More magazine reviews

I didn't get a chance to finish my reviews yesterday, so wanted to keep going.


Cross Stitch Crazy, May 2008


I am starting to get a dicey on this magazine. Maybe it's because I am starting to realize I just don't have time to stitch all these designs anymore. Or because they keep having the same designers over and over. But this is a good issue.

The main design in the magazine is a Sarah Kay design. It's a pretty little girl holding a Raggedy Anne doll. Very sweet. This would make a good pillow or you could make a quilt square out of it. Lesley Teare has also contributed a sepia toned portrait of kids playing instruments. It's pretty cute. I don't know as I would stitch it, but it would be good for a school music teacher.

There are lots of baby designs, which would probably be good on that green cat I featured yesterday. Oh, I did learn something new yesterday--an American pacifier is a British comforter. They mentioned a comforter in the other magazine yesterday, about the design keeping it clean, and I looked at the small object in the picture and thought to myself, "Well, it's very cute, but how in the heck would you stick a baby blanket in there?" It took me a few moments--I was even looking at the baby quilt kit next to it, trying to see if that was really a comforter cover and I have just been stupid for all this time. And then I realized that it was to put the pacifier in. Hee hee . . .

Karen Britten has contributed a cute little design called, "Summer's coming," an orange tabby sitting on a porch surrounded by flowers. The ABC this month is flowers. They would be pretty for Mother's Day. Lucie Heaton has done some butterflies for cards. I don't do cards, but they would be cute for a spring tree, or else stitched as a trio on a t-shirt or a tunic. My mom would wear something like that.



Cross Stitch Collection, Issue 156

I have been waiting for this one. And it's worth it. Anchor has provided a lovely sampler, called down by the Riverside. It shows all the little birds right on the river. I think it would be so cute, especially because there are little ducklings. So sweet.

Maria Diaz did a really adorable design of baby pigs. They are darling. I don't know how I would finish them, because, really, unless you collect pigs, they aren't something that you put up on the wall, but she has them as a pillow surrounded by gingham, and that would work.


DMC has a nice old-fashioned design of a train going down a track with some children watching it. I like this one. It might be good for SO because he likes trains. And you can't definitively say this is British countryside, it could be the area near SO's house, the way it looks.

Sheila Hudson submitted a design of tulips. It's beautiful. Though it just hit me, Sheila died last month, so we won't have many more designs from her. That is really sad; she had a great talent and will be missed. But this is very lovely, and a great tribute to her gift.

The reviews this month are of art cross stitch. My personal favorite is the Landseer of a bloodhound and Westie, but I like dogs :) There is a pretty Monet reviewed, and a snippet of a Renoir.

I am pretty excited about next month's issue. There is a beautiful mermaid by Joan Elliott. And lovely Jane Netley Mayhew lions. I am a little dismayed because there is an AOY design in this issue that was in WOXS a couple years ago, but I just won't stitch that.