A week of smalls - Bookmarks and Swedish Mother's Day

Hello Stitching Friends!

This Sunday past was Mother's Day here in Sweden, so I spent the whole week stitching smalls that I could turn into gifts - in this case bookmarks - and greeting cards. And since some of my family and friends read this blog I couldn't show any progress pics. I 'only' needed to finish four pieces, but since I had the appropriate magazines and patterns at hand I thought I might as well stitch a few more to keep for future events. 

I stitched one bookmark for my mum and I also made a pretty pink bookmark for myself at the same time.

Bookmark patterns from Cross Stitcher magazine issue 301.

I also stitched a couple of hearts from the magazine Enjoy Cross Stitch, Hearts & Roses from spring 2012, and I turned one of them into a greeting card for my wonderful mum.

I made a card and a bookmark for an aquaintance whose dog is a dear friend to my furbabies and who's going through a rough time. Sadly I don't have any children so personally I like to celebrate Dog mummy's day instead of Mother's Day.

The butterfly/lavender piece is from Enjoy Cross Stitching, house to home Spring 2013.

The bookmark is from the same magazine as in the above picture, although

I have made some changes in the design.

 Except for putting the finishing touches on the cards and bookmarks, I also started a couple of more smalls for future cards over the weekend.

Lovely cottage designs from Enjoy Cross Stitch, Cottage Gardens Spring 2015

I guess these would count as my starts for the Spring into Summer New Start Binge this past weekend. And don't forget to check out what gorgeous projects TIFF and RACHEL made a start on!

The past couple of days I haven't had the time nor energy to stitch, so now I'm desperate to sit down with all my lovely projects and just stitch along hour after hour. I also have a couple of new projects that I'm really look forward to stitching . For exemple I'm really looking forward to start on this lovely cottage picture by Lesley Teare, which is another gorgeous design from Enjoy Cross Stitch, Cottage Gardens Spring 1015.

Luckily I had quite a few of the threads I needed. Normally I would order DMC threads from UK or USA since it is much cheaper to buy them abroad than here in Sweden, but due to the pandemic I can't buy them abroad right now… So I'll just have to make due with the colours I have for the time being until I can order more threads abroad again.
Luckily I definitely 😂 have enough cross stitching projects to keep me busy until the world is back to some kind of normal again...🙏.

Happy Stitching,

Annie

A week of easy stitching

Hello Stitching Friends❣

How are you doing? Today, the 1st of May,  is a public holiday in Sweden, but it's also my nephew's 19th birthday so we had a very small celebration at my sister's house. No hugs and with space between us and everyone taking their turn to head into the kitchen for cake. It feels weird but at the same time it's the new normal. Above all it feels important to still celebrate and keep it as normal as possible for the 'kids' even if the world is upside down.

But now I'm back home and looking forward to a weekend of relaxation and stitching. The week has been a bit of a struggle for me both physically and mentally, but I have still managed to stitch almost every day. However, when I'm tired and feeling a bit down I normally stay away from big projects, and I also like to perk myself up with a new start or two😊. It's always a nice mental pick-me-up😉!

One day I started and worked on this little project by Emma Congdon from Cross Stitch Collection issue 241.

The original chart was stitched on perforated paper, but since I didn't have that I used an aida ribbon instead. I also made a counting error, but I chose not to rectify it since it isn't too obvious. The pattern had an uneven number of squares, whilst the aida ribbon had an even amount of squares so I wasn't able to center the design perfectly but I think it looks ok still.

I also spent a few hours on my Ursula Michael design.

I made a start on the dark green section, and I also started to stitch with purple. The purple colour replaced the yellowish shade that just wouldn't stand out enough. 

Here is a much more accurate picture of the gorgeous aida shade😍 (I wish I could afford to buy many more pieces of coloured aida) and in the background lies one of my stitching buddies, my 8 year old Beagle.

And on the other side is my other crafting buddy, my 11 year old Dachshund/Chihuahua/Beagle mix.

One day I felt particularly out of sorts and really didn't have much energy for anything, so in order to get a little bit of stitching done, I decided to start a new little cute seaside picture.

These are just super cute and they come in a set with three Swedish seaside motifs and three little flexi-hoops.

And the black-and-white chart is really clear and easy to read.

Normally I definitely prefer a coloured chart but with this particular Swedish cross stitching brand, Svarta Fåret, I don't mind the black and white at all.

In the beginning of the week I also added some more green leaves to my summer picture and as soon as I have a good day again I look forward to working on this for a bit.

When I'm too tired it's just too much hard work trying to keep my place on the chart, even though I have stitched gridlines...

And finally, I actually have a FINISH!!!

Cross Stitcher issue 304. Design by Susan Penny.

When I went through my old cross stitching stash I found so many needles that I decided I needed another needle case for storage. And luckily I had this gorgeous freebie kit from 2016 lying around!
I loved how it turned out😍😀!
It's quite large and have four felt 'pages' so plenty of space for lots of needles. Simply perfect!

Well, that's all for now. I actually fell asleep for a bit 😴 in the middle of writing this post 😂which is an indication of how this week has been for me. However, now I hope I have a nice weekend full of lovely cross stitching ahead of me.
I hope you do too💝❣

Thank you for reading and Happy Stitching!

Annie

The Mojo is back in town!

Hello Stitching friends❣❣❣

I knew it would happen at some point. I just didn't know when… And I certainly couldn't predict that something as awful as the Covid-19 pandemic would be the main reason for it😲!

But regardless of the reason….I have found my cross stitching mojo again🙌🙏👏❣

And I couldn't be happier about it😀. And I'm Back in the land of Cross Stitching👏!

I stopped stitching towards the end of 2016 because I was struggling badly with my mental health and I just couldn't find the joy in stitching any more. Instead I picked up my crochet hook and later on I also did some knitting and that's what I've been doing for crafts for the last three years. 

However, I knew that eventually I would bring out the aida fabric and the threads and I actually gave it a try last autumn. Sadly that experience did not work since I got an anxiety attack as I tried to stich. So I put the stuff away again. 

But then this awful year happened… And Covid-19 made all the amazing sporting events I looked forward to this year, such as the Olympics, disappear - as well as a lot of other things - and lots of time suddenly needed to be filled with something. Strangely enough I also started to get bored with crochet and knitting - I mean, I had ONLY been doing it for three years😂😂😂!

So when I spotted this cross stitch project by Permin...

...I knew it would be a perfect gift for my sister when she turned 45 this spring. She's amazing and she is always creating all sorts of stuff or she is busy thinking of creating stuff. 

I must say it was a perfect project to get me stitching again; an easy pattern and just a few colours. And since I had a deadline I couldn't stop even if I wanted to. Which I didn't😊.

Being on a cross stitch roll I also decided to stitch this cute freebie birthday card for her:

The card is from Cross Stitch Crazy issue 213 and designed by Margaret Sherry. Very cute, but I had completely forgotten how much backstitch her designs include😳! I remember now why I didn't really go for her designs that much before. Just doing the backstitch took me as much time as the rest of the design...or at least it felt like it...

Still, I'm very glad that I kept ALL my freebies from ALL of my old cross stitching magazines. It's such a stitching treasure to have now.

With Easter coming up, I also stitched a few Easter cards to send to my online friends...

The patchwork flowers are designed by Lesley Teare from

The World of Cross Stitching issue 230

 ...as well as a little cute hanging.

From Enjoy Cross Stitch Birds & Butterflies Spring 2016

When I started to stitch again, I also decided to go through my enormous cross stitching stash to see what I had and to try to create some kind of order out of all the boxes of stuff I had saved since 2016.
Of course I had not gotten rid of ANYTHING since I knew I would get back to it when the time was right. Out of all the projects I found, these two are the ones I've started to work on this week.

They're from a Swedish cross stitching brand (Svarta Fåret) and the theme is Swedish summer and archipelago, and it's something I long for now. We used to have a large boat in our family, but my father had to sell it for health reasons and the way things are now in the world I really miss the whole soothing boating experience.

So instead I try to create it in stitches. As you do.

I have absolutely no idea if anyone is ever going to read this post since it is over 3 years since I last posted something here. I know I had some followers back in the day but that was a long time ago. But now when the cross stitching mojo came back, I also got the urge back to blog about my stitching. Even if no one else reads this except for me, it is still a very nice way to keep track of my projects and enjoy the progress I make. And for now, I'll keep writing my posts in English. That way hopefully more people can understand me (if they ever find me😉)...and I get to practice my English skills!

Happy Stitching,

Annie 

Halloween and Christmas stitching coming along:)

Hello Friends!

My plan was to post at the beginning of the week, but before I knew it what I thought would be a quiet week turned into quite a busy week with dental issues for one of my dogs, a movie visit with a friend, dog-sitting 2 dogs for a friend - yes, I currently have FIVE dogs at home to look after - and various other things. Today I have to do laundry, household chores and some baking as well as look after all the dogs, but I wanted to share my stitching with you  before I start with all that boring housework...!

My PS Halloween chart Cats, Bats & Witches is coming along very nicely:)

I just love working on this one and as long as I don't run out of any more threads, I hope I can finish this well in time for Halloween.

I have stitched a little on the PS chart And to All a Good Night...

...but I find it extremely boring to stitch with only blacks and browns, so I don't think I'll get much more progress done before I can send for some more threads (ie reds and greens!) which hopefully can happen next week. Fingers crossed!

Since I got one more PS Santa (the knitting Santa) over the summer, I have now started to stitch him alongside the other Santas:

I would really like to get these Santas finished before Christmas, but I'm not sure there will be enough time. I have soo many crafty projects on the go right now. Many are Christmas gifts and some are just for me. We'll see how I go...

I'm also stitching this little freebie snowman from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine issue 220.

This snowman is a special project since I'm doing it together with my sister. Once I'm finished with the stitching part, she is going to take over and incorporate it on a beautiful Christmas tag using her scrapbooking techniques. I can't wait to see the result!

Lastly I have made a tiny start on Country Cottage Needleworks 'Cookies for Santa'.

 

It took me quite some time to stitch the gridlines, since I decided to use sparkling aida and it was difficult to make out the correct holes in the fabric. I hope this project will look OK together with the extra sparkle that the fabrics provide; I just really wanted to have some fun with it and I loved working on the sparkling aida last time I used it! I have a feeling this might be a slow-going project though, since it's just for fun and will therefore be far down on the list of crafty things that I REALLY want to get done before Christmas!

 

Hope you're all well and having fun with your stitching and other crafty projects! 

 

Annie

Glad to be back...and with some stitching too:)

Hello Everyone!

Hope you're all well? I can't believe I haven't posted for almost two months... Oh well, time flies when one crochets, lol!

But guess what??!! My stitching mojo is back! Happy Days! I think it happened sometime during the 17 days and nights when I watched the Olympics and crocheted around the clock...suddenly I found myself longing for a change...And thinking of all my cross stitch projects...and thinking even more of my Prairie Schooler chart stash that I am dying to dive into!
So now I am dividing my crafting time between crocheting and stitching; I still have Xmas gifts to crochet so I can't put away my crochet hook. But in my head and soul the little cross stitches have taken over and make me long for cross stitching all day long:)

So of course you wonder what projects have I picked up now that I'm back to the lovely aida, cross stitch needles and DMC floss?

Well, the first one out is The Prairie Schooler's Cats, Bats & Witches:

I have really surprised myself with picking this Halloween chart. Sweden isn't too big on Halloween itself and only celebrates it because we've been influenced by the Americans:) Personally I don't celebrate it at all, but I have seen some really cool Halloween charts on your blogs and on the online stitching stores and began fancy stitching my own witches:) And this PS chart is perfect for me as it only uses 4 DMC colours! So there we are. I decided to pick the smaller chart to stitch first and I hope I can get it done in time for Halloween THIS year, haha.

The next chart is Christmas Tree Farm by PS, and this I started before my stitching mojo disappeared, but now I'm really keen to carry on stitching some more reindeers and Xmas trees:)

And of course we mustn't forget the forlorn PS Santas that are way overdue for a finish:

 I stiched this alongside Gominam at http://stitchniche.blogspot.se/ and since she's such a speedy stitcher she has of course finished it a long time ago. But now I have purchased a fourth Santa and some more thread so I should be able to finish this too - hopefully - before Xmas. Unless I have to make Xmas gifts etc... Oh well, we'll see... But at least I am going to carry on putting in a few crosses on my Santas every now and then, and then we'll see what happens:)

The good thing is that despite me being such an unreliable stitching companion, Gominam have decided to join me for another SAL as we stitch The Prairie Schooler's Xmas design And to All a Good Night . I'm really looking forward to this, and yesterday I decided to start and hopefully get a headstart on my super-speedy stitching companion, lol:)

However, my start didn't exactly go smoothly...:(. First of all I realised that yet again I didn't have all the threads I needed, like the reds and greens...Pretty important colours for a Xmas design I'd say!  However, I did have dark grey -yay! - so I decided to stitch the sleigh and counted and counted to make sure it ended up in the right spot.
And of course it didn't!! I was so pleased with my little sleigh until I realised that I would have to frog it... The whole sleigh... But I perservered and stitched another sleigh and added some more gray and brown and I will order the festive colours later on when I can afford it. It already feels as if I'm falling behind on this project too, lol.

Lastly I have made a start on this cute little Snowman freebie from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine.

 

Thankfully the kit included all the threads I need and thankfully I got to stitch with another colour than greyish black lol:)

 

Happy Stitching everyone!

 

Annie 

Moments from a very busy period...

My furbabies have kept an eye on me and all my crafty projects:)

My only (pathetic) cross stitch finish lately. It's a freebie from a recent issue of
Cross Stitch Crazy.

I have crocheted lots and lots of coasters...

...in various colour combinations!

 

My furbabies have played outside in the sunshine.

I went away visiting my 89-year-old grandma one weekend and she fell in love
with the mandala I was working on...so I gave it to her of course!

We talked a lot about my lovely grandpa who passed away in 2004.

I have crocheted lots and lots of little flowers...

...and attached some of them to my crochet hearts!

A good friend's son graduated and had a lovely celebration with some lovely food.
Especially this Eton mess with summer berries was to die for!!!

I have an order for a crochet wrap which is coming along nicely.

Last Sunday my sister and I sold some stuff at mum's allotment.
It was a nice day and we made quite a lot of money:)))

 

I'm happy to say that my homemade cookies sold very well indeed. Here's
a few 'Cakes-in-a-jar' that were for sale too:)

I'm cheering on Sweden in the EURO fotball championship in France and looking
forward to the Olympics in August, so of course I had to decorate my balcony in
the Swedish colours to show my support for all our competitors! 

And my oldest furbaby takes every opportunity he can to eat doggy treats and to
get some attention. And of course I try to oblige; after all,
he's turning a very distinguished 11 years old in a couple of weeks!  

Hope you are all enjoying your summer!

 

Annie

I'm soo excited...!

Hello Everyone!

I've had nice quiet week which thankfully meant lots of time for stitching. Instead of working on a large piece though, I felt like stitching some smalls. Here are a couple of them finished:

They are from Cross Stitcher magazine issue 301 (designer: Fiona Crouch), and the best thing about these designs is that the threads were provided as a freebie gift with the magazine! Hopefully I can turn these into some nice gifts for birthdays and Christmas:)

However, the most exciting thing that has happened this week is that I have finally placed an order for a couple of Prarie Schooler charts and some other stash!!! Thanks to a month with slightly more money left over, I jumped at the chance to buy some more charts! Of course I went a bit crazy when ordering (why pay for postage more than once lol??), so the rest of the month will be a struggle financially...but I just don't care! I just can't wait to get my hands on the charts, and I order some threads too so I can start stitching at once and also finish my Cosy cushion:) The next few weeks will certainly drag before I get my treasures LOL!

Hope you're all finding some time for stitching this weekend!

Annie

Second Finish (!) this weekend!

Hello Everyone!

Thank you very much for all your lovely comments on the previous post! Every single comment is greatly appreciated and makes my heart sing:))

Despite feeling a bit under the weather today - so frustrating! - I managed another Finish (before I fell asleep exhausted on the sofa in the afternoon...)! It's the Gingerbread House Sampler!
Here it is in all its sparkly glory:

Freebie chart from Cross Stitch Crazy

I am sooo pleased with this finish, and I can't wait to find a nice, simple golden frame for it! You know when stitchers say that 'they enjoyed every single stitch', right?! Well, I always think to myself that that simply cannot be true; there must be parts of a design that is a bit boring... However, with this particular project - and for the very first time - I must admit to saying that I enjoyed every single stitch on this sampler LOL!
It was soo wonderful to stitch on the sparkly fabric, and I loved the little motifs and the happy colours - I just loved it all! In fact, I'm almost sad that it is finished lol.

Here is another picture of it that I took when it laid on my lap - all the colours of the threads and the fabric are much more accurate here:)

I wish I could do a Happy Dance but today I think I have to settle for a Happy Clap:)

Now I just hope I feel more like myself tomorrow so I can carry on stitching without an headache or without falling asleep...

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Annie

New stash and WIPs!

Hi everyone !

It is about time I write a post again , don't you think ? !

I've been waiting for my cross stitch order from England , and today it arrived ! It's like Xmas Eve ( in Sweden we open our Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve ) in September lol !
Look at this stunning gold-fleck aida . . .

 

. . . AND it is called Stardust . . . isn't it gorgeous ? ! ! I have finally been able to treat myself to a cross stitch magazine subscription , and when I received the latest issue (208) of Cross Stitch Crazy I saw this very cute freebie Xmas sampler . . .

 

. . . and I am hoping that it will look extra-special stitched on the gold aida : ) ) Fingers crossed ! !

Of course I also received some more threads for my many projects : )

There are red threads for my white and red Xmas picture , and some blue threads for my Swedish santa , and some threads for new projecs that I can't wait to start . . ! As if I don't have enough projects on the go already . . !

My sister actually gave me good advice when I complained that there isn't enough hours in the day for me to have time to stitch all the Xmas gifts I want . She also has a lot of craft projects on the go for Xmas gifts so she knows exactly what I'm talking about . Anyway , she suggested that I should try to finish ONE project for each person so that everyone is 'covered', and THEN I can go crazy with more Christmas gift stitching ! So that is what I am trying to do now ; just get something done for each and every one and then the rest is a bonus : ) )
It is soo nice to have a crafty sister to discuss crafty issues with : ) ) 

So one of those Xmas gifts projects I am working on right now is this aida band I showed you a month ago (look HERE):

I wasn't happy about the thread colour for the backstitch details . As you can tell the letter M is backstitched in a lighter blue thread that is quite difficult to make out . I decided to have a look through my stash to see if I could find a darker blue that would still complement the other three colours , but also stand out a bit more . As you can also tell , I succeeded:) I am much more happy with the A and the R, and it is now possible to make out the small flowers too : ) )

I am also working on my September ornament for Christmas Ornie SAL . I struggled to find a design I was happy with so in the end I decided to stitch something totally different . . .

 

. . . and that ended up being this Christmas tree : ) It is stitched using only DMC Metallics and it's from an old freebie chart leaflet from The World of Cross Stitching magazine . As usual it is impossible to do justice to the sparkle in a picture , but trust me when I say that it looks really nice : ) I haven't decided how to do the finishing yet , but we're only halfway through September so I still have time to think about that one . . : ) ) )

 

That's all for now , fellow stitchers !

 

Annie