Stitch an inspirational quote from Hungarian poetry

There were a few days recently that reminded me how much I love literature. Not that I need much reminding, I read (or listen to) books all the time, but I have to admit, it is easy to forget about poetry. I love poems but don't reach for my poetry collections very often. It is just as well that I used to know lots of poems by heart and still remember my favourite lines.

The 11th of April is Day of Poetry in Hungary, the birthday of Attila József. Do you want to read some of his poems in English? Here.

The 23rd of April is World Book Day - according to Wikipedia, it was first put on this day because Miguel de Cervantes Spanish writer died on this day. But this is also the birthday and the day of death of William Shakespeare.

This time I chose a quotation by Sándor Weöres. He was a fantastic poet, and as rumour has it he was shortlisted for the literature Nobel prize more than once. Even though it is very difficult to translate his poetry - perhaps because he was a master of the language. This quotation was chosen to travel to the Moon with the space probe "Puli" last year.

Unfortunately I don't know who translated it, I found different translations on the net and this one was the best, I think. The whole sentence goes like this:
"There is one knowledge alone, all the rest is mere accretion: bellow is the earth, above is the sky and inside you the ladder." (I thought it might look better with a dash in the last line.)

Find some of his works in English here.


And here is the pattern:

Happy stitching!

Inspirational sayings in cross stitch

Good morning!


It is a sunday morning here, this weekend has not done much for lifting our spirits, at least when it comes to sunshine. But I managed to do some cleaning and that is a good feeling. :)


I have been reading a lot about craftivism lately. In case you haven't heard of it yet, the word craftivism comes from craft + activism. Craftivists use crafts to convey important messages, often political. I love the bold embroidered messages they create. I thought I would like to contribute to this trend. I choose two quotes, the first by Gandhi, the other unknown, and I made them into cross stitch pattern. Perhaps they are not very strong political messages, but I am sure they can help us rethink our priorities. I am planning to stitch them and hang them in my school. I hope some of my readers will find them useful, too.

Click on the pictures, it will take you to the downloadable pdf files.

Happy stitching.

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

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.

Free bookmarks week - 7. Sayings

Katya suggested the idea of bookmarks with sayings. I couldn't choose, so I made a few. Enjoy them. :)




This is a Chinese proverb.


This is my idea :P



And finally an assissi bookmark - also good as a gift for a teacher. It is two-sided. The colours are old gold light and dark, DMC 676 and 680 and Christmas red 321. They don't look the same in the picture as my threads.



The week is over, but tomorrow there will be another, extra bookmark. I have also done some biscornu and ornament patterns, so come back soon for more freebies. Happy stitching.

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 :)

Smile

I felt I really needed some cheering up. This is the result. :)

Another free cross stitch pattern. A sampler with one of my favourite sayings.




Actually, the middle motif is quite good without the backstitch elements, too if you want to leave them out.