Bookmark with birds

The other day my boyfriend, who is a biologist and a keen birdwatcher, heard the news that near our place there is a capercaillie displaying. For my Hungarian readers: siketfajd. So we went and looked at it, it was an amazing sight. Until it wanted to attack us, at which point we had to simply run for it :D

Here is the guy - not a very good photo but I couldn't get any closer.

This bird, however, reminded me of a typical bird motif in Hungarian folk embroidery. It is called a peacock, but I think it looks more like the capercaillie. So I got the inspiration and drew a little bookmark pattern. Wasn't following any pattern, made it up on my own, but I cannot deny the influence of the "peacock motif".

I hope many of you will enjoy stitching it.

Biscornu and bookmark inspired by folk patterns

I was reading a book about the folk art of Kászon - now in Romania, originally a Hungarian area. I was, of course, inspired by the many beautiful pictures and patterns.

The following biscornu and bookmark are using elements that are traditional in Kászon, but are also present in many other areas. However, I tried to create a new design using the old motifs, added my own interpretation.

The biscornu can also be made as a mattress pincushion, so I added a piece for the sides.

I hope you like and stitch them.

Hungarian embroidery - on felt

I was at home last week with a really bad cold, and I had no energy to concentrate on anything. It was hard to read but I could not just lie idly, my hands need to be occupied with something.

I usually have a simple knitting for such occasions but I didn't have anything this time, and didn't want to start anything either because I have three on the go that are all put aside because I don't like them. Having a knitting block - but more about that in another post.

Anyway, I thought I can try embroidering something where I just draw some simple pattern and then follow the lines. Don't need to think or count. It worked so well that I was doing it all week.

I used some standard elements in Hungarian folk patterns, copying them from a cushion my mum made long ago, then I also tried a few that are not so traditional but I liked them. I used off-white felt and just some basic colours.

Here is the result:

Sorry about the hazy picture. There are a few that I embroidered again because Stephen liked them :)
They will be backed with red felt, the edges cut with zig-zag scissors, and I will add some stuffing and a cord. They will be featuring on the Christmas market. I know, it might be a bit early, but I start university next week, so I might not have too much time to prepare for the market.

I have also been doodling a bit on my cross stitch program. Soon coming back with another freebie.

Happy stitching.

Ági

Summer crafting: quilting, embroidery and a cross stitch freebie!

Hello, hello, I am still here enjoying my summer holiday. Apart from going to the sea yesterday (Oh, how lovely it was!) I was at home all the time and was keeping busy with all kinds of crafts.

First of all, I finally finished my first quilt. Do you remember? I wrote about it ages ago, when I started quilting it, I realised there were mistakes and that put me off it. Now I took it out, finished the quilting in a day (decided not to worry too much about the mistakes, just continue), made a scrappy binding and sewed it on with the machine. It is far from perfect but for a first quilt it is not too bad. If I may say so. I just love it :D

I am planning to make more quilts, definitely. I have already chosen a pattern and even cut the fabric for a huge overcast for my bed, but didn't want to start it until this one was finished. Now I can start it. Soon! But I also plan to do some small practise pieces to learn quilting, while I am doing the piecing for it. I hope that one will be much better. And I am thinking to sew the binding by hand!

Pictures:

I wanted to show my ongoing embroidery pieces to you. Do you ever stitch without a pattern? Just like doodling? Long ago I posted some improvised embroideries I did on felt, now I have some more on all kinds of leftover fabric.
Most of them I started at school. With year 5 classes I do a hand sewing unit, and with year 6 an embroidery unit. With most classes there comes a time when everyone is happily (or grudgingly) settled down with their work and I don't need to run around showing them the different steps. I sit down among my students and take out something to work on. It cannot be something very complicated because I am often interrupted, and of course, my main focus is on the children. But I found they like watching me actually make something, not only explain all the time, sometimes they even get inspired by my work.
Then it happened that I threw that piece of fabric with the needle and thread in my bag so I could stitch a bit on my way home, or while waiting at the dentist etc. That meant that next lesson I had to start a new one, right? :D


So here they are, not finished yet but they will slowly become something.

I also have this piece of Hungarian folk embroidery that I started a while back and pick it up once in a while to practice the special stitch it uses. It is very typical of the Hungarian area in Romania, and it is done with a stitch similar to the open chain stitch (see Mary Corbet's video here) except the stitches are laid very close to each other. It was not easy to learn and I am still not really good at it. First I constantly took it out but that is quite difficult, so I decided to just go on and hope to get better in time.

The next piece is a little experiment. Stephen bought for me a pile of old snaps and hook-and-eye fasteners once and I was thinking perhaps I could use them for decorative effect. So I sewed some hooks on the fabric, wrapped some thick thread around them, and the plan is to sew them down couching-style, also add some stitches around the hooks. We will see what happens to it. :)

The cross stitch I made I have already shown here (the birds), but now I am planning some more. I have to finish 3 squares for the charity quilts till the end of September, so I am working on those now. After that I will make some things to sell in my webshop. I have been working on some patterns, will show them later. But there is a small one, a biscornu pattern that I would like to share with you.

It is a red biscornu again, I just love red embroidery, but of course, you can use other colours too.

Please enjoy it and feel free to share it with others.

Click on the picture to get the pdf pattern. Happy stitching!

Hungarian folk motif again

I have been busy knitting and stitching, but I don't feel very well lately, and simply can't force myself to take photos and blog about them. Sorry. Sooner or later... and I managed to take some pictures for you.

This is what I have been stitching, it is almost done. Just need to add a bit more rain in the corner, it was hard to sew there in the frame, and I think it needs a few more little things. I have stitched this for Lizi, who is a 5-year old lovely little girl, my friends daughter. She asked me to embroider something for her that has tulips and a rainbow and the sun and rain... so I came up with this.

I thought I would share how to make a cross stitch picture using free patterns:

Tutorial: How to create a cross stitch picture using freebies.
1. Go on the internet (or browse your downloaded patterns) and choose a few that you could use for the picture. Look for patterns where there are small elements that can be used.
2. If you want, print and cut out the different elements and arrange them. If you have a cross stitching program, you can draw them and make a better job out of it. I was only improvising as I put them all together. You only need to be careful that the elements are of roughly similar size. Although, as I did on this one, you can use bigger and smaller motifs to create perspective.
3. Stitch. :) :)

Ok, joke aside, I loved stitching this, and even though I cannot draw and have no idea of composition and such, I think it is not too bad. I hope Lizi will like it, I think I am going to make it into a cushion cover for her.

And here are two knitting projects. A cardigan I started with some of the yarn I bought myself for my birthday:

It is this pattern, but I am a bit worried because my yarn is different, the gauge is not the same so I am making it in a bigger size to make up for it but cannot be sure if it is good or not. :( This is the problem with top-down patterns, you don't see the size until much later. Well, fingers crossed and we will see.
This is the yarn I am using: http://www.loveknitting.com/sublime-baby-cashmere-merino-silk-dk - the vanilla, and a lovely green - they don't have it on the website.

And my first ever socks:

I have been knitting for 33 years now and made hundreds of pulovers and scarves etc, but never socks. I have been wanting to learn for years and finally I started. And it is not even difficult! :D :D I am so happy.

I have been using this tutorial and it is mostly very easy to follow. For turning a heel I had to look at some youtube videos because I didn't understand what they wrote, but everything else is really straightforward.

This yarn is one of those I bought on Crete two years ago. 75 % wool - but can't remember the rest, lost the paper. The whole pair will come out of one ball, it seems.

And now I want to share another cross stitch pattern with you based on the same motif as I used before. It can be used for a biscornu, perhaps, although it is a bit bigger than usual biscornu patterns. But it would look lovely on a cushion or a bag, too.

What else do you think it could be used for? What colour would you choose to stitch it?

Click on the picture for the pdf.

Happy stitching. :)

Cross stitch bookmark pattern for free

Dear stitching friends,

I have drawn a pattern for a bookmark, you can download it for free. It is based on some Hungarian motifs. I imagined it in two shades of red, but I think it would look lovely in other colour combinations, in only one colour or in variegated thread as well.
I hope you like it.

Click on the picture to get the downloadable pdf file. If anyone has a problem with downloading, let me know, please.

Happy stitching.

Magyar tavasz - Hungarian spring

Március van - közeledik a számomra legkedvesebb magyar ünnep. Ha jól sejtem, nem vagyok ezzel egyedül. Ünnepeljünk együtt! Készítettem egy kis nemzetiszínű mintát népművészeti mutívummal.
De aztán azt gondoltam, más színekben is jól mutatna, úgyhogy készült még egy változat. :)

It's March and that means that the most beautiful Hungarian holiday, 15th March is coming. Celebrate with us. Here is a little pattern in our national colours with a folk motif.
But then I thought it would look good in other colours, too, so I made another version. :)


Kattintsatok a képre a letölthető pdf-ért.
Click on the picture for the downloadable pdf.

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.