Wish upon a star … Mr Fox

It’s always a relief when I’ve uploaded and successfully sent out each month’s magazine to my lovely subscribers.  I don’t altogether trust computers, and my internet connection, as I’m so far out in the countryside, is not the fastest, though it’s never let me down completely.  (yet!) Then, once the magazine’s safely dispatched,  I list the patterns I want to offer individually – that’s never all of them as I like to keep some just for magazine readers – so there’s lots to do.  

But once all the computer stuff is finished, I can look forward to all the excitement of starting a whole new group of designs for the following month’s issue.  This month I’m starting with one of my favourite techniques – some lovely hand embroidery – based on a line drawing by my friend Jacqui (Flapdoodledesigns).  Here I am, snuggled in my comfy chair,about to begin …

It’s always such an exciting moment – though of course as I’m sure you know – a lot of work has to happen before you ever reach this point!  Cleaning and resizing the image, transferring it to fabric, selecting flosses and deciding in what order to work the design and what stitches to use – as well as hooping up, removing the Newfies from where I want to put my feet and making sure there’s a nice hot cup of tea to hand.  But at last I could begin – and over the last few days have made very good progress ….

These two pictures illustrate perfectly why you shouldn’t trust your computer I think!!  I promise that it’s the same piece of work but something very strange has happened to the colours – one was taken in artificial light – though I did have my daylight lamp on, and the second by daylight earlier on this morning while the sun was out.  The real colour of my background fabric is actually somewhere between the two – probably rather closer to the second photo.  I think that I need to add a little outline around the fox’s white tail tip as it’s getting a bit lost amongst the toadstool’s spots, but I’m pleased with the fur shading so far.  I haven’t quite decided what colours the stripes on his scarf will be yet – blue and green perhaps?  I also like that he feels quite festive – but is not full-on Christmas – so I’ll be able to display him through the festive season and beyond.  

As well as Mr Fox, Jacqui gave me a second line drawing – this time a little hedgehog also wishing on a star – here’s her watercolour version ….

Isn’t he adorable?  And she was quite happy for me to share her hedgehog drawing with you if you’d like to stitch your own hedgehog wishing on a star.  Just CLICK HERE to download the free transfer – there aren’t any stitching instructions included – just the transfer.

When Mr Fox is finished however, he’ll be in the December Bustle & Sew Magazine with full instructions and lots of photographs to help you stitch and shade his fur. I’ll be sure to post more pictures when he’s done!