A wedding sampler made from the blackwork pattern

Denise has just sent me this fantastic picture. She used elements of the Blackwork sampler pattern to create a wedding sampler. Very creative! Isn't it just beautiful?

Thank you, Denise, for sharing it with us.

Valentine's Heart - free chart again

I seem to be carried away with my designing lately, I don't make one but a "series" right away. (This is how I eat apples - I never eat one, start with two and usually eat a third one as well.)

As a result, here is another free heart chart - this time with traditional, sampler-style love birds. Tell me what you think of it.

Happy stitching :)

Subversive sampler - free pattern

Hello :)

I have been in a bit of a sewing and stitching frenzy lately. Want to use all the time before school starts next week. I finished the competition piece, but I am not sure if I can post a photo of it now or not. I need to ask. I think it turned out really nice.

Now I am working on an order. It goes well but my neck is getting a bit tired. Sewing on the machine for a break does not help either. Will take some photos next time I take it out of the frame.

I made another free pattern, this time a subversive sampler. I hope you will find it funny, just as I do. ;)


Click on the picture for the pdf.

Happy stitching, friends.

Teamwork - cross stitch freebie

Hi, everyone, do you still remember me?
Yes, it is me, Ági. :D You know, the crazy woman with all the different textile techniques...
Anyway, I am back a bit. I have been busy with sewing and cross stitch but haven't made photos yet... I know, I know, soon.

Bur I have made a cross stitch pattern for all of you to enjoy. It would make a lovely decoration in an office or a gift to a colleague or a boss.

I am actually stitching a much bigger and more ornate version of this for my boss, not as a gift though, he has ordered it. Not as my boss, just privately, he will pay me for it. :) My first commission :)

I have also started another piece, a sampler that I am making for an embroidery competition - I am not sure if I can post pictures about it, but will check.

So, here is the pattern, as usual, click on the picture to get the pdf.

Love - free cross stitch pattern

Hi, everyone, hope you are doing well and stitching or knitting or sewing etc with all your might. :)


I am doing all right. Have been busy, as usual, not much free time for crafting and even that is often taken up by Pinterest and other internet sites and blogs. Sometimes I feel guilty that I am just looking and looking instead of doing but I know that I need such times, and they are worth the time because later I can use a lot of the inspiration I receive. It's like input and output.
I hope this makes sense. Do you ever feel like this? Do you have "collection" periods to be followed by more active crafting times?


It was on Pinterest that I saw a funny and really cute way of writing the word Love. I liked it so much that I made it into a cross stitch pattern. It was fun finding out a way to draw it, and I am sure it would be even more fun to stitch it.

I am planning to use my favourite DMC variegated for it: 115. What colour would you choose? Solid or variegated? Or perhaps more than one?

I hope many of you will enjoy stitching it.

See you soon.

Agi

Going for a holiday

Hi, friends,

I am going away for a holiday, kind of. Going home to Hungary, so half of it will be all kinds of official appointments, but I hope to have some time to relax and meet friends and of course, my daughter.

That means I won't be blogging for about two weeks. I am not sure if I will have any internet time at all. Just so you don't get too impatient ;), here is a free pattern, you can stitch it by the time I am back. Looking forward to it.

Have a lovely summer, everyone, see you later. Hugs


Agi

Life is what you make it

Life has been really hectic lately, as last days of school usually are. Also, my car broke down and it took some organising to get around. And I had to send in my Swedish assigment today. I am so tired. But today my summer holidays have started! I am free until 7th of August :D :D

I was doing some stitching, knitting, crochet sewing etc, of course, though not as much as I would have liked. I will show you some pictures soon. Until then I have brought you a small freebie again.

I have been thinking what I can do with the little stick figures I "invented" when I was making a quilt block for my students. I really liked stitching them so I wanted to share them.

I have come up with this little pattern. I hope you like it. Make into a mini-sampler to hang on your wall or a flat-fold or a card. Feel free to experiment with other figures, too.

The little romboid-like shape that I used for the heads represents a single chain stitch, I just didn't know how to draw it but I am sure if you just follow the blackwork lines it will look good, too.

Happy stitching.

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.

St. Patrick's Day cross stitch pattern

March is not only the month of a great Hungarian celebration, but it is also when Ireland celebrates St. Patrick, their patron saint. I have been to Ireland twice, and have fallen in love with her. One of the most beautiful places on earth, and the Irish are so kind and friendly.

To honour St. Patrick's Day, I have created these two patterns: a little sampler and a bookmark. Hope you enjoy. If you stitch them, send a photo, please. :)






Edit:


If you are interested in St. Patrick's Day patterns, why not take a look at my other freebies here , here and here?

A non-Valentine sampler

I have nothing against Valentine's Day - in the countries where it is a tradition.
In Hungary, however, it is not. It appeared just a few years ago, and it has been promoted by florists and gift-shop owners. Thus, it is much more about business than anything else. That said, it seems that the younger generation has accepted it so it may become a tradition in a few years time.

Speaking of love, though, I believe that it cannot be exercised as a campaign. Real love is there all the time, and we must make an effort to show our love to those around us who are important. Not only on the 14th of February.

If you agree with me, you might want to stitch this little sampler. If you put it up, it can stay on the wall all year round. :D :D
Hope you find hapiness in stitching it. I made it in red but you can use your favourite colour or a variegated thread.

New Year Resolutions - Part 2

Here is the second part of my free chart "New Year Resolutions". I hope you like it.




The shaded area is the overlaping part between the two sections. I also post a picture of the whole, just in case.

Blackwork sampler - part 3 - I have finished it.

I am so glad, I got some really nice feedback about the blackwork sampler, although noone had time to stitch it right now. I, however, could not stop myself, I enjoyed stitching it so much. I almost forgot how much I like blackwork.

So first, here is the second part finished:




I am giving you the third and final part now:



The first lines are herringbone stitches.

And this is what it looks like in my version:



And finally, a picture of the whole. I finished the sides with hemstitching, this was the first time I did it, and it went quite well. I was so proud of myself. When I was all finished, I realised that I miscounted somehow and on one side the margin I left was wider than on the other. So had to frog it, cut it and re-stitch again, but that didn´t turn out so well because I had to fold it on the line of the previous withdrawn threads, and became a bit wobbly. I am not very happy about it but there is not much I can do about it now. It will teach me not to be too proud of myself. :-/

Blackwork sampler - part 2

Hi, Friends,

Due to a terrible backache I have to stay at home and lie in bed almost all day. :( Not the best thing at the beginning of the school year. But that means I have time for knitting and stitching.

I have stitched the first part of the blackwork sampler, so I am publishing the second part. As you can see, I have already done one line of that part, too.



The grey area is the overlap between the first and second parts.



Happy stitching everyone. :)

Cross stitched buttons - photo tutorial

Hello, stitchy friends :)

I was repairing a cushion that was torn, and the buttons were also missing. So I made some. Here is how.

The cushion looked like this:



Then I did this:





The white buttons were used with their rounded half outside. I stitched a running stitch around them and pulled it tight.



These are the buttons at the front:



and the back:



The back is quite messy but it doesn´t matter if you sew them on a cushion that is pulled together in the middle. If you want to use similar buttons on a flat surface, you should buy a button-making kit. I have never tried them but would love to.

And the final result:





I have also started stitching the blackwork sampler. Half of part 1 is done. It is good that I tried it out because again I noticed a mistake. When you draw a repetitive pattern, it is done with copy and paste, and it is so easy to go one or two stitches off. I have put up the corrected version but I am not 100% happy with it, I should have realised it earlier. But this is how it will stay for me - if you want, you can make adjustment on the black zigzag line, so it is centered. Or tell me if you want it, I can draw another version.

I am using DMC 310 and 221 on a lovely light green hand died linen. Unfortunately, in the photo the fabric doesn´t show. Sorry about the hoop marks, I ironed it but they will not disappear properly until I wash it.



Is there anyone stitching it?

Some more news about myself: here in Sweden it is almost like autumn, at least like autumn at home. We have been picking mushrooms and bilberries.






I hope, dear friends, that you are all well and been stitching/knitting/crocheting happily. Hope to see you soon. :)

Blackwork sampler - SAL challenge

I have created a blackwork band sampler. Altogether it is 65 x 170 stitches, so if you want to stitch it, this is how big your fabric needs to be, plus a few centimetres around it. This is how it will look like:

Terveztem egy blackwork csíkokból álló mintát, összesen 65 öltés széles, és 170 hosszú. Persze rá kell még hagyni néhány centimétert körben.Így fog kinézni:



I am going to publish it in 3 parts. As soon as someone finishes the first part (perhaps that someone will be me, but I am not sure how much time I will have for stitching), I will post the next one.

Három részletben fogom közzétenni. Amint valaki elkészül az elsö résszel (lehet, hogy ez a valaki én leszek, de még nem tudom, mennyi idöm lesz hímezni), felteszem a második részt is.

So, come with me on this journey, let´s do this together. I am really curious to see what colours you choose.

Gyertek velem erre a kis kalandra, hímezzünk együtt! Alig várom, hogy lássam, milyen színeket választotok.




The full squares are supposed to be cross stitches with two strands, but perhaps you can substitute them with beads.

A teli négyzetek keresztszemes öltések, két szállal, de talán gyöngyöket is varrhatunk helyettük.



You can find part 2 here and part 3 here.

If you want to see how Denise used some elements of this sampler to create a wedding gift, you can find a photo of it here.

New subversive sampler, based on a Hungarian saying

Mindenki ismeri a mondást: anyám, én nem ilyen lovat akartam. Ìme, most ki is hímezhetjük. :) Sok sikert hozzá. A szokásos piros-fekete színpárosomat használtam hozzá, kíváncsi vagyk, ti milyen színekkel tudjátok elképzelni.

There is a saying in Hungarian: you want something really badly, and when you get it, it is not the real thing, not good enough, or you realise that you actually wanted something else - we say: "Mummy, I wanted a different horse". It doesn´t seem to make much sense, that´s why it is funny - at the same time, it is a bit bitter, too. Now you can stitch it, if you want to :) I made it in my usual red and black colour scheme, but I am curious to see what colours you would use for it.







And a picture of the crocheted hairband I made for the sister of the newborn baby boy. I wanted her to have something in the package, too. :)



Have a good time stitching, knitting, crafting and send me photos if you stitch my designs, please :)

Cross stitch alphabet sampler and a giveaway

Hello, everyone. I have moved. I had to do it in a very short time, had a week to pack and arrange lots of administrative things, then travelled 3 days. And I have been working at my new workplace for a week now and enjoy it a lot. But didn´t have much time or energy for my hobby.

But today, finally, I managed to sit down with my program and finish the blue alphabet I started to design before moving.

Here it is: first a full picture, and then broken down into four pieces for easier printing. I also added the 10x10 lines to these, and tried to shade 3 rows and columns for overlap - I hope I didn´t make a mistake there, it was my first time. Not as easy as it seems. :) Hope you enjoy it.












And as promised, I am doing a GIVEAWAY to celebrate that my blog has attracted 20000 visitors. The price will be a pack of threads and fabric, with some unusual ones included. Cannot post a picture right now because some of my things still haven´t been unpacked but will do so soon.
The winner will be selected from those who post a comment and answer this question:

What type of patterns would you like to see in the future?

Looking forward to your answers. I will draw the winner next weekend.
See you soon.

A WIP finished

I have finally finished my stitches sampler. It is going to be a cushion cover. I am planning to write a detailed description of each square, if I can remember all the stitches I made :) Watch this place.

Végre befejeztem a különböző öltésekből álló munkámat, amiből hamarosan párnahuzat lesz. Azt tervezem, hogy részletesen leírom mindegyik négyzetről, milyen öltést használtam, feltéve, hogy emlékszem mindegyikre. :) Nézzetek vissza hamarosan.

Vicces "Isten hozott" - Subversive Welcome sampler

Már készülök egy ideje, hogy hímezek egy "Isten hozott" feliratot az előszobába, terveztem is egy mintát hozzá (l. korábbi bejegyzések), de jobban szerettem volna valami kicsit viccesebbet. Ez lett az eredménye.
(Amúgy tud valaki valami jó szót a Subversive cross stitch kifejezésre? Nekem a "pofátlan" ugrott be elsőnek...)


I was planning to stitch a Welcome sampler for my hall, I have made a design earlier (see older posts) but I wanted someething a bit funnier. So I came up with this. I have to thank my friends on crossstitchforum.com for helping me phrase the English version.








Well, I had second thoughts. It appeared to me that perhaps Welcome would look better in one word, so I made some rearragement of the pattern. Would like to know which one you all prefer.




Egy megjegyzés. A minták készítéséhez PCStitchPro programot használok, de amikor jpg fájlként mentem el őket, a 10x10-es vonalak nem látszanak, hiába próbáltam vastagítani őket, semmi nem segít. Egy ideig a kisebb mintákon megrajzoltam a vonalakat, de a nagyobbaknál elég macerás. Ha kinyomtatjátok, akkor meg lehet húzni őket vonalzóval, szerencsére a számok látszanak, de ha ez gond, akkor szóljatok, és megcsinálom. Ha valakinek megvan ez a program, és szeretné inkább a PAT fájlt, szóljon, és elküldöm e-mailben, akkor akár módosíthatjátok is a mintát.

Just a side note. I am using PCStitchPro for creating my patterns but for some reason when I export them into a jpg file, the bold 10x10 lines don't show up. I tried making them even bolder but nothing seems to help. So I gave up. With smaller patterns I just drew the lines in backstitch but with the bigger ones it's kind of a bother. If you print out the patterns, you can draw your own lines, luckily, the numbers are given. Or if you think it is too much to ask, let me know and I will draw them in blackwork. Also, if you have PCStitch, send me an e-mail and I can send you the PAT file, that way you can even make some adjustments if you like.

Spring sampler

I made a spring sampler, in two colourways. But of course, you are welcome to change the colours to your liking.