Some more little finishes

Hello, everyone,

how was your Christmas? We decided not to celebrate really, just take it easy and relax, didn't even buy presents (only for the kids). Still, I managed to eat more and move less than what I intended.
I am having a bad backache again, and really need to lose weight to help my back. :( I started yesterday but not with much success so far :D


Anyway, I have been stitching and knitting a bit, here is the result. I finished another pattern on my Celtic afghan, this time it is a pattern from a library book, a Celtic Cross. It was originally designed to look like stone in different shades of grey, but I changed the colours so it matches the other patterns more.

And this is what the afghan looks like now. Sorry it is not ironed. I am planning to do four smaller pattern in the corners and then I will see if it needs more or not. Don't want it to bee too much - there are lots of colours in it already.

And I knitted a hat for myself so I have something to go with the scarf I received from my daughter.

I am also knitting a pullover for her in different shades of grey, and I have organised my embroidery threads, among them lots of vintage threads. Will have to take a photo of the boxes and bags tomorrow, when there is more light.
I might want to start some small cross stitch too, tonight. I was looking at pattern books and feel an urgent need to stitch LOL.

I will be soon back with more pictures.
Until then, have fun, friends.

Boldog karácsonyt. Merry Christmas. God Jul

Minden kedves olvasómnak és látogatómnak nagyon boldog karácsonyt kívánok.

Wishing all my dear readers and visitors a very merry Christmas.

Till alla mina kära läsare och besökare önskar jag God Jul.

Snowflake. Blackwork. But blue.

I was thinking: how long since I have drawn (and stitched) a blackwork pattern.
And this little thing was born.

Of course, it is not black. I imagined it in blue (DMC 3838) with tiny, lighter blue beads (like DMC 3747). Or you can use French knots / colonial knots instead.

Stitched on some sparkly Aida... what do you think? Anyone willing to test it? :D :D

Happy Christmas/New Year stitching.

Boldog karácsonyt. Merry Christmas. God Jul

I know it is not Christmas yet. :)
But soon.

Still, if you want to stitch a bookmark as a gift, you have just enough time for one of the following little patterns.
In Swedish it is so short that I made a smaller version as well that can be used as a gift-tag or a pincushion.

Have fun stitching them. Send me a photo if you have done so. :)

Second sunday of advent

Hi, everyone,


Have just come home from our advent concert with the choir I joined in August. I have to say it is so difficult, especially at this time of the year. We are singing lots of songs that are "common" at Christmastime in Sweden, but to me they are all new. Also, I missed lots of practices because I was sick, then my daughter came, then I was sick again... I tried to learn the songs on my own, but it is not so easy. Anyway, we did all right, although I wasn't very sure of myself.


I am thinking of closing down my on-line shop. I started it in May and there was only one sale. I feel a bit disappointed. Not too much, I never expected to make lots of money from my craft, but still. Anyway, we are organising a charity event in my school, a concert with the kids singing and playing, and all the money we get from the tickets goes to orphans in India. So I thought we can do a craft fair at the same time. I have a few kids who kept coming in one or two afternoons, after lessons, to my classroom and making little things: bracelets, christmas ornaments etc (there is even a stuffed ice-cream cone!!!)- we are going to set up a table and sell them. I will also bring lots of my things: pincushions, biscornus, bracelets, and try to sell them. At least they can serve a good cause.
And then the online shop will just go. Or perhaps I can leave the photos there and just say that I take orders... don't know.


I have been busy this last week, and we had lots of snow, and I had to go to the dentist (2 hours, brr), then practice the songs - there wasn't much time left for stitching. I am missing it, actually. I started this little angel but couldn't finish it. The pattern was inspired by an old Swedish motif but I changed it quite a bit and I think it looks really modern now.

Hope you will enjoy it. I am stitching it in light blue. What colour would you choose?

Palkó (who is sharing my name) has stitched it. Here

Advent

Hello, dear Friends.

Today it is the first Sunday of Advent. I am singing in a church choir and we sang some really beautiful songs today. I was so happy because one of my favourite Advent songs happens to be in the Swedish Psalm Book. We sang it in Swedish.


Here
is a really beautiful version of this song by Enya. Listen to it. Hope you will like it.


Are you getting excited because it is Christmas soon? Are you busy stitching (or perhaps shopping :o) for Christmas?

I am organising a mini craft fair at school with the kids, with all the money going to orphans in India. Not only the children but also I am making things so I was busy with that. I will show you some photos next week. I hope we can raise lots of money.


What else? I am knitting a pullover for my daughter, although I can never be sure if she wears what I make for her. Most of the time she doesn't. :( My fault, why can't I figure out what she likes???


I am also making a macrame Christmas tree and trying to write a tutorial, we will see how it turns out.


I have taken some photos of the winter wonderland that is Sweden at the moment. Soon I will also post photos of my WIPs.

Until then, I have another cross stitch pattern to share with you. This is based on traditional Hungarian patterns. The red colour makes it perfect for Christmas, but you can stitch it in any other colour (or variegated) for any occasion.

Happy stitching and get in lovely Christmas mood. But just carefully, you don't want to be burned out by the time the big day comes. :D

More Swedish charts

I have made a little Swedish pattern, the Dala horse, which can be almost called the symbol of Sweden. Originally coming from the province of Dalarna, the Dala horse is made of wood and painted. I know, I know, there are quite a few cross stitch patterns of it out there already, but I wanted to try my hand with it.

I wanted to keep it simple and easy, I had in mind some quick Christmas cards or gift tags, perhaps a pincushion or a scissor fob. But when Stephen saw it, he said it wasn't good enough: the Dala horse should have more decorative harness. So I made another version, still small and easy, just a little bit fancier.

I will show you both, you can decide which one you want to stitch. The traditional colours are red, with green, blue, yellow and white decoration but of course there are lots of other versions, so it absolutely all right to change the colours.

Happy stitching. :)

By the way, one of my few patterns for sale is a doll in folklore costume from Dalarna. Just in case someone is interested, look at my Pages.

New finishes and a Christmas freebie

Hi, everyone, how are you doing?

Have you started your Christmas stitching yet?

I have made a free Christmas pattern. Apart from the usual motifs I used some Swedish motifs that I really love. The deer is used widely in Sweden, although it is quite a universal pattern all over Europe. But the Julbok, the goat is typical Swedish, as is the crown. I hope you like it. You can use them together or one by one on gift tags or cards.

I have finished two pieces recently: one is Celtic Knot by Textile Heritage. I have stitched it on an afghan, I am collecting different Celtic patterns on it.

The other is my own Dove that I published in my last post. To be honest, I myself didn't think it will turn out this good, I am very happy with it. I used variegated threads, Anchor 1204 on the wing and DMC 4110 on the body. For the wing and the tail I stitched in rows, to have this stripey appearance, for the body I stitched in little block or circles so it became more blotchy. I made one little change: I backstitched a circle around the eye. I felt the eye was a bit too small.

What do you all think? What colours would you use?

Right after I wrote about my bargain finds last time, I happened to be in the Red Cross shop again. (Only by accident, you understand.) This is part of what I came away with (I bought lots of buttons and yarn to take to school, too).

One of these books is called "Embroidery, cutting, sewing", the other "Rare cross stitch".

Lots of embroidery fabric, a thread holder in wood and a tool to wrap yarn on (what is it called?), and some more yarn, and bags of different embroidery threads:wool, cotton, linen, perle.

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A fabric giveaway

Hi, Friends,


there is a fabulous fabric giveaway at Maureen's. Go to her blog and sign up!

Needlework books and a free pattern

Good morning!

We have autumn break in Sweden so finally I have time and energy to write a blog post. I have been planning to write for weeks but life has been hectic. Not to mention that my back has been causing me so much pain that I couldn't do much. I am still in pain but it is getting a bit better. Fingers crossed, please, everyone. :)


So, I have been planning to show all the beautiful books I have bought or received recently. Sweden is full of treasures, as I have told you a few times. Not only can you buy lovely old fabric, weaving, lace and embroidery in every second-hand shop but they also have bookshelves in those shops, there are lovely used book-shops and you can find books in he "loppis" which is something in between a garage sale and a second-hand shop.

Here are my latest finds: embroidery, textile art and sewing patterns. They are not the latest fashion, but I just love them, it is so much fun looking at old patterns - and if I ever get to that level in sewing, I might be able to adjust them a bit. And the embroidery patterns don't age, right? :)


I found the first book in this Encyclopedia of Home Needlework (or something like that) at a loppis, then bought the second one from the internet. I am looking for the rest (20 volumes altogether) but they are not easy to find. No wonder: this is a fantastic book, with basically everything you can think of and some more. It is in Swedish but that is not so much a problem any more :D

Here is another lovely book and a page with some beautiful old weaving. I wonder what the three-legged figure means - it appears more than once on woven clothes.

This one I bought on the internet. It is not only textiles but all kinds of crafts, e.g. woodcarving, basket weaving etc.

These two folders I found at a Red Cross shop. One is needlework (weaving and embroidery), the other is sewing patterns.

This is the perfect example of the sewing patterns from the 70s. I think it is hilarious! I have threatened Stephen to make him something like this if he doesn't behave LOL.

And there is one more folder with tons of sewing patterns and very useful instructions. I think I will use it in school.

These two little pattern booklets I received as a gift from Stephen. He found them on Tradera (the Swedish e-bay) and bought them for me. Can you see the name and year? 1962! They are lovely. You can look forward to some more Swedish inspiration in my patterns.

Let's go over to what I have been stitching lately. Not much (hanging head in shame). But some. I found this Christmas card pattern in my UFO bag. I think I started it 3 years ago but when I saw I won't finish it before Christmas, put it down. Then repeated the same the next year. Last year I didn't even take it out. But now I managed to finish it. It is a DMC kit that I received from a friend on crossstitchforum.com and it uses lots of metallic thread. I actually loved stitching it. So many people complain about metallics, especially DMC but I had no trouble at all. And I love the overall effect. You just can't have too much bling, can you? :D The colours are so unusual and still so great. (I lost one of the buttons - but have since found it.)

I have made some small felt ornaments too: Swedish hearts and Hungarian tulips. I have been trying to teach myself how to draw Hungarian folk patterns (and other patterns - I have discovered Zentangle!) On the gray fabric you can see my embroidered doodling, the traditional tulip with French knots and rice stitch - makes it very modern, don't you think so? I made that without drawing the pattern on the fabric, just improvised. Will use this piece of fabric for other experiments.

This is another gift. Stephen's parents visited us a few weeks ago. After they went home, his mum sent me this. It is an Eva Rosenstrand kit, a tablecloth, that she started long ago but as her eyes are not good enough to stitch, she sent it to me to finish. Isn't that really kind of her? I love this, I will surely stitch it.

Perhaps you want to have a look at my weaving experiment? I couldn't do much on it, it doesn't go well with backache. :( So I have done this much:

Two small butterflies that I stitched for a charity organisation for quilts.

I took out another UFO, my Celtic afghan and started a Celtic knot pattern, this is what I am working on right now. I love it but I am so sad because I cannot keep the back of the stitching neat. Too many colour changes. :(

Sorry that it has become such a long post with so many pictures. I hope you still find it interesting.

Finally, another free cross stitch pattern. This is a dove, it has a bit of a folk art feeling to it but still modern. At least that was the intention :) I hope y ou like it. Enjoy stitching it.