People that stitch our designs

April 2010,

I sometimes wonder who stitches our designs, so I really enjoy hearing from members of the public who let us know what they do with the projects that originate from our studio.

Sharon, Texas State Chaplain for Texas Alpha Delta Kappa, an honorary teacher sorority, wrote to tell us that the Violet is the symbol of their altrustic society, so they were more than pleased to be able to download our free violets motif chart for bookmarks and such like for members.


You can download this free chart from our site at www.crossstitcharts.co.uk

Pat, from the UK, recently sent us a photo of her adaptation of 'A Summer Ball'. (See below) which dealt very neatly with an arm that Pat thought was a bit ungainly in the original. She made such a good job that we felt it would be good to show as an alternative.









The change is subtle, the gentleman on the left is seen to be clasping both hands behind his back as the gentleman next to him is also doing, rather than hanging down by his side. We're impressed with the changes so full marks to Pat who leads a group of sixty or so stitchers in her home town.

Pat has also downloaded several others of our range so we'll look forward to hearing more about these too in due course.

Its near the end of March and the clocks go back tonight. More evening daylight yippee!

We've just been commissioned to design another Victorian Christmas design for Cross Stitch Collection, deadline 12th of May (eek) and have just finished the design and packing of a special 'Rodney Rabbit' kit for childrens entertainers, Razamatazz (see www.razamatazzmagic.com) It should be making it's debut at the magicians convention at Blackpool as I write.

Rodney was created for Andy and Sue of Razamatazz by the guy that does the animation for the Airwick commercials and such like. We just took it a step further to create this fun kit for Andy and Sue to share with their fans.

Feb 23rd

What a cold week it's been again this week. Pipes freezing and fingers too - but walking to the studio has been a highlight - see the photos below:



Above - You can just see our house across the field as I walk to the studio for some work to take home (much too chilly to work there even with all the heaters on just now)

This little section (above) of the railway path I use is my favourite - Plenty of wildlife along here, including badgers.

Coming up toward the village - some kind soul has been clearing the snow from here onwards

Nearly there, the old station platform

This end houses a railway museum - open only a few weekends a year unless booked specially

And here we are - Unit 1 - it's much larger on the inside than it looks from here

Which you can see better from this angle

And finally, a great little family run hotel just across the square

And there we have it. The studio is still pretty bare and functional inside, Mum (Sandy) is itching to hang up some Gingham curtains and pretty it up, but she'll have to wait a bit longer yet.

Coincidentally, our latest design for Cross stitch collection is a fantastic late Victorian/ early Edwardian railway scene, a whopping great big three part design, featuring a rural station just like ours with complete with a fabulous steam engine and a packed platform of wonderful characters. We like to think it looks a little like how our station would have looked in those times - who knows!

http://www.crossstitcharts.co.uk/

Cross stitch designs by Deborah Lester and Sandy Littlejohns

February at the studio

February is proving to be a bit of a no go time for us and our new studio. Based in an old victorian railway station, the building is pretty cold and hard to heat which isn't good for dexterity and getting in the mood for creating new designs.

We got the keys in November, but with the coldest winter for years, we've resorted to staying home and working by the fire side still, which is nice but with children, dogs and cats milling around, not that practical. The studio, when we can finally start using it properly will be our dog and cat hair, pop music free zone of tranquility in which we can muse and craft to our hearts content. I've even been fantazising about having the door and windows open in the summer sunshine as walkers go past, bees humming gently in the hedges nearby and the waft of fresh cut grass from our neighbours gardens. Hey ho, not long now.......March will soon be here and everything will start springing to life, me included.

Meanwhile, as the snow is still dropping odd flakes outside, I'm pondering what new projects to start after several months of working hard on our new website and PDF chart downloads. Mum has been busy with a fantastic new 3 part design for Cross Stitch Collection, (due out from August 2010) but after such a long break away from designing myself, I'm all at odds about what I want to do first. As usual, too many ideas, not enough time! I'll let you know........

PayLoadz Store Victorian Christmas Eve Complete

February 3rd 2010

Here we have an old favourite, the mammoth Victorian Christmas Eve by Mum, (Sandy Littlejohns) and is one of my favourite of her designs. We have a new website now for cross stitch charts, but as I have found this excellent new way to share designs and promote our charts, I thought I would give it a go.

As many people know, the Victorian Christmas Eve design is a fabulously long design consisting of three individual designs, each 10" x 8" but stitched together, the total design is a whopping 30" x 8" of pure Charles Dickens, for just £12.00 or just £5.00 for each individual section.

You can purchase this design at our site http://www.crossstitcharts.co.uk/ or from the payloadz digital download store by just clicking on the following link. PayLoadz Store Victorian Christmas Eve Complete

Which ever you decide, we would be pleased to hear your comments and feedback about the design and our new site, so be sure to get in touch.

Christmas Stitcherydoodah

Find and colour in the hidden cross stitch pattern (Great for introducing kids to cross stitch)

Red:

Yellow:

Blue:

Word search key:

Brown: elf

Green: Ski * fir * to * me * be * eve * up * fun * at * Christmassy * tinsel * it * three * earth * elf * kings * visit * toy * new * father * boots * garland * candycanes * boxingday * present * stars * merry * the * happy * sleighbells * snow * robin * pudding * carolsingers * snowy * hi * rudolph * on * peace * mincepies * baby *jesus * sky * twinklestar * earth *men * year * fireside * will * candles * snowman * so * good *celebration * child * do *angel * frosty * o * holy * night lights * feast ** quality

Find and colour the symbols and words to find the pattern. Please feel free to stitch this pattern for resale as a fundraising project.

View a selection of charts for download by UK designers Sandy Littlejohns and Deborah Lester at: http://www.sandylittlejohns.co.uk/