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