Christmas Presents

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and new year!  I had a really good Christmas with my boyfriends parents and got to see my family briefly too.

I wanted to share my crafty and sewing presents but I didn't actually get that much this year.  I did however get money which I have spent on my next projects.  My sister got me a book I had wanted for a while called Twisted Stitches which is an alternative cross stitch book filled with funky patterns of skulls, zombies and evil santas. 

The book is available on Amazon which is I think where mine is from.  Phil Davison is also involved with Urban Threads so if you like their stuff you will know what to expect from this book.  I was actually lucky enough to help with some of the sample sewing for this book, but as I didn't meet the deadline I didn't think my piece would be used.  Imagine how surprised I was when I opened the book to find it had been!

Burlesque Zombie Portrait

With some creative photography they managed to use it which makes me really happy.  I put A LOT of hours in to this over a three week period I worked on it non-stop whilst I was not working and for a whole week when I was on holiday.  I have to say that the housework and pretty much everything else but I am really glad it did get to appear in the book.  I really underestimated the time it takes to complete a cross stitch of this scale.  I have done larger ones before but never measured the time it took me to complete.  For that I apologise to Phil but I also want to congratulate him on his amazing book.

Work in Progress

A few days before sending it off to be photographed

My name in print!

The two sugar skulls in the book are going to be my first project from this book as my sister has requested them (the main reason for her buying me the book I suspect! :p)  They look really fun to stitch up too as I love anything with bright colours.