Working with felt

I use felt in school with my students. They love working with it, they make little softies or pictures with it.
First I made a few pieces as examples to show them, but I really enjoyed it so I made a few things for my webshop. This bracelet and phone-holder.
I have already sold the phone-holder and one of the cross stitched pincushions I made long ago. :)

Crazy Quilt challenge - March block

Here is my March block for the CQJP blog challenge. This is the one I like the most so far. I don't know how others do this, but I rarely have a real plan when I start. I just put pieces of fabric together and see where it leads me.
I think I have already written how I decided to use small pieces of embroidery (mostly cross stitch) that I have made and didn't finish or just used to try out things. In this case it is the little golden piece of linen with the white embroidery in the top left corner. I added a few more stitches to the unfinished piece.



Another thing I try to do on these pieces is to use some of the old textiles I managed to buy in different second-hand shops and flea-markets. Sweden is really a treasure-chest in this sense. Not long ago I found a little silk handkerchief for 5 krowns (about 50 eurocents). It had apparently been torn in the middle and someone tried to mend it very clumsily: folded the corners in the middle and added a patch of lace to hide the hole, also sewed the same lace all around. It was this lace that caught my attention, and it is the thing that runs down diagonally on this piece. A part of the silk handkerchief is also incorporated here. There was such a strong crease in the middle that I couldn't iron it out. So I decided to sew it down - that is the white line. Then I added some simple stem-stitch motifs, with different thicknesses. I also like the rick-rack that was a leftover piece in my stash.



This little round thing here is crocheted. I was trying out a tutorial for crocheted beads but I didn't like the look of it stuffed. I flattened it and it looked almost like a button. It was lying on my table for weeks, I didn't know what to do with it. Then the inspiration struck: I will embroider it. I used some white and some gold metallic thread.




Here you can see a piece of a golden ribbon I added as a border between two fabrics and a little spider-web flower.



I also love this green fabric, it is from some old clothes. I didn't iron it before adding it to the basic, I liked the wrinkled effect. I wanted to couch the ribbons but this was so slippery (and the golden one was too wide) that I decided to sew one stitch in the ribbon between the couching stitches. Then I added some bullion stitches.



All in all, I think this turned out more or less as my image of a crazy quilt - some interesting fabric and some simple embroidery - but not too much. I feel less is often more in these cases.
Sorry if I sound a bit too full of myself :) I am really happy about this little thing.

Easter basket - a quick and easy cross stitch freebie

There is still time for stitching this little basket until Easter.
Enjoy :)

I have received an award!

Guess what! In the past two days two of my readers have presented me with the Liebster Blog award! I am so happy to know that people find my blog worth noting.
Thank you so much Jeanette
and Donna


To accept the award, the blogger must:
1. Link back to the person who gave it to you and thank them.
2. Post the award to your blog.
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers that you appreciate and value.
4. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know they have been offered this award.
5. Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.



So here are the five people I would like to award:

Diane
Vera
Paige
Adri
Karin

As you see, they are from different countries and write in different languages (I, for example, don't understand much of the Swedish on Karin's site) but isn't it wonderful how craft has become a kind of international language? We can say so much with pictures :)



5 random facts about me??? Hm... not easy.

1. I love sweet pasta. Pasta with poppy seed, with semolina and jam, with walnuts etc. This is actually quite common in Hungary.

2. When I was a child, I used to write short stories and poems - as, I suppose, many of us did.

3. I wrote a book teaching foreigners Hungarian pronunciation. Well, those who have used it, know about it, but I don't think it is common knowledge in the blogosphere :)

4. I used to sing in a choir, and miss it very much, so hopefully I can find a choir here and join soon.

5. I worked one day in the Capitol in Washington DC as an interpreter.



One more thing. Help me, please. Those, who use Blogger: how do you post a working link? If I click on the link icon and write an adress there, it doesn't appear in my post but it puts a totally different code somewhere in the middle of my text.

Here is an example:


I am writing something, just as an exahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmple. Now I will post a link here:

- this here is the link. Can you see it?

Please, help me. Thank you. :)

I think I managed to post the links properly now. Thanks for the help :)

A new pattern for sale

Here is my newest pattern for sale. A love sampler, we could say - but not the usual type. Still, I think this says more about love than all the hearts and sweet words.

Size: 150 x 80 stitches
Price: 5 euros. Pay with Paypal and I am sending you the pattern in e-mail.

Easter minis - free cross stitch patterns

Another set of minis, hope you will like them :)

My book has arrived! Happy dance :)

I have been waiting for my complimentary copy of this book for a very long time. Finally it has arrived. It is a complimentary copy because one of my projects is in it! If you buy it, I am on page 83 :D I am going to write a review as soon as I get a chance to look through it.

Nagyon régóta várom a tiszteletpéldányomat ebből a könyvből.Végre megérkezett. Azért tiszteletpéldány, mert az egyik munkám szerepel benne. Ha megveszitek, a 83. oldalon keressetek :) Amint lesz időm végignézni, írok róla.

http://www.amazon.com/Mend-It-Better-Creative-Stitching/dp/1603425640

For some reason I cannot post a link. It doesn't work. So please, copy paste into your browser and look. It's worth it!

Valamiért nem tudom beilleszteni a linket. Úgyhogy másoljátok be a böngészőbe, és nézzétek meg. Érdemes!