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!
1 comment:
Hi Candice,
Thanks 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.
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