁🐾🐕🐕! 

It's designed by Durene Jones and I found it in The World of Cross Stitching issue 291. 

And I have been stitching some small designs like this dream catcher letter which I plan to turn into an ornament for myself at some point.

Dream catcher ABC by Amanda Gregory from
The World of Cross stitching issue 277

I decided to have some fun with this little design and added some beads from my collection and I think it turned out great.

However, the best thing (or worst thing depending on how you see it🙈😂) that happened to me this month is that I discovered cross stitch patterns on ETSY. Oh boy, what a treasure trove for cross stitchers! I'm probably the last one to find my way into that world, but now I cannot tear myself away from it, haha! Soo many gorgeous patterns😍😍😍😍😍! And so easy to get hold of too! 

I want them ALL of course, and I just had to get a few that were on sale...🙈. And of course I just HAD to start a gorgeous Christmas project from VladaXstitch...

...and I've gotten this far. It's a bit difficult to see the gridlines in the digital pattern so it's taking me a little bit longer than I planned. 

But overall it's an easy pattern to stitch and I'm enjoying  the process!

I'm in this crazy creative flow right now and I cannot stop thinking of crafting and cross stitch. Sleeping seems a waste of time and all I want to do is watch sports and stitch😁. It's quite a wonderful state of mind to be in actually😊. I just wish I had arms like an octopus and double the amount of time available to do all my creative stuff😂!

Now I'm going to take my furbabies for a sunny walk and then I'm going to get some stitching done. I haven't had time to pick up the needle yet today and it's really beginning to bug me, haha! 

Love,

Annie 

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

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