Needlework books and a free pattern

Good morning!

We have autumn break in Sweden so finally I have time and energy to write a blog post. I have been planning to write for weeks but life has been hectic. Not to mention that my back has been causing me so much pain that I couldn't do much. I am still in pain but it is getting a bit better. Fingers crossed, please, everyone. :)


So, I have been planning to show all the beautiful books I have bought or received recently. Sweden is full of treasures, as I have told you a few times. Not only can you buy lovely old fabric, weaving, lace and embroidery in every second-hand shop but they also have bookshelves in those shops, there are lovely used book-shops and you can find books in he "loppis" which is something in between a garage sale and a second-hand shop.

Here are my latest finds: embroidery, textile art and sewing patterns. They are not the latest fashion, but I just love them, it is so much fun looking at old patterns - and if I ever get to that level in sewing, I might be able to adjust them a bit. And the embroidery patterns don't age, right? :)


I found the first book in this Encyclopedia of Home Needlework (or something like that) at a loppis, then bought the second one from the internet. I am looking for the rest (20 volumes altogether) but they are not easy to find. No wonder: this is a fantastic book, with basically everything you can think of and some more. It is in Swedish but that is not so much a problem any more :D

Here is another lovely book and a page with some beautiful old weaving. I wonder what the three-legged figure means - it appears more than once on woven clothes.

This one I bought on the internet. It is not only textiles but all kinds of crafts, e.g. woodcarving, basket weaving etc.

These two folders I found at a Red Cross shop. One is needlework (weaving and embroidery), the other is sewing patterns.

This is the perfect example of the sewing patterns from the 70s. I think it is hilarious! I have threatened Stephen to make him something like this if he doesn't behave LOL.

And there is one more folder with tons of sewing patterns and very useful instructions. I think I will use it in school.

These two little pattern booklets I received as a gift from Stephen. He found them on Tradera (the Swedish e-bay) and bought them for me. Can you see the name and year? 1962! They are lovely. You can look forward to some more Swedish inspiration in my patterns.

Let's go over to what I have been stitching lately. Not much (hanging head in shame). But some. I found this Christmas card pattern in my UFO bag. I think I started it 3 years ago but when I saw I won't finish it before Christmas, put it down. Then repeated the same the next year. Last year I didn't even take it out. But now I managed to finish it. It is a DMC kit that I received from a friend on crossstitchforum.com and it uses lots of metallic thread. I actually loved stitching it. So many people complain about metallics, especially DMC but I had no trouble at all. And I love the overall effect. You just can't have too much bling, can you? :D The colours are so unusual and still so great. (I lost one of the buttons - but have since found it.)

I have made some small felt ornaments too: Swedish hearts and Hungarian tulips. I have been trying to teach myself how to draw Hungarian folk patterns (and other patterns - I have discovered Zentangle!) On the gray fabric you can see my embroidered doodling, the traditional tulip with French knots and rice stitch - makes it very modern, don't you think so? I made that without drawing the pattern on the fabric, just improvised. Will use this piece of fabric for other experiments.

This is another gift. Stephen's parents visited us a few weeks ago. After they went home, his mum sent me this. It is an Eva Rosenstrand kit, a tablecloth, that she started long ago but as her eyes are not good enough to stitch, she sent it to me to finish. Isn't that really kind of her? I love this, I will surely stitch it.

Perhaps you want to have a look at my weaving experiment? I couldn't do much on it, it doesn't go well with backache. :( So I have done this much:

Two small butterflies that I stitched for a charity organisation for quilts.

I took out another UFO, my Celtic afghan and started a Celtic knot pattern, this is what I am working on right now. I love it but I am so sad because I cannot keep the back of the stitching neat. Too many colour changes. :(

Sorry that it has become such a long post with so many pictures. I hope you still find it interesting.

Finally, another free cross stitch pattern. This is a dove, it has a bit of a folk art feeling to it but still modern. At least that was the intention :) I hope y ou like it. Enjoy stitching it.

Apple of my eye - cross stitch freebie

Hi, everyone, how are you all?
I have been resting a lot this weekend, having a little backache and was trying to rest so it doesn´t get worse. Not sure if I managed, we will see in the morning.

Anyway, I drew another pattern for you to stitch.
Enjoy :)

Love - free cross stitch pattern

Hi, everyone, hope you are doing well and stitching or knitting or sewing etc with all your might. :)


I am doing all right. Have been busy, as usual, not much free time for crafting and even that is often taken up by Pinterest and other internet sites and blogs. Sometimes I feel guilty that I am just looking and looking instead of doing but I know that I need such times, and they are worth the time because later I can use a lot of the inspiration I receive. It's like input and output.
I hope this makes sense. Do you ever feel like this? Do you have "collection" periods to be followed by more active crafting times?


It was on Pinterest that I saw a funny and really cute way of writing the word Love. I liked it so much that I made it into a cross stitch pattern. It was fun finding out a way to draw it, and I am sure it would be even more fun to stitch it.

I am planning to use my favourite DMC variegated for it: 115. What colour would you choose? Solid or variegated? Or perhaps more than one?

I hope many of you will enjoy stitching it.

See you soon.

Agi

I am back - and a free cross stitch pattern

Hi, everyone,

I knew that I haven't written on my blog for a long time, but I didn't realise it was more than a month! I am sorry for being absent. School is really busy right now, and I was ill a bit - nothing serious, just some fever, but had to lie down on the weekends.

Anyway, I am back, and although I haven't had time to do much, I have a few things to show you - whenever I get to taking photos. Is it so hard for everyone else, taking photos of your projects? It is not such a big deal, still, it takes ages for me to get started. So watch this place for some pictures soon.

Until then, perhaps you would like to see the beautiful autumn in Sweden:

In school we celebrated the European Day of Languages on 26th of September. Every class was appointed a country, my class got Hungary and had to dress up accordingly. Here are a few pictures.

I am wearing an apron that was my great-aunt's. It is cross stitched. Isn't it wonderful?

And now, as October has arrived we started to prepare for Halloween. So I made a little cross stitch pattern that can be used for Halloween - but for other occasions as well. You can stitch it for a Harry Potter fan, or even for Valentine's day. It can be a bookmark (although a bit bigger than the usual size) or a bellpull. Have fun with it.

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 :)

Free cross stitch pattern: Swedish bookmark/Svensk bokmärke

As promised, here is another free cross stitch pattern with Swedish motifs: a bookmark this time. These motifs are actually from old woven pieces but I think they look lovely in cross stitch, too. I hope you like it. :) These are the original colours but of course, feel free to pick your own.


Här är ett nytt korsstygnsmönster med svenska motiv: en bokmärke. Hoppas att ni tycker om den. :)

Weaving experiment

Hi, I am here with more pictures.

I wanted to show you my weaving experiment. I have a loom - in Budapest. I still haven´t figured out how I can bring it here, or if it is cheaper to buy one here than to bring it.
But I wanted to weave. So I used the simple method that I taught my students in 5th grade at school: cardboard-loom. (This year we will have nice "real" looms, the type they make for schools.)

I bought some lovely yarn in Crete last autumn, some left-over balls that were on sale, real cheap. They are absolutely not your traditional weaving yarn, but I wanted to see how they work. They are boucle and are about 75-85 % wool, really nice and soft. The grey is a bit thicker than the rest.

Before I only wove with strong cotton warp thread and and thick wool yarn for weft, now I wanted to try out what happens if I use the same yarn in both directions.

So this is how it started: I had a huge piece of cardboard. It is quite thick and difficult to cut so I glued on some cereal boxes at the end, double, to use for the nooks that I cut at about 0.7 cms.

Then I warped the "loom" with black and white (or rather natural colour) yarn.

And I just started to weave. First I went with the weaving needle just under-over, under-over. It was a bit slow.

Then I used a ruler that I put under every other warp thread. This way I only had to go under-over in one direction, and I just put the ruler in a standing position and passed the yarn through the hole in the other. That was much faster.


Then I decided I wanted to try out making my own heddles and I spent about an hour doing that. This way weaving goes much faster. I am not sure if it was worth the time, I mean I am only making one piece on this "loom" and then I have to warp again and make the heddles again, but I don´t really mind. I just wanted to see if it worked. And I am happy it did.:)

The fabric I am making is really nice and soft, I am not beating it down too hard, just pull the weft down with my fingers so it is quite loose, but the fibers of the boucle yarn stick together so there are no holes in the fabric.

I have an idea what I want to do with it, but I am not sure it will work out. When I started I didn´t know what it will become, or thought perhaps a scarf, but now I would like to make it into a garment. So perhaps I will weave two parts, and then connect them with knitting or crochet and make a vest or something. It all depends on how long the yarn will go or if I can find some more. It is the problem when you start a project with leftover yarn and you actually have no idea how much you need. :( So at the moment all I can say is: I will see.

Unfortunately I had to stop weaving because my back was causing me trouble all summer, and it didn´t like they way I was weaving, which was propping up the loom on a chair and sitting on another one in front of it - I had to bend forward too much. So now I need to rest my back and then find a better position before I continue.

I didn´t write a detailed description how to make the loom or the heddles but if anyone is interested, just tell me and I can put together a tutorial.


I will be back soon with some more Swedish cross stitch patterns.