My Mother's Day Stitching

For Mother's Day I took advantage of the complimentary card patterns that were in some of the cross stitch magazines I've purchased recently and did some stitching for all the moms in my life.

This Fizzy Moon bear comes from Issue 187 of The World of Cross Stitching and I stitched it for my own mom. I love the beautiful spring flowers and the brightness of the card frame. I have to laugh at the pattern instructions though. They confidently assured me I'd have this design finished in "Approx. 6 hours." I didn't keep exact track of time, but I'd say my six hours turned into about 20 hours!

I've never used these freebie patterns before and I think the hardest part was holding on to the tiny piece of aida cloth while trying to stitch it. I'm used to stitching with a loom, but the fabric pieces supplied with the patterns were too small to fit any of my looms.

This second design I made for the boyfriend's mom. It's a Margaret Sherry mouse courtesy of Cross Stitch Crazy Issue 163. So cute! I may have to restitch this one for my own collection someday. With a slightly larger piece of fabric and a few less stitches to work, I think it's fair to say this one actually did take only about 6-8 hours to stitch.

Last, but not least, something for my Grandma. She's an avid owl collector; pictures, plates, figurines. She likes just about anything with owls on it. I didn't have any good owl patterns on hand so I took to the internet to see what was out there. I found this owl, which blogger Tory posted about after having found it at a flea market. I used the picture as a guide and reworked the design in colours that I had on hand. I did a little more research and found out this owl is pretty popular, Another blogger, Cynthia, uses this pattern when she's teaching young girls and children how to cross stitch. So I'm guessing this little guy has served as a first stitching project for a lot of cross stitchers!

Magaret Sherry Cats

Someday I'll have a craft room and these cats will decorate it. For now, I'll have to settle for them decorating our computer room (where I blog about my crafts).

I just finished the last of these two over the weekend. They are Margaret Sherry's Knit One (to the left) and Roly Purrly (below) which were initially published by Heritage Stitchcraft.

Most of Margaret Sherry's older patterns are out of print, but I was lucky enough to find Loving Stitch still had copies of these ones available for a reasonable price.

I stitched both on a 32 count cream linen. The smaller one, with the pink ball of yarn, is in a 4 inch flexi-hoop, while the larger is in a 6 inch flexi hoop.

I guess I could consider the whole project an endangered species, as much like Margaret Sherry patterns, I'm finding the flexi-hoops are becoming harder and harder to come by in my area.

There is also a third cross stitched cat in the series entitled Purr One, but despite much searching of the internet I wasn't able to find a copy available anywhere. If anyone has a copy they'd like to trade, share, or sell feel free to drop me an email message at the address you see in the top left corner of the blog. I'd love to hear from you.

Spike In Charge Cross Stitch

I made this last fall as a birthday and graduation gift for the Infamous and Crafty Lisa, who has just finished up a four year nursing program. I finally got the chance to give it to her last weekend and now I can put up a picture of it without spoiling the surprise. I did all the stitching and the boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, helped select the frame and matboards. The picture is called Spike In Charge and it was created by designer Margaret Sherry. If you're not familiar with her work, you can check out a few samples here. Many of her designs are currently discontinued, including Spike, whom I bought a few years ago. Her pictures tend to feature pudgy animals ranging from cats to elephants, and they're always adorable. You may have also seen them on scrapbooking stickers or greeting cards.