Thursday, 31 March 2022

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

Thursday, 24 March 2022

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