Getting tired of same old designers in UK stitching mags ...

[meerkat]

[quote="XandraS Lately I've fallen in love with the designs in The Gift of Stitching, saving up to buying all the backissues now [/quote]

I had a look at the Gift of Stitching magazine after you mentioned it a while back Xandra and have subscribed to it since October last year. I love it for the reason that the designs are so different and the articles very interesting.
Like you,Slinky and others.. I can recognise many of the regular designers by their trademark style and haven't purchased any magazines for quite a while now, and I have a lot of magazine charts that go back to 2001, when I first bought a stitching magazine.

[Fizzbw]

I'm new to the stitching magazines so not as jaded as some of you - but I totally understand where you are coming from - I can see that once I have stitched a few I'm going to get a bit bored and frustrated.

The other thing I found utterly frustrating about the cross stitch mags was the sheer numbers of Christmas items - from September onwards!! Didn't like that at all.

I do love some of the regular contributors - like Sandy Littlejohn and her three part charts - and I like some of Joan |Elliots goddesses, but not the fairies.

I've just got the 2010 back issues of a Gift of stitching - really like it so far!

Niki x

[ali-cat]

I am soooo glad I saw these posts as I was just thinking about subscribing to one of the UK mags - hoping that since leaving the UK, things had changed!! I can see that they haven't!!

At the moment I just buy the French mags if and when I see one I like - but the 'Gift of Stitching' looks pretty good ... and very reasonably priced, as it's a download.

[helbel]

Well lets look at it, crossstitching.com shows the magazines they publish:

WoXS
Cross Stitch Crazy
Cross Stitch GOLD
Cross Stitch Card Shop
Cross Stitch Favourites

So that's one publisher with 5 cross stitch titles. I'm sure they will share staff and designs between magazines to help save costs. I suspect that the designer will have a contract with the publisher rather than a single magazine and whilst each magazine has it's own 'flavour' to help distinguish it from the other they sell they will all be using the same resources to do so.

Cross stitching is a niche publishing area so I suspect new publishers aren't going to risk a new title in an unfamiliar (and possibly overloaded?) market.

And lets face it certain designers do sell, many people like Maria Diaz and Joan Elliot designs.

[Slinky]

oh my, there are some wonderful designs in Gift of Stitching!! Niki x

Aren't there? That'll be why I've just parted with $20 for a year's subscription!! I can't resist

[Sarah Gixxer]

I must admit, other than the Joan Elliott Indian Maiden and Brave I'm doing which were in mags last year, I haven't found a great deal that has appealed to me and a lot of the charts in different mags are very similar as mentioned above.

Another thing I've found is that when I first started stitching many year ago (around 1992) I used to get Cross Stitcher all the time and most of their charts were (a) black and white symbol charts and (b) carefully finished with fractional stitches inside the backstitching.

Now I've noticed a lot of charts are colour blocks with symbols on top (which I hate) and it almost seems as if the chart designers are getting lazy in a lot of their designs because charts have a lot of whole crosses which stick outside of the backstitch lines and looks untidy so you end up having to create your own fractionals when you're stitching to make it neat.

[~threadbear~]

I had to laugh there Sarah, because I do the same! I hate all the crosses hanging out of my backstitch, so I tidy it up with fractional's as well!

I also prefer the black and white charts over the coloured versions.

[anniesal]

I agree too! I used to buy all of the mags and had been a subscriber to Cross Stitcher for more than ten years. I loved it when my Cross Stitcher came through the post and there was always something I fancied in each issue. After the first "new look" Cross Stitcher came I was very disappointed and after a few more issues I cancelled it.
I only rarely buy a mag now because they are so expensive and full of similar desigs and adverts.

[karen4bells]

I had to laugh there Sarah, because I do the same! I hate all the crosses hanging out of my backstitch, so I tidy it up with fractional's as well!

I also prefer the black and white charts over the coloured versions.

My thoughts exactly and I do exactly the same, I refuse to stitch outside of the backstitching!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Hear hear!

[minij]

I use to subscribe to WOXS but cancelled it after the year ran out, Cross Stitcher but like anniesal cancelled it when the new look mag came out as it really didn't appeal to me and although I still get Cross Stitch Crazy delivered I only tend to flick through it to see if anything appeals so i am thinking of cancelling that.

Slinky I think it would be a great idea to email the mags and like Rose suggested perhaps give a link to this thread

I have a friend who is not a forum member (but is coming round tomorrow for ) who designed this for one of the mags, can't remember which one and there were 4 in the series. It was quite strange as she had them printed before I knew her and one day when she was round she was looking through my photo album and suddenly saw that I had stitched one of her designs, sorry gone off topic a bit
http://www.crossstitchforum.com/gallery ... 8&start=40" target="_blank" target="_blank
The 4th one along the top the blue and yellow one with the flower, I called it Random Pattern as I can't remember what it was called

[Rose]

I agree I hate it when they don't take the time to finish a chart and I will add a 1/2 or 1/4 stitch to make it look finished.

[Mabel Figworthy]

@minij -- What fun knowing a published designer It's a really lovely design!

[Slinky]

I hate all the crosses hanging out of my backstitch, so I tidy it up with fractional's as well!

Ditto!!

[Slinky]

I think this whole thread should be sent to all of the magazines so they understand what the active stitchers are really looking for not what the editors and designers think they should have............ Just my 2 cents

Slinky I think it would be a great idea to email the mags and like Rose suggested perhaps give a link to this thread

I have been thinking about doing so. Would anyone have a problem if I did?

[~threadbear~]

No problem for me. I'd be interested to see what they say in answer to our opinions, maybe they really feel they're sticking with what people want and this could give them a different perspective.

[3madspaniels]

I had to laugh there Sarah, because I do the same! I hate all the crosses hanging out of my backstitch, so I tidy it up with fractional's as well!

.

I have to tidy up charts as well! It also annoys me that when they show the finished article, it usually has been finished with fractional stitches. I wonder how many new stitchers are disappointed when they follow the chart exactly, and get a different result to the picture shown.

[phoenix2327]

~threadbear~ wrote:
I had to laugh there Sarah, because I do the same! I hate all the crosses hanging out of my backstitch, so I tidy it up with fractional's as well!


Hah-hah. I thought it was just me being OCD because I don't like using whole stitches that hang outside of the backstitched outline. I mean it's not always inappropriate. If the designer is trying to give the design a sketchy feel, I think it looks perfectly fine. But other than that I think it looks sloppy. As a result, I always substitute those whole stitches with fractionals.[quote="karen4bells"][quote="~threadbear~"]I had to laugh there Sarah, because I do the same! I hate all the crosses hanging out of my backstitch, so I tidy it up with fractional's as well!

[*barb*]

I''ve only been getting the magzines for a couple of years but started to notice the repetitiveness recently. I have a subscription to cross stitcher until the middle of this year and one to woxs until about october.

I''m not really sure if I will be renewing them to be honest, i rarely come across something I am itching to stitch lately and have the ones i have previously purchased. I kept the patterns i want to stitch and have so many i think I have about 10 years worth of stuff...maybe in ten years time new stuf will come along.

[Midge]

I think this whole thread should be sent to all of the magazines so they understand what the active stitchers are really looking for not what the editors and designers think they should have............ Just my 2 cents

Slinky I think it would be a great idea to email the mags and like Rose suggested perhaps give a link to this thread

I have been thinking about doing so. Would anyone have a problem if I did?

Go for it Jane, they will never know if they don't get told.
If it helps their circulation, I would imagine that they will be only too pleased to hear what we think.