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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