Swedish bookmark 2

I have been really busy lately. School started on 15th August and I come home so tired every day that I just drop into my bed. I hope I will get used to it soon and have more energy for myself, too.
This weekend I had visitors: my boyfriend´s parents. It was the first time they came to see me. So I had to clean my place, it was high time someone came to visit :D
It went well, we had a nice day with them yesterday. Today we actually managed to get some rest, and I could finish my "t-sirt to dress" project, my crocheted slippers project and did some cross stitching, too. I feel like a human being :D I will show you photos soon, promise :)

For now, here is another bookmark pattern with some Swedish motifs. I am going to stitch this soon, I think. Hope you like it too.

Enjoy it :)

Going for a holiday

Hi, friends,

I am going away for a holiday, kind of. Going home to Hungary, so half of it will be all kinds of official appointments, but I hope to have some time to relax and meet friends and of course, my daughter.

That means I won't be blogging for about two weeks. I am not sure if I will have any internet time at all. Just so you don't get too impatient ;), here is a free pattern, you can stitch it by the time I am back. Looking forward to it.

Have a lovely summer, everyone, see you later. Hugs


Agi

An extra free bookmark :)

This bookmark comes on the 8th day of the free bookmark week - it is special because the person who asked for it is special ;)

So here is a bookmark with wood anemone or vitsippa in Swedish. This part of Sweden is literally covered in them right now. I hope you like it. And I think I will have to stitch it for that certain special person :D :D



Here is a photo I took last weekend, although it was taken in Åland, an island that is part of Finland, but the ones covering the fields next to my house are just the same.

Free bookmarks week - 7. Sayings

Katya suggested the idea of bookmarks with sayings. I couldn't choose, so I made a few. Enjoy them. :)




This is a Chinese proverb.


This is my idea :P



And finally an assissi bookmark - also good as a gift for a teacher. It is two-sided. The colours are old gold light and dark, DMC 676 and 680 and Christmas red 321. They don't look the same in the picture as my threads.



The week is over, but tomorrow there will be another, extra bookmark. I have also done some biscornu and ornament patterns, so come back soon for more freebies. 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.

Free bookmarks week - 5. Mayflowers

One of my dear readers suggested the mayflowers. Only after that did I learn that in Sweden they sell mayflower pins for charity as an old tradition all May.

So I made my mayflower chart a bit simplified, more stylised because I wanted them to resemble the pins.

I imagined this on a nice coloured background, maybe some peachy-pinkish-purplish hand died fabric? But I drew another version with a more subtle background. Pick up what you have in your stash - anything that would let the white flowers stand out.

I also think that this would look really good with a bunch of French knots in the middle, in yellow (the first version). However, I know that lots of us are not particularly keen on French knots, so the other version has simple straight stitches instead. They don't need to be symmetrical, make them a bit "disheveled" :D

I hope you like it.

Tomorrow I will have a blackwork bookmark.

Free bookmarks week - 4. Geometric pattern

Those who follow my blog know that I really enjoy playing with geometric forms, creating colourful little patterns. This bookmark is also the result of such playing.

I made it in two different colour schemes. You can see how the whole character of the piece is changed depending on which of the colours you pick for the frame around the triangles. So feel free to use your favourite colours and experiment with them. Have fun :)

Tomorrow I am coming back with some more flowers.

Free bookmarks week - 3. Swedish flowers

The third bookmark in May shows the famous Linné-flowers of Sweden. They are so beautiful in real life, I saw them last summer, very tiny and very sweet.

If you would like to know more: here is Wikipedia's article about them.

Hope you like it.

Tomorrow will bring a geometric pattern.

Free bookmarks week - 2. Celtic bookmark

This design was inspired by Celtic knots. I love the dark green and gold together, with a hint of red and black.

Hope you will enjoy stitching it.

Tomorrow I am coming back with some Swedish flowers. :)

Cross stitch bracelet free pattern

Hello, everyone :)

I made a pattern for a bracelet. Gives me some spring-feeling, not that we have any spring here in Sweden yet. Yesterday it was actually snowing! :(

I would recommend stitching it on 16 count Aida or 32 count evenweave, it would be about 2 cms wide. You can adjust the length by repeating the pattern or leaving out some motifs.

Feel free to choose your favourite colours. If you have some lovely coloured fabric, you can leave out the background stitching, although I think in this case it would look nicer stitched.

I made two versions, depending how you want to finish it, you can either leave the ends straight and add some clasp or go for the pointed ends and just add a little cord to tie it together. I would sew felt on the back or add iron-on interfacing, or perhaps sew the same length of backstitch on another piece of Aida and whipstitch them together. But perhaps the folded edges of two pieces would look a bit bulky? What do you think?

Of course, it would serve just as well as a bookmark.

I hope I will have time to stitch it myself soon. Actually, I am thinking of trying out some subtle coloured variegated thread for the background, but I need to experiment with colours first. Do the same and show us what you have come up with!

Happy stitching :)

Update 4th May: I have stitched it and added some felt as backing. The clasps are still missing: can't find them. So typical. :(

I used DMC 309 for the red, 3822 for the yellow, and variegated 4240 for the background.

Bookmark cross stitch pattern - another freebie

Hope you are all well.
I have been crocheting like crazy lately, and finished a sweater I meant to be a Christmas present for my boyfriend but made some mistakes, so had to take it apart and redo the sleeves. I will take photos soon, promise :)

Right now I have another little, quick freebie for you. I imagined it in blue, but of course, feel free to use your favourite colour. Another little bookmark. Enjoy stitching it.

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

Free hippy cross stitch bookmark - and my first pattern for sale.

I have made some hippy patterns. One is a bookmark you are welcome to use, as usual, for free. I am not sure the colours show up well enough, the idea is that the letters of the word "Love" are in a strong colour and the background motifs in nice pastel shades.



In honour of the European Day of Languages, which is today, 26th September, I made a bigger version in many languages. This one is not a free pattern however, I offer it for sale. It costs 4 Euros.
I haven´t got round to creating a separate webshop yet but I am planning to soon. Until then it is very simple: you pay me in PayPal (benceagi@yahoo.com) and I e-mail you the pattern.
If you happen to want another language included, I can make the change - in that case the price is 5 Euros.

Here is a picture:




I hope you like them. Happy stitching. :)

New free cross stitch patterns

I made some more cross stitch patterns, can hardly wait to stitch them. I planned them in black and gold, stitched on white or perhaps some very light grey aida. The stars could be stitched as Smyrna stitches or Algerian eyes, as you prefer.

This could be a nice pincushion or ornament but would also work well for a card:





The next two are a bit bigger. Of course, you can always leave out a few lines or columns, since it is a repetitive pattern. I am planning to use them for a top of a wooden box and a notebook cover, if I ever get down to stitching them.





And a bookmark:



Of course, as always, feel free to change the colours. I would really love to see if someone stitches them.

I hope you enjoy them. Happy summer, everyone. :D

Summertime free pattern and bookmark pattern

I have been listening to Ella Fizgerald. And also, it has been around 30 degrees here recently, so I really got into a summer mood. :)

Ella Fitzgeraldot hallgattam. Na és mostanában 30 fok körül jár a hőmérséklet errefelé, nem csoda, hogy nyári hangulatba kerültem. :)

First I made a pattern to celebrate summer, with all the colours and flowers but then realised that most of us probably doesn't necessarily want to stitch something this big, so I made a smaller, bookmark version as well - not a small bookmark, though ;)

Először készítettem egy mintát, amivel igazán meg lehet ünnepelni a nyarat, sok-sok színnel, virágokkal, meg ami csak belefér, de aztán ráébredtem, hogy sokunknak valószínűleg épp ez nem biztos, hogy bele fog férni, így hát született egy kisebb, könyvjelző méretű verzió is. Bár könyvjelzőnek azért nem olyan kicsi ;)

Hope you like it.
Remélem, tetszeni fog.

Teacher bookmarks - könyvjelzők pedagógusnapra

Teacher appreciation day is getting close, but I think there is still time to make a simple bookmark. You can even make it with the kids, you can pick just one of the motifs and the border, that would work, too. I recommend changing the pink border to blue or green for a male teacher though :)

A pedagógusnapig (Magyarországon június első vasárnapja) még van idő kihímezni egy kis könyvjelzőt, akár a gyerekekkel együtt. De talán ballagáskor is jólesik a kollégáknak egy kis kedvesség. Nyugodtan válogassatok a motívumok között, nálunk az alma nem olyan jellegzetes szimbóluma a szakmának, mint Amerikában.

Woven bookmark

I do have a loom but have no energy for warping. So I just took out a drawer and made a mini-loom.

This is what I made. The edges are not really even and the width is not exactly the same at the two ends, but then I haven't woven anything for about 15 years... Feels as if learning anew. :)



And another one in progress:

Two cross stitch bookmark patterns

The colours are as follows (DMC):



For the lilac one: 155, 3733, 208, 051
For the orange one: 900, 947, 970, 743










EDIT:

Since this seems to be the most popular post on my blog ever, I thought to give all that visit here a bit of encouragement: go and see the newest patterns by clicking on Home at the bottom of the page. Right now (31st August 2014) there is a giveaway you can sing up for! Welcome!