Two mandalas - free cross stitch pattern

I haven't written anything here for a while - but I have a good excuse. I am moving flat next Friday, so I am busy sorting and packing things. Most of the boxes are filled with my craft books and stash. Luckily my lovely daughter could come and help me, otherwise I would have had even more problem with my back.

So I really don't have time to write now, nor to sort and organise my latest dyeing samples. But I managed to draw a little pattern for you.

These are two small mandala patterns in black-red-white colour combination. I really loved making them, there might come more later on.

You can use only the circles, I think they would work perfectly for cards. But I draw a backstitch frame around them, and added some small corner elements, so they can be stitched for a pincushion or a biscornu. What else do you think you can use them for?

Have fun, try different colourways.

Happy stitching, friends. Next time I will be writing from my new flat.

Butterflies - free cross stitch pattern

I went for a long walk yesterday. I have to keep moving because I really need to lose weight, and I am having problems with eating. I was also collecting plants and flowers to try in my eco-dyeing experiments. Unfortunately, in Sweden, summer is coming to a close. It is so sad in August. There are hardly any flowers left, and those are almost all white or yellow, except the thistles that are bright pink and purple. So not much colour is left in nature. It is still mostly green but some of the plants started to turn brown. It's the ferns that are the first and as there is a lot of them around here, there will be this ugly not so nice brown colour dominating the sight for a long time from now. A few trees started also turning their leaves, now, that will be pretty when all of them are golden or reddish brown.
And on top of it all, work starts on Monday. School opens on the 15th but we start a week earlier. I have to admit, I am not looking forward to it. I have rested a lot during this summer but my back was hurting almost all the time, and this week it has become even worse.

Anyway, as I was walking yesterday, I was thinking how good that the butterflies are still around, they provided such a lovely colour variation. So this was the inspiration for today's cross stitch pattern. I hope you will like them. I made them in shades of purple, but of course, as usual, I encourage you to try other colours too.

The eco-dyeing process is going on, I need to take some photos and organize my notes, then I will be back with another report.


I have also worked some on my next "spirit cloth" piece. Unfortunately, I wasn't very good at taking pictures as I was working on it. Here is a detail-photo, but I don't have a bigger one. Not sure where I am going with it next. Watch this place for more on it.

And the cross stitch pattern. Click on the picture and it will take you to the pdf file.

Happy stitching.

Fox cross stitch pattern - and summer holiday

As you know, I am a teacher. That means that for more than a week I have been enjoying my summer holidays now. After a few days not doing basically anything, ans celebrating midsummer, I started cleaning my little flat. I have lots of pain in my back that means that I can only do any physical activity for 30-40 minutes maximum, then I have to sit down and relax. So while the cleaning goes on very slowly, I also sew and read a lot. I have also set myself some goals for this summer, like drawing and trying to live a healthier life. Not much success yet on these fronts, but going slowly.

Cleaning the flat mostly means organising. During the spring I spent lots of time stitching for university, but I was quite stressed with time. I was also working full time, I was not feeling well, had lots of pain, had an operation, didn't sleep much - the result is a horrible messy place. And since my flat is really small, it became kind of impossible by the end of the term.

So far I managed to sort out most of my fabrics and yarn, clean the bedroom, most of the hall and most of the living room. (The kitchen and the bathroom I had managed to keep more or less OK, thank God. I should go through drawers and cupboards there, too, but that is not so urgent.) The main problem is, of course, finding place for all my craft supplies. I still have lots to do, but mostly small things.

Yesterday, while trying to fit all my yarn in containers and vacuum bags, I sorted out my old and broken knitting basket. I bought it a few years ago in a loppis, that is a typical Swedish second-hand shop. You can find them all over the place, often in the countryside, in small sheds or in barns. I love hunting for treasures in them. I should stop, because I have no place for any more stuff, but I just love it. :) And it is enviromnment-friendly to recycle old things, right?

This basket was full of wool yarn that I wanted to buy, and got the basket itself in the bargain. Unfortunately it had lots of broken parts and my yarn got always caught on them. I found a piece of thick canvas fabric in my stash (also from a loppis), and made a lining for the basket. I am very happy with it. The leftover small pieces were just enough for another smaller basket.

Now both of them are full with yarn and UFOs, and these are just the ones I am planning to work on soon. I will write a post about my knitting soon. Watch this place.


Another thing I do when I get tired is sit down with my computer and draw in my cross stitch program. The felt fox pattern I shared the other day was so popular, had lots of views in just a few days, so I thought I could draw the same little fox in cross stitch. Even though there are lots of fox patterns on the net, there might be some who like this one.

Here it is, click on the picture to get the pdf.

Happy stitching.

Fox cross stitch pattern - and summer holiday

As you know, I am a teacher. That means that for more than a week I have been enjoying my summer holidays now. After a few days not doing basically anything - apart from celebrating midsummer - I started cleaning my little flat. I have lots of pain in my back that means that I can only do any physical activity for 30-40 minutes maximum, then I have to sit down and relax. So while the cleaning goes on very slowly, I also sew and read a lot. I have also set myself some goals for this summer, like drawing and trying to live a healthier life. Not much success yet on these fronts, but going slowly.

Cleaning the flat mostly means organising. During the spring I spent lots of time stitching for university, but I was quite stressed with time. I was also working full time, I was not feeling well, had lots of pain, had an operation, didn't sleep much - the result is a horrible messy place. And since my flat is really small, it became kind of impossible by the end of the term.

So far I managed to sort out most of my fabrics and yarn, clean the bedroom, most of the hall and most of the living room. (The kitchen and the bathroom I had managed to keep more or less OK, thank God. I should go through drawers and cupboards there, too, but that is not so urgent.) The main problem is, of course, finding place for all my craft supplies. I still have lots to do, but mostly small things.

Yesterday, while trying to fit all my yarn in containers and vacuum bags, I sorted out my old and broken knitting basket. I bought it a few years ago in a loppis, that is a typical Swedish second-hand shop. You can find them all over the place, often in the countryside, in small sheds or in barns. I love hunting for treasures in them. I should stop, because I have no place for any more stuff, but I just love it. :) And it is enviromnment-friendly to recycle old things, right?

This basket was full of wool yarn that I wanted to buy, and got the basket itself in the bargain. Unfortunately it had lots of broken parts and my yarn got always caught on them. I found a piece of thick canvas fabric in my stash (also from a loppis), and made a lining for the basket. I am very happy with it. The leftover small pieces were just enough for another smaller basket.

Now both of them are full with yarn and UFOs, and these are just the ones I am planning to work on soon. I will write a post about my knitting soon. Watch this place.


Another thing I do when I get tired is sit down with my computer and draw in my cross stitch program. The felt fox pattern I shared the other day was so popular, had lots of views in just a few days, so I thought I could draw the same little fox in cross stitch. Even though there are lots of fox patterns on the net, there might be some who like this one.

Here it is, click on the picture to get the pdf.

Happy stitching.

Glad midsommar - free summer wreath pattern

Today in Sweden we celebrate midsommar, that is Midsummer. It is common that girls wear a wreath made of wild flowers.

To honour this tradition, I created a summer wreath pattern. Enjoy, and happy Midsummer to all.

Hang a bird in the window

It happened twice in the past 5 years - since I have been living here - that a bird flew into the window and died. In my apartment there are windows on both sides. Apparently, the birds see the light from the other side, they don't see the window, and they think they can fly through. After the first case I wanted to hang a dark bird shape - but I did not like the idea of watching a black shape all the time. So instead I made a patchwork bird for one of my windows. But then it happened again, so now I have a patchwork bird in each window. See the tutorial here .

In case you are not into patchwork but love cross stitch, I created a pattern that I am sharing with you all here. One is colourful, kind of summery, the other is almost just one colour - you can choose which colour you want in case you wish to match the bird to your curtains or the rest of the decorations.

Click on the picture to get the pdf pattern.

After stitching, this needs to be sewn onto a dark background - it is important that from the outside the birds see a dark shape. I read somewhere that they think it is the shadow of a predator bird and avoid it. I will write a tutorial how to do that in a few days. Until then, get stitching your bird. :D

Edit on 9th June: I have finished the stitching.

(I noticed some mistakes, or I should say I made a mistake while stitching: I tried to do the upper and the bottom halves symmetrical but I didn't draw it that way, so I had to wiggle it here and there. Just in case you notice that it is not exactly following the pattern ;) )

Variations - or how to create embroidery patterns.

I had a homework assignment for university: to create a 3-minute videofilm, that is connected to my topic (trees) and my chosen craft (embroidery). So I came up with this idea: you take a very simple motif, like a tree, and draw a really simple line drawing. It dies not have to be anything pretty, you don´t need to be able to draw. Really. Believe me :)

You can then embroider this with different stitches, and then try to do different variations. A tree, or any other object from nature is good to start with because there is no need to be accurate, symmetrical, there is no correct or incorrect shape. Feel free to improvise, experiment, try out different stitches, different colours, materials - go wild!

Here is the little film I made (not very good, but I think you get the gist - and then this was my first film!). Then you can see the photos of the embroidered pieces I made for the film.

And then there comes some more variations of the cross stitched version. You will see that I did not really pay much attention where I put the apples/leaves/flowers on the tree. You can follow the pattern, but you can just make your own version and stitch them randomly.

I hope you will really enjoy the creating process. Please, post here if you stitch something based on this idea, I would love to see them.

Small flowers - and variations on a motif

I have been working hard writing homework assignments for university. I have been late with almost everything all term - what with the operation, pain, not sleeping etc - but finally managed to catch up. Not much left to do until it is over. It was fun to do this course but at the same time it was lots of stress.

Anyway, in the euforia after sending in the last piece of homework today, what better can a girl do than sit down to the computer and start playing with the cross stitch program?

I have come up with a very simple motif: a circle with squares in it. I am sure I am not the first one ever to do this :) I played around with the motif in different sizes, different colours, different arrangements. This is the result:


First three small flower patterns, combinations of the two motifs, and I am sure there can be further variations. I think they are cute, simple, quick to stitch - perfect for cards.

Then I created some patterns that can be used to fill in bigger surfaces, or parts of them used for cards, biscornus, bookmarks, borders etc. They are not really patterns for a certain project, more like possibilities that you can use - and I encourage you to use them - in many ways. I have many similar things on my computer, I don't usually publish them, I am waiting until I can finish them into something. Which sometimes happens, but most often not. I was thinking why not try to put them on the blog as they are - perhaps someone finds them useful.

I really would like to know if you, my dear readers, find these type of patterns useful. In what ways do you think you could use them? Would they inspire you to try your own variations? Please let me know in the comments.

Happy stitching.

Ági

Earth Day - a (belated) cross stitch pattern

I really wanted to do a pattern for Earth Day, but had no time, and did not really have an idea either. But then, as I was working on my university projects, I suddenly came up with something. So I thought it is better to post it late than never. After all, we don't need a certain date to be able to stitch for the Earth. Or if you do ;) - you can stitch it for next year.


I hope you will like it and many of my stitchy friends will actually stitch it.

Stitch an inspirational quote from Hungarian poetry

There were a few days recently that reminded me how much I love literature. Not that I need much reminding, I read (or listen to) books all the time, but I have to admit, it is easy to forget about poetry. I love poems but don't reach for my poetry collections very often. It is just as well that I used to know lots of poems by heart and still remember my favourite lines.

The 11th of April is Day of Poetry in Hungary, the birthday of Attila József. Do you want to read some of his poems in English? Here.

The 23rd of April is World Book Day - according to Wikipedia, it was first put on this day because Miguel de Cervantes Spanish writer died on this day. But this is also the birthday and the day of death of William Shakespeare.

This time I chose a quotation by Sándor Weöres. He was a fantastic poet, and as rumour has it he was shortlisted for the literature Nobel prize more than once. Even though it is very difficult to translate his poetry - perhaps because he was a master of the language. This quotation was chosen to travel to the Moon with the space probe "Puli" last year.

Unfortunately I don't know who translated it, I found different translations on the net and this one was the best, I think. The whole sentence goes like this:
"There is one knowledge alone, all the rest is mere accretion: bellow is the earth, above is the sky and inside you the ladder." (I thought it might look better with a dash in the last line.)

Find some of his works in English here.


And here is the pattern:

Happy stitching!

Blackwork biscornu pattern

Hello, stitchy friends,

Finally spring has arrived to this part of Sweden. It has been a long wait.

I am enjoying the Easter holidays. Working on my university assignments, challenging myself with embroidery techniques, using as my starting point or inspiration some photos I took of trees.

I was playing with making pattern from photos of tree trunks, learning smocking, breaking the rules, e.g. pulling the fabric together with my stitches on purpose, using a black on white printed fabric as a "colouring sheet" etc. I also bought the book Wool stitch by Yumiko Higuchi and stitching some of the patterns from it. To be honest, I am not sure where I am going with all this, I am just trying out things and playing with needle and thread. We will see.

And I also have something to share with you.

I have made a tiny blackwork pattern the other day. It started as a doodle, turned out to be something like a lily but not really on purpose. :D It is really small and dense, and I also added French knots.

I stitched it quickly, this is how it looks:

Today I drew it in my cross stitch program and started playing with it. You know, rotating, adding other small motifs etc. I really love this part when out of something small one can create a much bigger pattern. Anyway, at the end it became a biscornu, the way I usually make them: with one side more dominant than the other.

Click on the picture to get the pdf pattern.*

I did not draw the french knots, but if you want to add them, here is a drawing that shows where I stitched them. But feel free to add them wherever you want, or you can also try beads.

I used some leftover yellow thread for the stitching so I don't know what shade it is. But I drew it in red because it is easier to see. Use your favourite colour, or try a variegated thread.

I hope someone will like it and enjoy stitching it.


*I have to apologise for the pdf. The new version of MacStitch puts all the threads on a list, even those not in use. Make sure you only print out the pages you need - until I figure out how to solve this.

New freebies - finally

I am so sorry I haven't been here for so long. It's been a very busy time with university, work and some illness. It doesn't seem to be any better until the end of this term, but I will try to update the blog more often.

I know I promised a knitting pattern. I have started to make one more pullover, thinking to take notes as I go, but had to stop because I had so much else to do. I will come back to it soon, hopefully. I cannot knit much, only 15-20 minutes at a time usually, because I have a pain in my left shoulder.

Anyway, I would like to show you guys a few pictures of what I did for the university. We worked with embroidery. I have done lots of embroidery, so I wanted to try something new. I learnt needle lace, goldwork techniques and tried embroidery on materials I had never used before: tulle, organza and other very thin, see-through material.

I also learnt the basics of lace-making at university. It was so cool! I wish I had time to do more.

I also created a cross stitch freebie. There are two versions, one for a card and one for a bookmark. I hope this can bring some spring-feeling to you. Enjoy!

Happy Easter everyone! And happy spring!