Colouring-in and Cross Stitch

My local bookshops and newsagents seem to be full of colouring-in books aimed at adults.  This is the new craze that appears to be growing and providing a therapeutic and creative release for stress. On social media there is a growing number of cross stitchers who are finding the joy of colouring-in for themselves, so this gave me the idea of combining the two hobbies and my new 'Colour-In Cross Stitch' chart packs were born!

I've created a range of 6" square designs made from black cross-stitched outlines (and some include thinner, backstitched details too), and the aim is for the charts to be coloured-in by the stitcher and then the design can be cross-stitched onto fabric using colours that the stitcher already has in their stash. (Because if any stitcher is like me, they'll have A LOT of threads in their crafting stash!).  I really enjoyed designing my stained glass-style designs in the past and working on these is just like that again which makes it a joy to do.

These chart packs contain 2 designs each and are available from my Etsy shop as digital downloads, or as printed paper versions, here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SheenaRogersDesigns

I'm now planning to design more of these pieces - a project that I might take up is to create enough designs to put forward for collating into a 'colouring cross stitch' book, who knows?

And in between these black and white designs, I'm still creating mini cushions - working my way through my list of themes.  At the moment, I'm designing a mini cushion with an ancient Greece theme.  I had always planned to create one like this after I was given a small Greek 'urn' some years ago, and I raided my cupboards to find an old Reader's Digest book all about the country with some great photos included.

Although I keep producing these designs, my 'to-do' list doesn't seem to be shrinking!  I can't keep up with them as I keep adding more!  But at least it keeps things busy and interesting.