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.

Life is what you make it

Life has been really hectic lately, as last days of school usually are. Also, my car broke down and it took some organising to get around. And I had to send in my Swedish assigment today. I am so tired. But today my summer holidays have started! I am free until 7th of August :D :D

I was doing some stitching, knitting, crochet sewing etc, of course, though not as much as I would have liked. I will show you some pictures soon. Until then I have brought you a small freebie again.

I have been thinking what I can do with the little stick figures I "invented" when I was making a quilt block for my students. I really liked stitching them so I wanted to share them.

I have come up with this little pattern. I hope you like it. Make into a mini-sampler to hang on your wall or a flat-fold or a card. Feel free to experiment with other figures, too.

The little romboid-like shape that I used for the heads represents a single chain stitch, I just didn't know how to draw it but I am sure if you just follow the blackwork lines it will look good, too.

Happy stitching.

Free bookmarks week - 6. blackwork

As promised, today I am posting a blackwork bookmark. I think it should be stitched with black (DMC 310) and gold metallic.

Happy stitching.

Tomorrow I will post bookmarks with sayings about books and reading.

Patterns for sale

I have been planning to create some patterns for sale for a while. I hope that those who like my free patterns, will perhaps interested in buying some of my design, too.

The "shop" opens with these two small patterns.

Square spiral with blackwork pattern:





Twisty:





Price: 5 Euros /45 SEK each.
For this price you will get en e-mail with the pattern and instructions on how to sew them together. You can pay with PayPal. Please, make sure to let me know which pattern you want and to what e-mail address I should send it.

I will also make a page with the patterns for sale where I can add more later.
Wish me luck. :)

Easter egg in blackwork - free pattern

Last year I designed an Easter egg in blackwork, so I thought I would like to do the same again. I have been wondering what look one can get using blackwork "assissi-style" that is stitching the background and leaving the pattern empty. Well, not empty in this case, but less full, anyway :) This is the result.




I think it is just the right size for a card or a door-hanging for welcoming guests. What is your opinion? I think it should be stitched in some bright spring colours. What colours would you choose?

Hope you enjoy stitching it. Please, share photos if you stitch it. :)

Snowflake biscornu pattern

Here is the biscornu I promised :)






The colours are:
DMC 160, gray blue, middle
and 209, lavender, dark

As usual, I draw something in the very middle, but if you want to add a button or bead there, you can leave out those stitches.

Snowflake bookmark - free pattern, cross stitch and blackwork

I love the snowflakes so much in the sampler, so I continued to play around with them. Still no snow in this part of Sweden - on New Years day it was snowing, it was soooo beautiful, then melted right away. :(

Here is a bookmark as a result.



I think, a biscornu/ornament design is also on it's way :D

Merry Christmas, happy holiday season

Wishing all my readers who celebrate, a very merry Christmas. And even if you don't, I wish peace and joy to everyone.

Accept these speciality-stitches mini-ornaments as my gift to you. They can be done in half an hour or so if you can find a little stitchy time during the holidays.



In the middle you can find smyrna stitch, then heringbone leaf stitch (find a diagram here: http://www.catiacrafts.com/tips.html - scroll down a bit) and different size star stitches, don't know their names but I hope they are obvious from the pattern.





Do the blackwork border first. The stitches used are: standing crosses, heringbone, running stitch, star stitch, the "candles" are made with lazy daisy stitches, then chain stitch and half cross stitch.

A modern (psychedelic?) christmas tree - free pattern

I have made a small blackwork Christmas tree pattern that is quite different from the ones before. I called it a "modern Christmas tree", my OH called it "psychedelic" :).

Anyway, I stitched it, using two threads in the middle, and one thread for the rest. Here it is, still in the hoop:




And the pattern:




Can you find the difference? :D :D Actually, I made a mistake but was too lazy to frog it, so I adjusted the pattern: there is one extra stitch on the top in the stitched version - now you can choose which version you want to stitch.

Also, I would like to share with you some pictures from our afternoon trip: we visited the julmarknad, that is Christmas market in Gammla Uppsala. There were lots of crafty things. Unfortunately, most of my photos turned out to be horrible, but these two perhaps give you an idea:





Happy Christmas preparations, everyone. :)

Blackwork sampler - part 3 - I have finished it.

I am so glad, I got some really nice feedback about the blackwork sampler, although noone had time to stitch it right now. I, however, could not stop myself, I enjoyed stitching it so much. I almost forgot how much I like blackwork.

So first, here is the second part finished:




I am giving you the third and final part now:



The first lines are herringbone stitches.

And this is what it looks like in my version:



And finally, a picture of the whole. I finished the sides with hemstitching, this was the first time I did it, and it went quite well. I was so proud of myself. When I was all finished, I realised that I miscounted somehow and on one side the margin I left was wider than on the other. So had to frog it, cut it and re-stitch again, but that didn´t turn out so well because I had to fold it on the line of the previous withdrawn threads, and became a bit wobbly. I am not very happy about it but there is not much I can do about it now. It will teach me not to be too proud of myself. :-/

Blackwork sampler - part 2

Hi, Friends,

Due to a terrible backache I have to stay at home and lie in bed almost all day. :( Not the best thing at the beginning of the school year. But that means I have time for knitting and stitching.

I have stitched the first part of the blackwork sampler, so I am publishing the second part. As you can see, I have already done one line of that part, too.



The grey area is the overlap between the first and second parts.



Happy stitching everyone. :)

Cross stitched buttons - photo tutorial

Hello, stitchy friends :)

I was repairing a cushion that was torn, and the buttons were also missing. So I made some. Here is how.

The cushion looked like this:



Then I did this:





The white buttons were used with their rounded half outside. I stitched a running stitch around them and pulled it tight.



These are the buttons at the front:



and the back:



The back is quite messy but it doesn´t matter if you sew them on a cushion that is pulled together in the middle. If you want to use similar buttons on a flat surface, you should buy a button-making kit. I have never tried them but would love to.

And the final result:





I have also started stitching the blackwork sampler. Half of part 1 is done. It is good that I tried it out because again I noticed a mistake. When you draw a repetitive pattern, it is done with copy and paste, and it is so easy to go one or two stitches off. I have put up the corrected version but I am not 100% happy with it, I should have realised it earlier. But this is how it will stay for me - if you want, you can make adjustment on the black zigzag line, so it is centered. Or tell me if you want it, I can draw another version.

I am using DMC 310 and 221 on a lovely light green hand died linen. Unfortunately, in the photo the fabric doesn´t show. Sorry about the hoop marks, I ironed it but they will not disappear properly until I wash it.



Is there anyone stitching it?

Some more news about myself: here in Sweden it is almost like autumn, at least like autumn at home. We have been picking mushrooms and bilberries.






I hope, dear friends, that you are all well and been stitching/knitting/crocheting happily. Hope to see you soon. :)

Blackwork sampler - SAL challenge

I have created a blackwork band sampler. Altogether it is 65 x 170 stitches, so if you want to stitch it, this is how big your fabric needs to be, plus a few centimetres around it. This is how it will look like:

Terveztem egy blackwork csíkokból álló mintát, összesen 65 öltés széles, és 170 hosszú. Persze rá kell még hagyni néhány centimétert körben.Így fog kinézni:



I am going to publish it in 3 parts. As soon as someone finishes the first part (perhaps that someone will be me, but I am not sure how much time I will have for stitching), I will post the next one.

Három részletben fogom közzétenni. Amint valaki elkészül az elsö résszel (lehet, hogy ez a valaki én leszek, de még nem tudom, mennyi idöm lesz hímezni), felteszem a második részt is.

So, come with me on this journey, let´s do this together. I am really curious to see what colours you choose.

Gyertek velem erre a kis kalandra, hímezzünk együtt! Alig várom, hogy lássam, milyen színeket választotok.




The full squares are supposed to be cross stitches with two strands, but perhaps you can substitute them with beads.

A teli négyzetek keresztszemes öltések, két szállal, de talán gyöngyöket is varrhatunk helyettük.



You can find part 2 here and part 3 here.

If you want to see how Denise used some elements of this sampler to create a wedding gift, you can find a photo of it here.

New free blackwork patterns

I told you to expect some more blackwork patterns. I hope you like them. Please, feel free to change the colours, or stitch them with variegated thread. I would love to see some realisations of them. :)

Mondtam, hogy további blackwork minták várhatók. (Mi a blackwork magyarul? Tudja valaki?) Remélem, tetszik. Nyugodtan változtassátok meg a színeket, vagy használjatok színátmentes fonalat. Szívesen látnám a mintáim különböző megvalósulásait. :)








And variations of the same pattern. És variációk egy témára.

Free blackwork bookmark and square

I seem to be on the blackwork trail nowadays :)

Here is a bookmark and a square I designed, and there are some more coming.






Happy stitching.

A blackwork biscornu

This biscornu, just like the one I posted previously, will not have sarp corners but nice wavy sides.

I marked with arrows where the pieces should meet in the middle, green arrow with the green and red with the red. I hope it is clear.

As for the stitching, I drew it in one colour but I am thinking of stitching it either in some multicolour thread or stitch some parts with metallic.