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Carrie
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Posted onTag Archives: world of cross stitch
Merry Christmas Robins
Posted onIt has been months since I started this free cover kit from The World of Cross Stitching magazine October 2021. I believe I first started it in the waiting room at the hospital, last November. And then after that I put it away and just didn’t have any interest in it. I decided I need to get all my WIPs finished, so I dug it out again.
I have made a few changes from the kit. Instead of using the teeny tiny little piece of Aida they give you, I swapped it out for a piece of white 28 count Jobelan that I had in my stash. Because of my arthritis, I cannot stitch “in hand” any more, so I need to use a larger piece of fabric which I can fit into a hoop. I think the Jobelan makes it look much richer, too! I also did not include the wooden snowflake charm. I think I will save it for another project. I am also going to finish it off as a cushion instead of a card, so I will save the card and envelope for something else. But the card they gave with the kit was red with white polka dots and I happen to have calico fabric exactly like that! I recently used it on a reindeer design. So I think I will stick with that again for this finish.
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Carrie
Christmas Stitching
Posted onUsually I stitch medium to large cross stitch projects that take quite a bit of time and concentration. Lately, however, I have been gravitating toward smaller, easier, and quicker projects. My stitching time is so limited and I want to be able to finish as many things as fast as possible. I’ve also gotten rid of a lot of projects in my WIP pile this year. The only two unfinished projects I have now are Peacock Tapestry and A Summer Ball. I would like to work on A Summer Ball sometime soon, but I don’t have plans on finishing that one for years. Instead, I would like to build up a large collection of smalls for each holiday. That is what I have decided 2022 is going to be – A Year Of Smalls. I am going to start working on Christmas and winter designs, and once I have a bunch of those done I will probably work on 4th of July and Halloween. Those are the 4 main themes I want to stitch for. If time allows I would also like to have a few designs each for St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Thanksgiving.
I also want to have a bunch of projects kitted up to have ready to go whenever the mood strikes. I don’t mind if I work on multiple projects at once. One of the projects I have just started is F128 HoHoHo Holiday JINGLES Flip-it by Lizzie Kate and it is adorable!
So far I only have Rudolph’s red blanket (saddle??) and part of his body stitched. But I will work on this one for quite a while before moving on.
I also plan on working on Happy Holidays by Bent Creek which I blogged about recently, although I have not yet decided on which color scheme I want to go with.
Another fun winter project is this adorable snowman, J.T. Fuzzy from Sisters and Best Friends. I have not kitted up this one yet, but assuming I have the correct 7 count Klostern fabric on hand, this one will be a really fast stitch because it is very small. I just love the carrot button nose and real scarf!
And last but not least, is a free cover kit that came with a recent issue of The World of Cross Stitching. It features robins (well, British robins!) and the words Merry Christmas, along with a wooden snowflake charm. Although it came with a card and envelope, I am going to finish it off as a small pillow or flat fold instead. I actually started this project in the waiting room at the hospital a couple of weeks ago while waiting for my husband to have a procedure done. I have not worked on it since but it will be going into the rotation.
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Carrie
A Circular Design That Isn’t Circular…?
Posted onI was worried that the pattern looked like it extended too far out to the right, and I thought maybe I would not have a big enough piece of fabric (this was just a scrap piece left over) or that it would not fit entirely in the hoop. I am using a 7 inch hoop to stitch the design, and it is meant to be framed in a 7 inch hoop. I always use plastic hoops to stitch with and wooden hoops to frame. After I stitched the outside border and it all came together, I didn’t have to worry after all about it being too large. But there is another problem… the design is not circular, like the model in the magazine. It is more… oblong. I’m not sure if my hoop is just bent out of shape and it will be fine when I use a sturdy wooden frame. I have noticed plastic hoops not look terribly round when they are taken off of a project. Or it could be that my fabric is not made up of entirely square Aida blocks, and this is my biggest concern. The only way to know for sure will be to take a ruler and measure out an exact number of stitches both vertically and horizontally and see if they give the same exact length in inches. If they don’t, I have no idea how I am going to make this look good when it is finished, except to either rip out the white border all around, or to rip out the stitches at the sides and re-do them closer to the edges of the hoop, to make it “look” like it is round.
I was loving this project but now I am thinking it is more of a headache than it was worth.
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Carrie
Winter Cardinals
Posted onCardinals always remind me of my grandfather – they were his favorite. When I saw this adorable design of a male and female cardinal in one of last year’s copies of The World of Cross Stitching I knew I wanted to stitch it. After finishing up the Home Sweet Home hoop design I thought it was time to get started on this.
The fabric is navy blue 14 count Aida and even with my daylight lamp it is proving difficult. Although it is only the beginning of September, it is quickly turning dark and dreary here.
I noticed that I made a mistake somewhere in the tree branch, so I decided to skip that area of the design for now and instead concentrate on the border design. I don’t think it will make a difference in the finished design or how everything fits together, but I think it will be easier to stitch the top part of the design first and then work my way back around to the branches.
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Carrie
Home Sweet Home at last
Posted onIt’s finished! It’s amazing what backstitch can do. Before:
And after:
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Carrie
Home Sweet Home
Posted onThe most recent issue of World of Cross Stitching to land in my mailbox came with this adorable free cover kit that included its own plastic hoop! The hoop is used both during stitching and for displaying the finished piece. I don’t stitch too many of the cover kits from this magazine because I always have other things on the go, but this one really jumped out at me. I’m not surprised, since it was designed by Durene Jones. I just love her designs!
After the summer I have been having, I told my husband I needed to get away and relax, even if just for a short time. So we headed up to our cabin and I spent two days doing pretty much nothing. There is no electricity or running water, but there is plenty of peace and quiet and it’s possible to sit out in the sun – something I don’t dare try to do at home because the bugs are so bad. We do have solar panels at the cabin, and I have a daylight lamp that allows me to cross stitch inside. I got a bit of work done on this project, although my hands were paying dearly after about 30 minutes of stitching. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that when I see my doctor in October he will either let me go back on my arthritis medication, or he will have an alternative to try. My liver enzymes are trending down now, but at the moment it’s just too risky to go back on methotrexate. It has now been 6 weeks since I have taken it, and the past week or so my hand pain has been in full force, even when not doing anything.
I had opened this kit and sorted the threads before we left home, and it’s a good thing I did… there was no needle in the kit! If I had just taken the kit and magazine with me without looking at it first, I would not have known this and would not have been able to work on it. I then read something in another magazine that mentioned that they are doing away with the needles in these kits because so many stitchers have a large collection of them already, and by omitting the needle they can save money to make the gifts more substantial. They definitely did that with this kit, as they have never given out embroidery hoops that I can recall, at least not since I started subscribing in 2012.
So, lesson learned… from now on I will open any cover kit I get before I attempt to stitch it, to be sure I have everything I need!
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Carrie
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Posted onI 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:
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Carrie
Be Mine?
Posted onFinished already! I absolutely loved working on this fun little Furry Tales mouse from issue 238 of The World of Cross Stitching (February 2016). It only took a few days of stitching, working for a few minutes here and there. The photo doesn’t do it justice, but the fabric is a nice light pink. I’m going to finish this off as a pillow ornament with some fabrics left over from my quilting days.
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Carrie
Fashion Boutique
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Look at this adorable free kit that came with the latest issue of The World of Cross Stitching! It’s actually not the style of what I would normally stitch, but red is my favorite color and I am looking for a quick-to-stitch project since things are busy right now. I’m going to take a break from the mermaid for a while since that one requires so much counting. I think I will try to whip this card kit up in the next week, working whenever I get a few spare minutes. At first I was dismayed by the thought of stitching the entire background, but then I realized that the kit comes with pink Aida!
I think I am also going to try a trick I learned from either Facebook or directly inside one of the British magazines, and that is to punch holes down the side of the color key on the chart, to store all of the floss. Normally these kits are so small and easy that I don’t like to wind the floss on bobbins, but at the same time the colors are often similar in shade and can be hard to keep track of. The paper is quite thin, so we shall see how that works out.
You can find this kit with issue 271, which should be available in good bookstores now in the US. In the UK, this would already be an older issue, as issue 272 is out right now and issue 273 comes out in just 2 days.
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Carrie
Exciting News!
Posted onOn May 11, issue 267 of The World of Cross Stitching (British magazine) came to my mailbox. At the very end of the magazine there was an article about the winners of the 2018 British Craft Awards, and who all the winners were in the various categories. I thought it was hilarious when I saw the 2nd place winner of the Best Blog category.
It was funny to me that my blog would share the same name, Stitching Corner, with the 2nd place winner of the Blog of the Year. I got on Google and tried to find this other blog. But I was puzzled that I couldn’t find another blog with that name, just my own. My husband suggested that maybe it WAS me. But I thought that was extremely unlikely. For one thing, I’m American, not British. And this past year I’ve really neglected my blog, so I didn’t think it was all that great compared to others out there. I had planned to contact the magazine and ask them about it, but time slipped by and before I knew it, the next issue of the magazine came out. I always start at the beginning and work my way through to the end, so it was almost a week before I came upon THIS:
My jaw dropped and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The British Craft Awards are a HUGE deal, even in America. Although we do have some great designers here in the states, as well as shops, there just is no competing with the Brits. They know cross stitching, inside and out. And you’ve seen my posts here about how fantastic their magazines are compared to our American counterparts (which are dwindling fast). To be mentioned in WOXS, which I treasure dearly, is big for me. I’ve subscribed to it in print form since 2012 and have kept every issue (as well as some back issues that I have been lucky enough to find at yard sales).
Congrats to Vonna for being the winner this year!
This is the cover of issue 268, which is packed with some great patterns including two from one of my favorite designers, Faby Reilly.
I am just so excited about this and I am going to try my hardest this year to blog even more, and to post interesting things that stitchers would want to read. Maybe next year I can go for the #1 spot!
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Carrie
Herbert Hedgehog
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Free with issue 258 of the World of Cross Stitching was this adorable little hedgehog birthday card kit. After finishing my sugar skull, I dove right into this guy. He only took two stitching sessions and he was complete! I just need to get some double-sided tape to secure him into the card opening.
Time to decide what’s next!
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Carrie
Goodies in the Mail!
Posted onIt’s always a great day when The World of Cross Stitching arrives. But this month has a great free gift – a thread cutter pendant! Now this is something I can really use. No more lost scissors!
There’s also a great free design of a rose included this month. I love these bonus designs – they are printed nice and big, and on thick shiny cardstock. My magazines tend to get ripped up when I stitch from them, but these freebies are printed on a nice long lasting quality paper.
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Carrie
A Must-Stitch
Posted onA couple of days ago I received an issue of The World of Cross Stitching in the mail, and it had this adorable Furry Tales St. Patrick’s Day mouse in it. Because I get the magazines a couple of months after they come out in the UK, that doesn’t leave much time for stitching this little cutie. One week, to be precise! I started working on her last night and will have to stitch all weekend to get it stitched and framed in time. I have just recently found out who my Irish ancestors were through ancestry.com, so I have never really celebrated St. Patrick’s Day before, apart from maybe wearing green. This year I will actually be able to say that I am Irish!
To protect Lucie Heaton’s copyright, I have blurred out the chart, as there is never a photo of the finished project in the Furry Tales section of the magazine. But I will post a photo of my finished stitch so you can really see what this cutie looks like!
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Carrie
Just Cross Stitch 2013 Special Christmas Issue
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The 2013 special issue of Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments is out! I know, it’s only September. But I am excited to get some Christmas stitching done. I would like to stitch an ornament for each of my son’s 4th grade teachers this year (he has two; one for reading and writing and one for math and science). I love the Be Jolly Santa from Angel Stitchin and the Snowman from Needle Bling Designs. Both are featured on the cover. They look like fun and quick projects.
I don’t have this issue in stock yet but it should arrive next week. The price is $9.99 and it features 76 projects, on 115 pages. But for now I have my subscription copy and can get stitching. Well, after the two Halloween projects I have on my to-do list, that is! Tonight the kids will spend the night at grandma’s house which is a treat for them but for me as well. I can go to bed whenever I want, which means I get some STITCHING TIME! I know exactly what I am going to work on – a hedgehog Halloween design by Margaret Sherry. I just can’t get enough of her cute little hedgehogs. The design is from the current issue of World of Cross Stitch.
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Carrie