Searching for new quick and easy go-to charts... and other crafty stuff

Hello Stitching Friends!

What a crazy start to this year it has been here in my little x-stitch nook. Plenty of visits to the vet and broken down technology; just one (financial crisis) after another. And the vaccination is going REALLY slowly here in Sweden; neither my dad (who's got alzeimers😢 and is 73 years old) nor my mum has had any vaccine yet. At this rate I will still be waiting in the new year.. Unfortunately I also live in one of the areas in Sweden that has the highest rates of covid-cases so I have to be really careful. But so far everyone in my family has stayed healthy so I just continue to keep my fingers crossed🤞.

So most part of February I spent knitting and selling some wooly mittens to earn some well-needed money...

When I was finished with those, I crocheted some Easter inspired gifts and things for my home.

 

For example this cheerful doily that I displayed in my hallway. 

 

Even though me and my furbabies spent Easter on our own it was nice to spruce up my humble little home a bit💛💜💚.

I also stitched Easter cards to send to some family and friends far away, and once again I used my favorite flower charts by Lesley Teare from The World of Cross Stitching issue 230.

They are just PERFECT for cards; quick to stitch with very little backstitch and one can combine colurs and patterns any which way depending on your stash and the occation.

 

Unfortunately I have a strong feeling that almost everyone near me have received at least one version of these flowers, so it is about time I find a found a new easy, very quick and adaptable go-to card pattern. 

I have realised though that it is easier said than done as I've been going through my cross stitch magazine stash...😳. Either it's too much backstitch to make it quick, or there are too many colours used, or the patterns aren't very adaptable... Still, the search must go on!

Due to all the knitting and crocheting and cross stitch cards, I haven't had much time to spend on larger projects. Just a few more added stitches on The Prairie Schooler chart The Night Before Christmas ...

However, I have spent a lot of time thinking of what I want to stitch during the summer ahead. Which projects do I want to (try to) finish? Do I want to make some new starts? Are there any stitching challenges I can join to speed up my stitching? I'm hoping and praying that some sporting events will take place in the coming months, such as Stanley Cup playoffs, the Ice-hockey world championships, the FIFA European championships and the Olympics🙏🤞🙏...and if they all do, there will be PLENTY of time for me to do some stitching! And frankly, I can't wait!!! And I look forward to having more stitching progress and projects to show you here on the blog this summer.

In fact, I'm about to start a new exciting project very soooon (who am I kidding?! I just cannot NOT start new projects😂🙈😂) and I'm iching to get off the computer and finish gridding my fabric! 

I hope that you are all well, and I look forward to chatting with you about lots of stitchy things soon again🌷🌸🌷!

Annie

Find me on Instagram...and on the couch crocheting:)

Hello Friends!

I'm still crocheting... as well as waiting for my stitching mojo to reappear:)

 I had a lovely birthday celebration with lots of lovely gifts and kind thoughts sent my way, and made me feel very grateful to have such lovely friends and family <3 <3. AND, I was lucky enough to receive some birthday cash, which meant that I could order some more PS charts online from the US!!! I'm sooo excited for them to arrive, and I can feel my mojo starting to come alive when I think of those gorgeous charts in my hands! Of course I still have to buy some more threads, but I'm hoping that after the sad news of the Brexit, I might be able to order some threads from England and benefit from the exchange rate. A sad state of affairs, but there it is. Since stitching stash is so expensive in Sweden you have to make the most of every opportunity that comes your way...!

You may have noticed something new on my blog...???
YES, I have joined the land of #hashtags and emojis and I now have my own Instagram account:
@handarbetsgumman (Swedish for 'the little woman who enjoy crafts'). So if you think I'm bad at updating the blog you're welcome to join me at Instagram at any time. I mostly show my crafty WIPs, which are all crochet-inspired at the moment, but when I'm back in the land of cross stitching I'm sure there will be plenty of pics of cross stitching to enjoy too.

Enough of my news. Here's some pics from the last couple of weeks:

My oldest furbaby looking for shade and escape from the heat.

My sunny seaside mandala (inspired by a crochet pattern from www.bautawitch.se.

My talented sister had wrapped my birthday gifts soo beautifully!

One of my gorgeous - if I may say so myself lol - crochet WIPs.

Homebaked birthday Pavlova and a lovely afternoon at my friend's place:)

My darling old boy is turning 11 years old in a few days time...Where did the years go?!

Celebrating Mid-summer in Sweden at my mum's allotment and my youngest
furbaby enjoyed resting under the wooden bench:) Cutie pie!

Another one of my crochet WIPs! Tulip Mandala pattern found HERE .

From my sister I got a hand-crafted notebook which I have turned
into a crafty-notes/planner book.

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

Roses and bookmarks and other crafty things...

Hello Friends!

Oh well...clearly not much has happened on this blog lately - SORRY! - but IRL lots of things have been going on in My Little X-Stitch Nook:)

My mum has an allotment and in a couple of weeks all the allotment owners and their families are having a kind of 'flea market' sale for the general public, and my sister and I are planning to have a little 'stall' where we are going to try to sell some homemade baked goodies (baked by me), and some beautiful homemade paper craft like greeting cards and flowers (made by my sister), and some small crochet things (made by me). We did it a couple of years ago too, and we were surprised to see that we actually made some money!!!

We are both looking forward to it as well as dreading it and battle with a lot of negative thoughts...Will people really want to PAY for our things? Will anyone even be interested? Do we even make things that are good enough to sell?!  Etc, etc... But we try to stay positive and think of it as a fun day that we can spend together; if we make any money it is a big bonus!!! And if we don't sell anything we have both got all our Christmas gifts made already LOL!

So, as you may have guessed by now I have spent all my free time lately with various small crochet projects that may be turned into something that could be sold. I have made little colourful crochet roses...

...that I'm turning into bookmarks...

 ..like this one...

 

I'm also making some more small crochet hearts as well as these African flowers:)

 

I haven't quite decided how to use these ones yet; maybe they'll be turned into pincushions...:)
As usual my inspiration comes from the lovely Swedish crochet blog Bautawitch !

I've also been working a little bit on my leftover-yarn crochet blanket and I took a picture of it as it looks right now:

 

It is quite large (150 x 115 cm) but I like my blankets big enough so I can wrap myself in them properly from head to toe, so I still have plenty more granny stripes to do:)

 

Finally I actually do have some cross stitch to show you since last time:

 

Aren't you impressed, LOL?!
OMG, how on earth did I manage to stitch soo much since last time?!

Hopefully I'll get back to my stitching once this allotment business is over and I've been able to order some missing threads. If we can sell some homemade stuff we'll have more money for more craft stash etc so it is definitely a priority for my sister and I right now:)

Hope you all have a nice crafty weekend! Over here in Sweden the weather is atrocious right now; cold, very wet and very windy. The only good thing about it is that it is perfect weather for long hours of crafting indoors, so I'll be spending the weekend on the sofa watching Midsomer Murders with a crochet hook in my hand and plenty of yarns in my lap:))

Annie

PS Santas and Swedish crochet vibes:)

 Hello dear friends!

Thank you very, very much for your kind and supportive comments on my last post! It really warmed my heart, especially since I've felt so bad about not getting around to reading all your wonderful blogs. But I have begun to feel better - for the time being at least - so I hope I can catch up with you all properly in the next week or so.

One afternoon this week I made an effort to stitch on my PS Santas. So this is where I picked it up...

...and in an afternoon I managed to get this far:

 I'm afraid I have seriously fallen behind on this project, and my hope to catch up with my lovely stitching buddy Gominam is completely lost. And even more so now, since I also ran out of my red Santa colour DMC 221...:( My birthday is in June so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some birthday cash so I can order some more threads, as well as a chart for a forth PS Santa:)

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With all the sporting events this summer, including the Olympics and the UEFA EURO 2016 (football), I'm feeling very patriotic at the moment and have decided to make some Swedish crochet decorations for my home. In case you didn't know, this is the Swedish flag...

...and in my local craft store I was lucky enough to find the perfectly coloured yarn. I'm working on a crochet bunting for my balcony, using these Maybelle flowers. Since one of my furbabies like to destroy my plants I don't really have any flowers on my balcony, so I thought a Swedish-style bunting would cheer the space up:))

 I have also made this little crochet heart as a decoration for my summer bag:

I have made hearts in other colours too...

 ...since they are kind of addictive lol.

I'm doing other crochet projects too, but they are going to be Xmas gifts so I can't show them here. Last Xmas I made a promise to myself to make sure I started VERY early with my gifts so I could take some time to relax in December, and now I'm making good on my promise to myself!

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Sometimes I get a feeling that my furbabies think I spend too much time crafting lol. Especially my smallest furbaby. He's VERY devoted to me and likes to be very close so sometimes he can get quite frustrated when he has to compete with piles of aida and balls of yarn. Last night at my sister's place, he was desperate to lie next to me whilst I was crocheting, which meant that he had to lie on top of the armchair's armrest...

...and hang his head down next to it in order to lie as close to my legs as he could!

I tell you, we all laughed at him and were amazed that he could lie like that and sleep for over an hour LOL! Such devotion really makes your heart swell:))

I guess that's all for now. Hope you all have a lovely week and lots of time for some happy stitching and crafting!

Annie

Struggling with life....

Dear Friends,

Life has been a bit of a struggle lately. My computer has crashed and I've struggled with my depression and aches and pains.    

Except for some crochet not much else is getting done around here and that sadly includes blogging and reading all your lovely blogs, for which I'm very sorry. I've been given a second-hand computer that I hope I can get up and running soon, and meanwhile I'll have to use my iPhone  for everything, including writing this post.

The only project I've stitched on lately is my PS  Santas...

...but it is going very slowly.

Instead I've been doing lots of crochet since that has been the only thing that has inspired me lately. I've been doing a version of granny squares...

...for a cushion and...

... a potholder. I've also made various little pieces...

...that eventually will be turned into various things like...

....this little crochet heart. The inspiration for these projects mostly comes from the wonderful Swedish crochet blog www.bautawitch.se.

Hope you're all doing well and finding time for your crafting😊

Annie