Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Posted on

I have had this Rudolph cover kit from an issue of The World of Cross Stitching for a couple of years at least. I don’t even recall which issue it came with. But recently I found it and decided to give it a go even though it would not be ready before Christmas. It just seemed like such a cute little project, and quick to stitch. I worked on it during two weekends, then finally finished the backstitch today and mounted it into the card blank that it came with. I think he is so adorable and I’ll hang on to him until a future Christmas when I will send him to someone special.

The finished cross stitch, without any backstitch:

XXX
Carrie


Glad to be Done!

Posted on

In September 2018 I started on this card kit. I quickly grew frustrated with it and put it away to work on other things. When I finished the penguin card kit the other day, I decided to finish up all the small projects I have going before starting anything new. I found this barely started kit in a drawer and decided to tackle it again. It only took a few days of stitching here and there and was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It was really only the backstitch and french knots that were an issue.

Yes, this is another cover kit from an issue of The World of Cross Stitching. I think it turned out pretty adorable, although I have absolutely no idea what to do with it now that it is finished!

XXX
Carrie


A Caroling Penguin

Posted on

This cute little caroling penguin came as a free cover kit with issue 259 of Cross Stitch Crazy. It took me a lot longer than expected to finish it, because of several colors that all looked the same (white, cream, and light gray) and that awful fluffy backstitch. I love cute little critters like this, but stitching the details on their fur is the worst! Instead of completing this in a weekend, it was more like a month-long project, only working for 5 or 10 minutes here and there. But it turned out adorable 🙂

  

XXX
Carrie


What a Great Idea!

Posted on

I did not come up with this idea for punching holes down the side of the free cover kit to put the floss through. I think I saw it on Facebook. But it is working so well! And although I haven’t gotten in much stitching yet, this is a very easy chart to follow and shouldn’t take long.

XXX
Carrie


Christmas Cutie

Posted on

Yes, it is a dog!

This was another free cover kit with The World of Cross Stitching. I didn’t get much time to work on it while visiting my parents but it stitched up pretty quickly on a lazy weekend.

After finishing, I just wasn’t sure about the bottom portion where there is no backstitch. It looked unfinished to me. So I decided to see what it would look like in the card…

Yes, that bottom portion definitely needed backstitch. I had to kind of figure out where the stitches should go, since the chart didn’t include it and the rest of the design had the backstitch go on an angle, instead of following around each stitch. But I think what I did to it made it look so much better:

Now I just need to mount it into the card! I love how the hat uses silver metallic thread. You can’t really see it in the photo, but it is so shimmery and sparkly, and really sets off the entire design!

XXX
Carrie


What Is It?

Posted on

While going through some of my cross stitch magazines, I found this project tucked away between the pages. I had completely forgotten that I had started this while I was visiting my parents over Christmas break. Can you tell what it is going to be? Since it is another quick card project, I am going to finish this before working on the Gingerbread Houses again.

XXX
Carrie



Oops…!

Posted on

A new copy of The World of Cross Stitching  came in the mail, and it had this cute bird card kit with it. Because I get the issues a month late in the US, the card is too late to make for this Easter (it’s hard to see, but there are a few Easter eggs at the bottom of the card). It was so cute and looked like a fast stitch, though, so I decided to give it a go. I got this far and then went to bed…

And when I went to look at it this morning I realized how hilarious it looks. Those are leaves, I swear!

XXX
Carrie



Christmas in July

Posted on

mice1

My new project is a set of 3 Christmas mice designed by Margaret Sherry. I adore her hedgehogs, and her mice are just as cute! The fabric that came with these charts is one long piece, and you are supposed to cut it apart to make 3 cards. But I think I am going to stitch them with the fabric intact, and then decide if I want to keep them together or not. Instead of cards, I might actually make this into a bell pull or possibly a framed piece.

Since I didn’t have any floss bobbins on hand, I decided to improvise and use a cut up cereal box! It worked out pretty well to keep these floss colors sorted. There are quite a few of them.

Here’s my progress so far on the little guy that’s chasing a star.

mice2

mice3

XXX
Carrie


Stash Finish #8

Posted on

Finally. This evil bunny is FINALLY done! I can honestly say that I have never hated working on a project as much as this one. It probably took me three times as long to complete as it should have, but the chart was horrible to work from and the colors all looked the same. I also hate how it looks like one ear is not finished. Bebunni, I will never stitch you again. Never.

bebunni

On the plus side, this was my “try out Thread Heaven” project and I must say I don’t think I will stitch without it again. I am still a bit worried that 30 years from now the threads will have deteriorated or discolored a bit, but I think I will still use it anyway. I just don’t think I will use it on the projects I am currently working on, because I don’t want them to be half with and half without it. But wow, what a difference for threads tangling. I didn’t have any issues at all on this card in terms of knotting and twisting. Thread Heaven will definitely be going in my stitching bag.

Now for a nice cleansing breath, and to start thinking about what I will work on next. I suppose I should finish up the Willow Tree Sampler, because I have come so far on it. And it has been a long time since I have worked on Summer Ball. I would also like to get the woodland deer out of the way, but all of that green and brown was getting tiresome.

XXX
Carrie


Stash Finish #5

Posted on

butterfly2

The stitching on my floral sachet is done, but I didn’t feel like getting out the sewing machine and putting it all together. I had this free cover kit from an issue of The World of Cross Stitching which consisted of two butterfly cards. I decided to work on one of them for another quick finish. I think it turned out quite well! The cross stitching itself was very easy and took only a couple of hours to do. The backstitching was a pain, as is usually the case with Madeline Floyd designs. But in the end it turned out very nice.

butterfly1

XXX
Carrie


Stash Finish #4

Posted on

bellscard

This is a kit for a Christmas Bells card that came free with an issue of the British Magazine Cross Stitch Gallery. I was able to finish it in just two days of stitching. Of all the kits I have ever done, this was by far the worst in terms of sorting colors. I know it doesn’t look like it, but there were 4 shades of red, 4 shades of gold, and 4 shades of green. And the names meant nothing (parrot green, saffron). I had to use the color photo that came with the chart in order to figure it out. On the plus side, it came with WAY more floss than was needed, so my ORT jar is filling up nicely! And the card blank that came with it is lovely. The picture doesn’t really show it, but the entire card is gold paper with a nice lined texture to it.

XXX
Carrie


Stash Finish #3

Posted on

This is the card kit that had the faulty floss. I actually had plenty of that pink color to work with, but ran out of the light blue, go figure. Luckily I found a match in my stash of DMC. The kit didn’t specify a color number, but I think the match is pretty darn close. The backstitching on this was a bit of a pain, and I noticed that the stitched models did not look the same as the chart. The chart actually had more backstitching than what was on the models. I think it looks better with the extra stitches, so I stitched it as charted.

prettyroses

The design is from April Rose Illustration and was the free cover kit with issue 217 of The World of Cross Stitching.

XXX
Carrie