Christmas ornament

Hello, dear Friends,


Christmas is upon us in just a few days. I am sure most of us are busy preparing for the festivities. But if you need a bit of me-time, a bit of relaxing, or perhaps a last-minute gift, here is a small Christmas pattern that you can stitch. It works well for an ornament, a card, or a decoration on something like a doily, a bag etc.

I made two versions: one with a golden garland wrapped around the greenery and one without, if someone prefers simple.

The pattern says DMC 3854 for the "gold", but I would actually stitch it in metallic gold instead.
I think this would look lovely if the French knots were replaced by beads, too.

Happy stitching and happy preparation-time. Don't overdo it though! :D

Christmas ornament freebie - and some heirloom embroidery from the Ukraine

Hi again, dear friends,


I have been busy with moving to a new flat and trying to organise my things. I am still not really done, but at the same time I started to get ready for the Christmas market so the flat needs to wait :)
I was actually considering not going to the market this year. It is lot of work, lots of stress and it is really not worth it, at least not financially. I learnt a lot while preparing for the markets in the last few years, and it was great fun, but I only made very little money, definitely not worth all the work I put in.

But then I got the possibility to go to the Christmas market in Uppsala Castle, which is organised by the Museum of Arts. So I thought I want to give it a try again and see what happens. It might be different audience from the small country markets where I went before.


I received a fantastic birthday present from my boyfriend. He found some really old embroidery on ebay or some other online place, from the Ukraine, from between the two world wars. They are really beautiful. Here are some pictures. I hope I will have time to write about them in more detail later.

And finally, I have made a small Christmas ornament pattern to share with you. I was thinking to sew the backstitch lines together, just like we do for a biscornu. But you can also use it in a card. I made it first in red only, then created another version with some green in it, too. Which one do you like better?

Enjoy!

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

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

Christmas stitching started

(Since this seems to be one of the most popular posts on my blog recently, I thought to give all that visit here a bit of encouragement: click on Home at the bottom of the page. Right now (31st August 2014) there is a giveaway you can sing up for! Welcome!)


Hello, I am here again.

First week of school is over. God, I am sooooo tired! Even though we only had three proper teaching days, the first two days being mentor time, discussing school rules, team building etc. with my class. I feel really lucky, the kids seem to be very nice, all of them, and my co-mentor is fabulous!
In my lessons, I started felting with my year 6, we made some felted balls and next lesson we will make a piece of fabric that can be used to sew with. With year 7 classes, we started knitting/crocheting, most of them are really excited about it and that is such a good feeling. With the little ones, year 5, I only had lessons with two of the classes, we will do hand sewing with felt, and we were playing with the leftover pieces from last year - I teach them not waste fabric and try to use all pieces, even the tiny ones. The other two classes will start weaving next week - I only have enough looms for two classes, so we have a rotation and it works quite well. I have a really good feeling about this year, I feel much more prepared than ever before, and I have made changes in my program where I felt it needs to be made a bit less "work" and more fun. Wish me luck, please :)

Also, as autumn is slowly creeping in under the threshold, I started thinking about my plans for the Christmas fair. Learning from last years experience, I want to make lots of things for Christmas decoration, ornaments and such. I realised that people go to these fairs not to buy their presents (for that they prefer to use the shops), but more for the feeling, for the atmosphere. Most of what I sold last year were ornaments, so I am going to do more of those.

I had an idea about a cross stitched christmas wreath. I even made a little experiment, cut out a kind of doughnut-shape from a piece of fabric, or rather two and sewed them together to see how it looks stuffed. It looked good, so I am going for it. I want to have a piece of embroidery on the front and some christmasy fabric on the back.

There is one problem though: the circles can be sewn together with the sewing machine on the outward line, but not on the inner one, otherwise it cannot be turned inside out. So the inner circle will have to be sewn by hand. I hope it will work out all right still. I will perhaps attach some cord around it to hide the sewing line if it is not nice enough :D

Anyway, I made my cross stitch pattern for one, I am going to start it right away to see how fast I can make one. Then I am planning to design some more in different sizes.

I am sharing the pattern with you all out there, I hope you like it. I will also be back with instructions on ho to sew the wreath when I am done. So watch this place! Also, if you don't want a wreath, you can use it for a cushion.
Have you started your Christmas stitching yet? Have you got some good ideas for me for the market? Please share.



As usual, clicking on the pictures will take you to the downloadable pdf file from my google account. If you have any problems with that, let me know.
The two patterns are identical, except the border that is red in one and green in the other.
I drew some elements in a yellow colour, and I think that could look all right, but actually I am planning to stitch that in golden metallic. Only I didn't have that in my colour palette. So my intentions are:

DMC 444 Lemon dk = golden metallic


Happy stitching from

Agi :)


Edit:
Oops, I have just finished stitching this and noticed a mistake in the pattern. Now I have corrected it and uploaded the good version, if you want to download it again. Or just make sure you check the golden backstitch lines and make them symmetrical in the bottom middle part.

Here is my stitched version. The gold metallic does enhance it a lot, don't you think so?

Edit #2

I have finished it in a wreath. I will post a tutorial on how to do this. I am not 100% happy with it, it was impossible to stuff it nice and smooth. But it is quite near to what I imagined at the beginning.

Baby Jesus in a nutshell - tutorial

I wanted to make a tutorial on how to make a Baby Jesus in a nutshell like this. They are traditional in Hungary. You can make a handful in an hour, so perhaps it is worth sitting down tonight, in the middle of the hectic preparation, and make some with the kids.

Unfortunately I haven't made photos when I made these, and have no opportunity to take any right now (I am sitting on a ferry to Finland), but I thought if someone wants to make some, it is so easy, perhaps I can write down the tutorial without the pictures, and it might still work.

You will need:

halved walnutshells
wooden beads (mine were about 1 cm in diameter)
white fabric scrap for the duvet: a circle about 7 cm in diameter)
a little bit of fiberfill or other stuffing
a piece of white lace for the head (I had some small pieces of crocheted lace, but if you have none, just a small piece of white fabric would do)
golden cord, about 20 cm
small golden charm (I used a star)
glue


To open the walnut, push a knife in the wider end, wiggle carefully, and most of the times it opens easily. Take out all the nut. I have pictures of this step.

Take the golden cord, fold it in half, tie a knot and glue it in the narrower end of the nutshell.

Wrap the lace piece around the wooden bead, as if it was a head scarf, and sew or glue in place. I just sewed through the hole in the bead a few times.
Glue the head on the top of the golden cord.

Sew running stitches around the white circle, about half a cm from the edge. Pull the ends, and put a little stuffing in it, then tie the ends together.
Glue it into the remaining empty space in the nutshell, push it down so that it fills it all.

Glue a star in the middle.

Actually, next time I will make them, I will embroider something in the middle of the fabric circles before doing the running stitch, it might look even better than the glued star - but I came up with the idea too late.


Finally, draw a face. I only drew sleeping eyes but you can add more details if you want.

If something is not clear, go ahead and ask.


I made about 20 for the Christmas market and they were very popular. :)

Christmas squirrel

Hello, here is another small Christmas animal to stitch - there is still time for these minis.
I hope you find it cute.

Enjoy.

Mini Christmas patterns

Hello, everyone, here is my latest freebie: an owl and a cat, getting ready for Christmas.

I hope you like them and have the time to stitch them up before Christmas. Use them on a bookmark, a gift tag, a pincushion etc.

Here are some pictures of the Christmas market I went to a week ago. It was very cold, -10, my feet were freezing, but apart from that I enjoyed it a lot. Sold lots of the small Christmas decorations, but that means I didn´t make much money. However, I at least got back what I spent, and earned a bit for charity, too. All in all I consider it a success. :)

Snowflake. Blackwork. But blue.

I was thinking: how long since I have drawn (and stitched) a blackwork pattern.
And this little thing was born.

Of course, it is not black. I imagined it in blue (DMC 3838) with tiny, lighter blue beads (like DMC 3747). Or you can use French knots / colonial knots instead.

Stitched on some sparkly Aida... what do you think? Anyone willing to test it? :D :D

Happy Christmas/New Year stitching.

Boldog karácsonyt. Merry Christmas. God Jul

I know it is not Christmas yet. :)
But soon.

Still, if you want to stitch a bookmark as a gift, you have just enough time for one of the following little patterns.
In Swedish it is so short that I made a smaller version as well that can be used as a gift-tag or a pincushion.

Have fun stitching them. Send me a photo if you have done so. :)