It takes a while for the British magazines to get here, so I just recently got the January issue of Cross Stitch Crazy. Of course, somebody visiting Barnes & Noble stole the free gift that was in the package with the magazine. I could kick myself for not checking first. Most of the designs in the magazine aren't interesting to me, but I like one that says "Forget the Gym. Stitch Yourself Slim," featuring a slightly chubby woman surrounded by delectable goodies, sitting cross-legged on an exercize mat, stitching. The design is shown as a pillow, which I think is pretty cute. It has a really nice border, which is the one thing that makes the entire design appealing. The pattern is rather simple, although the instructions say it would take 40-50 hours to stitch. I don't think there are any partial stitches (let me check): yes I am correct. Whole stitches only, but there are some French knots (see my blog entry on doing French knots). And there is a lot of backstitching. The design looks cute though, and might be worth stitching.
There is one other section of the magazine featuring a fairy alphabet. They show an example of a stitched name, and it's quite nice. It would be great for a little girl's door, but I know adults who like fairies (heck, I like fairies) and I thought of making one for a friend in New Zealand. Each letter takes 4-5 hours to stitch, which means a five-letter name takes 20-25 hours to stitch. The nice thing about this alphabet is that there are very few design repeats. So often, when they do an alphabet, they have only a few designs for the motif with the letters that they repeat too often -- I reject those.
By the way, the January issues of the British cross stitch magazines still include Christmas designs. This issue is no exception. I guess they come out well before Christmas in England.
So that's it for the January issue of Cross-Stitch Crazy. There may be other designs in there that you like, but these are the only ones I would consider stitching. I'm looking forward to the February issue, and this time I'm going to make sure nobody stole the free gift!
Hi Candice,
ReplyDeleteThanks for checking out my blog. I had to do the same. I now have you bookmarked to check on! I had to post at this comment because I'm addicted to British cross stitch magazines. I have a subscription to Cross Stitcher and my best friend in the UK sends me Cross Stitch Gold (she has the subscription just for me and send them every 3 months). I also pick up Cross Stitch Crazy at B&N as well. I've learned through trial and error to always check that I'm getting the freebie. I wish US magazines did this.