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!

Happy New Year

Wishing you all a very happy 2016.

Christmas stitching 1

Perhaps you could guess from the pictures in my previous post: I was again selling some of my things at the Christmas market. I went to Vattholma julmarknad, this is near where we live, about 20 km from Uppsala, and also to Hågaby - this is in town. They went OK, not too good but better than lat year. I had to realise, again, that you cannot really make profit on needlework. At least I got back the cost of the material.

After the two big markets, I also did small ones in the staff room of my school, and at my boyfriend´s workplace. All the money from those I sent to a charity, and that felt really good.


So here are some of the things I made.

You may remember from the last two years that I love making small embroidered felt ornaments.

I made the usual read and white ones. Forgot to take a good picture of them, and now only have a few left, not the most beautiful ones. They looked like these, but there were different shapes, hearts and stars, decorated with applique, embroidery and beads.

Here is a detail from the above picture on the market, not a really good one but perhaps you can see the variety.

But my favourites were these white ornaments, embroidered with gold metallic thread. Unfortunately they were not as popular a the red-white combination. (Swedish people are quite traditional when it comes to their Christmas decorations.)

This time I also tried making some cross stitched ornaments. It was simply that I missed cross stitch, I didn´t stitch so much lately with all the university assignments. It was fun to stitch them - but did not sell many. I still have a lot of them left.

The ones with the red felt around them were not so easy to make: the felt stretched out of shape a little. Perhaps I should have starched it a bit before cutting.

I also made some felted ball ornaments. They are actually recycling: we make them at school, during the felting unit, and kids often leave them behind if they do not turn out as they expected. So I collected them, worked on them a bit more to make them fully felted, then dyed them in kool-aid. :) Then added some embroidery and beads.

And this year again I made the little walnut-babies. I love them, they have such a great feeling to them, old-fashioned, natural, cute... They speak of Christmas to me.

I wrote about how to make them here. This time I embroidered the star in the middle instead of glueing.



And finally, a few pictures about my embroideries that I made in the summer with flowers and grass. In case you have been wondering how they turned out after 5 months.
They still look quite good. The two flower-pieces haven´t changed at all, the grass has dried but still looks OK. They hang here above my sewing machine, I love looking at them.

Next time I will be coming back with describing my recycling Christmas projects. Watch this place.

Until then, happy stitching.

Agi

Merry Christmas. Boldog karácsonyt! God Jul!

I wish all my dear readers a Merry Christmas, relaxing holiday time with lots of good food and needlework. :)
I hope Santa has been listening and will bring you - and me ;) - lots of yarn, thread, fabric, books etc.

Here are a few pictures of what I have been up to lately. Promise to come with some real posts soon - before the New Year. Promise :)