Happy New Year!

Wishing a happy new year to all my stitchy friends.


I am sorry I didn't write the blog and if you waited for more cross stitch pattern, you probably were disappointed.

I am planning to revive the blog in the new year, wish me luck an energy. I am not sure what I will do with the old posts where the pictures are gone... I think this enormous task was that kept me away. Silly, really, but there you have it.

Right now, on New Year's Eve I am sitting at home and knitting, enjoying the school holiday and not bothering too much about the turn of the year. :D

See you soon again.

Problem with pictures

Dear readers, I am so sorry, I have just come home from a holiday and noticed that lots and lots of my older pictures, the one that are hosted on Photobucket, don't appear on the blog.
Photobucket have changed their terms and now they want people to pay 400 USD per year for this service. I have seen on the net that lots of other bloggers have the same problem. I am lucky that for a few years now I have used Blogger's own platform, but the older posts are affected.

I will try and find a solution to this but it will take time - and right now I need to concentrate on the next school year that starts next week.

In the meantime, if you have seen a picture (of a cross stitch pattern, probably) and follow it to the blog, contact me and I will try to find it on my hard drive.

A row of tulips - bookmark pattern

Hello, everyone, here come a few pictures of my latest projects, and a small cross stitch pattern for you.

I have been knitting a lot lately, it is one of those periods when I am very tired so I need lots of time when I just relax. I decided to develop my sock-knitting skills, so I am knitting woollen socks in different sizes and different materials. I looked at some tutorials and from those I put together a variation that works for me - and my technique of knitting with the magic loop, two at a time. I really don't like knitting with the double pointed needles. I would like to learn the steps by heart so I can knit these without looking at a pattern. After three pairs I am getting there but not there yet. There will be more two follow. I only have picture of one pair though.

Another thing I was working on was more zipper pouches. Last time I posted, I shared with you a cross stitch pattern that I turned into a zipper pouch. That gave me the idea to use some of my cross stitched or hardanger pieces that were just lying in a drawer and I had no idea what to do with them. Now they can be used. And made one with patchwork, too, for a friend who likes pink-white and gray.

I am also doing an online course with Dionne Swift, Drawing for textiles. She is amazing and I love the exercises we do. It is not about drawing a realistic picture of something rather focusing on mark-making, creating lines with different techniques. Here are some of my examples:

And finally, the cross stitch freebie, a simple row of tulips to celebrate spring. Can be used on a bookmark, a towel, as a border on something, or just use one or two elements for a card. Or make a zipper pouch :D

Happy stitching.

Zipper pouch with a cross stitch panel. Free tulip pattern

I had Easter break last week. And of course, I got sick. Luckily, just a little cold, it didn't turn into anything nasty, but for a few days I was not doing much, just resting. I didn't have the energy to continue with my patchwork projects, and needed to put down the knitting for a few days because my hand started to hurt, so I took a piece of Aida and started a cross stitch project. It's been a while since I last did cross stitch, and I was really missing it.
Found a small tulip motive on my computer that I drew ages ago, and quickly turned it into a repetitive pattern that almost covers the whole fabric. I was just going to see how it looks, but then couldn't stop :D After four days, I finished it last night, and today made it into this zipper pouch. I really love it, I think this will be my favourite from now on.

Here is the pattern. Just repeat - or leave out - as many elements as you wish. It is only two colours, so it is really easy to pick your own colours, too, and I am sure that variegated threads would look great as well.

A wedding sampler made from the blackwork pattern

Denise has just sent me this fantastic picture. She used elements of the Blackwork sampler pattern to create a wedding sampler. Very creative! Isn't it just beautiful?

Thank you, Denise, for sharing it with us.

Easter bunny free cross stitch pattern

Easter is coming! Spring is here! I am so excited. Went for a walk today and saw the first blåsippa - that is anemone hepatica, or liverwort, kidneywort or pennywort in English (according to Wikipedia). Here are a few pictures from my walk. The pink flowering bush is something we try to find every year, but I forgot the name, I will ask Stephen when he wakes up :D

I thought this is something to celebrate, so that's why I made this pattern for you. It is simple and easy, and there is still time to stitch it for Easter. It is small, so you can use it for a card or put it on a cushion or on a door hanging. Lots of colours, bunny and flowers - I hope it will lift everyone's spirits. It certainly made me happy. :D

Click on the picture to get to the pdf file.

I was busy lately, but somehow didn't manage to write on the blog. Let me make up for it. Here are a few things I have been working on.



Serendipty II is finished:

I got a new mobile so I made a new cross stitched mobile phone case.

I did lots of English paper piecing, love these hexagons. They are also perfect for using even the smallest scraps.

I think this photo I made of the hexagon paper templates turned out to be really cool. :)

I continued working on the quilt I am making for my daughter, made of 7,5 cm (=3 inch) half square triangles, I was totally crazy when I decided on this. :D But it is going to be lovely.

I also made a quilt top from some cool panels.

I am hopin to be able to finish quilting these myself. I started learning free motion quilting.

I made some softies, like this kitty...

...and this bunny.

And this is a summer bag, for going to the beach.

I also did some knitting:

a scarf,...

double knitted hat and mittens, with my own pattern...

as well as these hats. I am going to publish the pattern for these soon.

I also learnt how to knit from top down. For this little sweater I followed a pattern. Unfortunately it became smaller than expected, but I will find someone who can use it, and I am planning to knit another, slightly bigger one now.

Whoa, I got tired just from showing you all this - and this is the result of the last three months. Not too bad, is it?
I also have some more things that I started but they are far from being finished, so I will show you later.

HAPPY SPRING! :D

Heart in rainbow colours for Valentines

Hello everyone,



I have been MIA for more than a month, sorry. I got some silly cold and wasn't feeling very well. I did some easy, mindless sewing but couldn't do much of anything that required thinking or counting etc. I will show you some pictures later.
But now it feels I am back among the living :D and getting more active, hopefully.


I was thinking long what to do for Valentine's day. If you have read my blog for a while you might remember that I am not a big fan of it, mostly because in my home country, Hungary, it is a recent holiday, introduced by flower and sweet shops and is all about trying to sell things, without any real meaning or tradition behind it. But perhaps the younger generations feel different about it.

At the end, I made a small heart pattern that expresses much more than just love. It also has a "political" meaning, if you like: the right for everyone to love whom and how they want. I feel very strongly about human rights, and I am following the craftivism movement (crafts + activism that is using crafts for a cause).

This pattern can perhaps be my first, although simple, contribution to craftivism. Use it on a card, a pincushion, a bookmark etc.

Some practical advice:

Don't worry if you don't have the exact colours I used. Just take out your threads, first choose the main colours of the rainbow, then pick out some that can be transition colours (or you can even omit those) and stitch. Have fun playing with your colours.

I hope you like it.
Happy stitching

Happy new year!

My dear readers,

wishing everyone a very happy new year full of stitches.

Here are some of my plans for the new year - mind you, no resolutions, just plans, and those are tend to change as time goes...

- design and write down (that is the more difficult part) more knitting patterns
- learn to crochet from a chart (never tried, might be easy, we will see)
- do more patchwork
- learn free motion quilting on my machine
- practice hand-quilting more (done a little last year for university)
- learn new embroidery stitches
- weave more

and perhaps the most important:

- develop my fabric art and have a small exhibition somewhere in the second half of the year. This sounds and feels like a big step but I need to take this step. It's important to me. It involves lots of things, maybe new techniques (although I don't want to put a lot of emphasis on this), finding my own style and finding ways to express my feelings.

Here is a picture of the piece I was working on since last summer, but had to put it aside in the autumn and only picked it up again during Christmas.Now it is almost done, only need to cut down the background, bind it, and maybe add a few small details. Right now it is just hanging in my living room so I can see it a lot and let my feelings vibrate around it to see how I want it to be. Haven't got a name for it yet...

I also want to continue writing on this blog, hopefully more often, to record my work. I hope many of you will come along with me on this journey. There will be more cross stitch (and perhaps other) patterns published for you guys, too.


Once again, happy new year.