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

Pressed flower - free cross stitch pattern

It is the summer holidays, so what can a girl do but… doing the big cleaning. I was sorting out my books and old notebooks and found some pressed flowers. Or rather some petals. I am sure the flowers were important to me when I pressed them, but I can't remember them. Probably got them from someone precious. I am ashamed that I forgot.

I tried to make a pattern out of them. First I just drew one petal, tried to capture the shading and the gradual change of colours. It is not easy if you are not willing to go huge. Then I put the petals together and made them into a flower. I really wish my program could turn pattern elements in different angles, not only 90°. But as it is, it had to become a four-petal flower.

For once I did not believe the colours my screen showed me (I have made that mistake more often than I care to admit), instead I looked at my threads and put them together in a row. I don´t have the full DMC set, so I had one missing. I hope I managed to find the right colour for that using the DMC colour chart.

I think the pattern is just the right size for a card. My fingers are itching… :)

Let me know what you think.

Click on the picture bellow to get the pdf file.

Happy summer, happy stitching.

Mothers' day (or thank you) patterns

If I am not mistaken, Mothers' day is next Sunday in the USA and lots of other countries, and it is the last Sunday of May in Sweden.
So, in between the bookmarks, I have drawn two small patterns for Mothers' day, that you can stitch in a week and use for a card, gift bag or pincushion etc.

If you have already celebrated Mothers' day, you can still use them as Thank you-cards, I made two versions.
I hope someone will like them and stitch them. Enjoy.

Some of my patterns stitched up

I have stitched some of the circles and made them into cards.







And an unusual blackwork design:

New finishes

I have been on a finishing spree these past days. I promised myself I am not trying out my new sewing machine until I finish some things. First, because I need space on the table (LOL) and second, because I am a coward... LOL again.

I finished the Hungarian patterns I showed you not long ago, here they are:



I especially like these two little cushions. I saw pictures of similar things on the net, but no tutorial, so I figured out how to do it by trial and error :)






And another experimental thing. Again, a pattern I posted earlier, and said I wasn't sure whether it would work for a biscornu, because I didn't draw it as a rectangular shape but had the corners cut off.





(I have to admit, I was so much in a hurry to see how it would look finished that I forgot to stitch the yellow in the middle of the flowers on the other side :D )

So, I think it did work, and I have to say I really like the wavy effect the edges have. Compare it with the sharp corners of a regular biscornu.