33 - CS 241 Felt Flowers

I have also kept up my resolution to stitch every cover kit for the two magazines I get.  This week was Cross Stitcher magazine's turn.  As a member of EWBA (Enough With the Buttons Already!) I was not going to be fiddlefarting around with tiny little buttons covered in the hardest aida I have seen, it was like perforated paper!  So I used the aida to stitch the flowers directly onto the felt shapes then pinned them to this lovely tote bag I won in a FB giveaway.  I did use the buttons, I coloured in some scraps of fabric in tones which matched the bag then covered with tiny buttons with them and sewed them on the bag.

32 - Passione Ricamo Fairy Celebration

I finished the Passione Ricamo freebie angel for my little Great-Niece this week.

Stitched on 14 count raspberry aida using white DMC and metallic silver.

31 - Drawn Thread All You Need is Love

I have romped through another Drawn Thread freebie, All You Need is Love.

In this tiny little finish (3 x 2 inches) there are no less than 14 different types of stitch.  How many can you see / name?  No prize, just the satisfaction of being a sharp-eyed clever clogs!

I stitched it on a piece of 32 count evenweave I got from the LNS before it closed.  It is quite a loose weave so not a Murano.  The greens are from my bits bag and the pink is a hand-dyed from Oliver Twists.  I have had it for ages and never used it.  It is quite subtle for a hand-dyed, not much variation but perfect for this.  The frame has been languishing in my stash chest for approx 12 years just waiting for this design.  I bought it at the Olympia Cross Stitch Show.

30 - Drawn Thread First Snow

I have just completed this sweet little freebie from The Drawn Thread.  It's called First Snow and as soon as I saw it I wanted to stitch it so it leaped up the priority list and I completed it in only 2 days!  I stitched it on a scrap of mint green pearlescent aida I got in the closing down sale of my LNS.  I have a nice frame ready with is just a teeny bit wide so I'm planning to get some ribbon to go down the left and right sides.

29 - Joan Elliott Iris in Pot

And yet another from the Joan Elliot Oriental booklet.  The free gift with Cross Stitcher was the blue felt frame with a chart for an orange cartoon fox.  Why?  Apparently foxes are in vogue.  News to me.  Owls - yes, see them everywhere, but foxes?  Anyway the iris in a pot fitted perfectly like it was made for the frame and is much nicer.

28 - Joan Elliott Maneki Neko

I have finished a cute Japanese Beckoning Cat design by Joan Elliott this weekend and framed it in a bargain frame.  The bric-a-brac people left a box of bric and brac in our Toddler Group hall and while I was moving it to a safe place I couldn't help but notice three picture frames.  I was told everything was 10p so I generously gave them 50p for all 3!

The cat is known as Maneki Neko (or Beckoning Cat) and more information can be found here.
招き猫 These are the Japanese characters for Maneki Neko

27 - New Home Card

Stitched for my niece from the Helen Philipps book.

Forgot to take photo before I mailed it off!

26 - WOCS June Rose

Having seen how effective the little bears were and how quick to stitch I decided to try with the rose from WOCS.  The red and green shading effect is simply fabric pens coloured in after the back-stitch was completed.

25 - Train Carriage

This is my railway carriage - it is stitched on a piece of 14 count aida attached to a piece of upholstery fabric.

The design and words are all my own work, the threads are from my scraps bag, the railway line is a long piece of black threaded under the stitches in the sleepers.  It's a really nice effect and very quick to do.

I don't want to get too political (stitching is my stress relief!) but the main thrust of the campaign is to protest about the fare hikes planned.  Rail travel is the greenest way to travel long distances and we should be supporting it.  I commuted 30 miles a day for 17 years by train and loved my journeys.  I met so many interesting people, some of whom changed my life.  I read so many books and stitched so much too.  We also had two weddings thanks to our journeys.  If you're interested then check out the links for The Craftivist Collective

24 - Helen Philipps Sampler Card

Helen Philipp's Design adapted to fit in an oval.

23 - Andree Langhorn Bear 3

22 - Andree Langhorn Bear 2

21 - Andree Langhorn Bear 1

20 - Lesley Teare Angel

She is part of an ABC with a different fairy for each letter.  I removed the letter, changed her hair to make it more suitable for this technique and used blackwork to fill her dress in.

19 - Joan Elliott Three Little Maids

These are from the Joan Elliott Oriental Booklet free with WOCS 177.  

I stitched them on scraps of 14 count aida - the middle one the aida had been washed and ironed and shrunk slightly, the left hand one the aida was landscape and the right hand one was portrait.  It just shows that the squares in aida are not necessarily square!

18 - Joan Elliott Three Little Maids

These are from the Joan Elliott Oriental Booklet free with WOCS 177.  

I stitched them on scraps of 14 count aida - the middle one the aida had been washed and ironed and shrunk slightly, the left hand one the aida was landscape and the right hand one was portrait.  It just shows that the squares in aida are not necessarily square!

17 - Joan Elliott Three Little Maids

These are from the Joan Elliott Oriental Booklet free with WOCS 177.  

I stitched them on scraps of 14 count aida - the middle one the aida had been washed and ironed and shrunk slightly, the left hand one the aida was landscape and the right hand one was portrait.  It just shows that the squares in aida are not necessarily square!

16 - Cherry Blossom Fairy

Finally, I have finished the Cherry Blossom Flower Fairy that was the cover kit with WOCS 176.  I have moaned so much about this kit elsewhere!  The threads were a nightmare to sort, so many shades of brown, beige and cream.  I had to compare and contrast with my DMC stash to get them all right in the end.

I made a couple of changes in the backstitch, grey for the wings and red for her dress.  I also coloured the aida in before I started stitching using a nice pale pink felt tip pen.  Then I backed her with pink card which gives a lovely pink hue to the fabric.  I shall experiment more with colouring aida scraps when I do some card making as it seems to work quite well.

The mount came free with the magazine, they actually charged people an extra £1 this issue but as a subscriber we get it all for the same price which is nice.

15 - Flower Pincushion

Cover Kit from Cross Stitcher 238

It isn't finished because I have sent it off to a friend so she can stuff it herself (easier to post flat!).  The stitching was nice and easy but I do NOT enjoy sewing these things together.  Especially the felt.  I find it very hard to keep my stitches nice and even.

14 - Large Wedding Sampler

Stitched on 28 count blue evenweave.

From a chart in Cross Stitcher magazine Aug 98.