Santa's Reindeer - My first Freebie for you

I can feel the spirit of Christmas right around the corner. So I decided to create a free pattern of one of Santa's reindeers.

So here is my very first pattern designs. It's based on free silhouette pictures that I found online.
It is for personal use only, do not sell the pattern or share it. If you like to tell a friend please direct them to my blog to download the pattern.

 

Wish Upon a Star Christening gift

My aunt was watching pictures of my cross stitched projects and loved them. She asked if I could stitch a Christening gift for her son's little daughter. I said yes and showed her a couple of charts and she picked Lili of the Valley's chart "Wish Upon a Star".

The little ballerina in the chart has a blond hair but I changed the colours to brown since the little girl has a lot of long brown hair. :) The colours I used were DMC 3031, 3862 ja 3864. A long time ago I bought a DMC colour map book and it was very helpful in finding the right colours. It has real threads on it so you can see exactly what the colours look like.

I finished the stitching as a small pillow and found the perfect polka dot fabric for the backround. I also attached a lace ribbon to the sides.

I'll stitch her name on this when I go and see her. I didn't know it since in Finland the name is not usually announced before the Christening.

My handy tool for changing the colours.:)

  

I stitched some during Easter...

I have been stitching a lot during the Easter. I finished three projects I had started earlier.

This on I finished last night. Pattern is "Un tour dans mon Sac" by CMon Monde. I love how this turned out on the purple fabric. I used Atalie's Onyx instead the Gentle Art's Onyx that was called for in the pattern.

This one I finished on 6th of April. I love Vincent Van Gogh's art so this Cloudsfactory's Mini Artist Galleries - Vincent Van Gogh was a had-to-get pattern. So cute!

The Hop to it!-bunny from The Cross Stitcher magazine's issue 290 got it's last stitches on 5th of April.

I need to make something with these. I guess the Van Gogh will be framed but no idea what I do with the other two. Good ideas are welcomed. :)

Cute bunny exchange

The World of Cross Stitching magazine had Bebunni calendar last autumn. We had a cross stitch meeting and this calendar caused a sudden EEK!BUNNIES!CUTE! screams in several people. And I also had to get it. :) Outi and I then decided to have a private cute bunny exchange.

I stitched this bicycle riding bunny Outi chose. I attached it to this case which has a glass on its door. She can use it to store jewelry, letters or other treasures.

Hidden in the case: bunny poop and bunny tails (aka chocolate raisins and marshmallows) and other surprises. :)

I also sew her a reversible bunny appliquéd bag.

I got this awesome appron from Outi! I absolutely love it! The bunny I chose is stitched on the pocket. There was also a japanese bunny tablecloth, yarn, cute bunny buttons and a muffin tin.

The clock is ticking and skull from my head

I have been cross stitching but most of them have been secret projects so no pics earlier.

I took part in a Birthday exchange last year. Due to my new work and 500km move to a new city I did not have the time or the energy to fulfill my commitments. :( So, I have been making amends this year. First one I made is a birthday present to Mia. I saw this clock design in the newest Cross Stitcher (issue 289) and was so motivated that I stitched and finished it in two days. I finished this on 8th of February. I changed the colour from blue to red and used an old clock mechanism. I just cut the hands to a right lenght.

"Mia´s teatime"

I also made one small side project to cheer my friend up. I made her a keyring. The skull is from my head (pun intended ;)) and the blackwork pattern is from an old freebie print I have.

"Skull from my own head"

Today I finished a "travel project" I've had for years. Lizzie Kate´s "Christmas is forever" almost got finished during the Christmas time but the light blue thread ran out. I have a light blue thread for a secret project and I thought maybe it will be ok. It was exactly the right yarn so off I went and finished! I haven't decided what this will be.

Sunny early spring days to all!

  

Changing seasons exchange to Maija

I took part in the Changing Seasons exchange. I stitched for Maija.

Last part was Autumn so I stitched some pumpkins and finished them as a notebook cover.
The patterin is called Pumpkin Patch Bookmark and it's from The Cross Stitcher magazine, issue October 2008. 

I was really in rush to get the summer part in mail and didn't have time to take photos. And then it went missing in mail. :( Maija never got it and I had no time to stitch a new one. Luckily we had some angel stitchers and they sent Maija her summer exchange. I made her another bag, a project bag, with Gorjuss pattern "On top of the world" stitched on it. I am so sad it never got to Maija. :(

For Spring I stitched this Atalie biscornu. I forgot to take photos so these pics are from Maija's blog.

 (Photos from Maija's blog)

For Winter I stitcher her a part of one Gorjuss pattern (without the polarbear) and finished it as a bag.

Mailart that went missing :(

I stitched an Aunt's Attic themed Mailart for Patricia. I sent it to her in the mid September and she still hasn't received it. :( I guess I have to believe it is lost and I have started to stitch a new one.

Here are pics of the missing/lost/stolen mailart. This is the first time an exchange that I have made has gone missing.

My blog's summer holiday

Like the header says I think my blog has been having a loooong summer holiday! :) I have done some stitching but I haven't got around to posting something here. But now that will change as the autumn is coming and when it rains I won't be out and about so much.

I took part in Yahoo groups Mailart exchange. Theme was monochrome, one colour. I stitched the mailart for Marja and used red thread. I stitched with one thread over one. I put some red things inside the mailart.

The front of the mailart:

The back:

I received this lovely rasberry coloured mailart from Paulie. I love it. :)

I also took part in a Bling bling exchange. :) Pirjo is not a big fan of bling bling so I wanted to stitch something practical and stylish. I stitched P as Pirjo on a sparkling fabric with sparkling thread and covered a USB drive with it. On the USB drive I saved a bunch of freebie charts that I have gathered.

I got some beautiful Bling bling from Outi! Se had made this cute box and inside was a tiniest and prettiest little broach. Thank you Outi! :)

Our cross stitch friend Kirsi has had some serious back problems and we wanted to cheer her up. We stitched owls and  Ressu sewed them as a blanket. I stitched this little creature with googly eyes. :) It's a freebie but I can't remember where I got the chart from.

 I just finished my summer vacation and I've been back at work since Monday. It has been a little bit hard to get up in the morning but I guess next week it will be easier. :) I wasn't at home much on my vacation. Mostly I was in Oulu and that brings us to one reason why I have had less time here and with my stitching: I met a man about three months ago. :) He lives about 260km away so I have traveled there and back and he has been here at my home too. All my friends who live in Oulu (he lives there too) have been saying that I should find a man there and move to Oulu. :D Well now I've met the man! You never know what the future brings and where you live some day. ;)

Cross stitching weekend with lovely like-minded people :)

I spent the last weekend with the greatest people. I was at Ikaalinen with 20+ other stitching friends having a great stitching weekend arranged by Violarium. I knew some of them before and others I had met here in the blogging world.

I am happy with the stitching that I got done eventhough I felt like most of the time I was laughing so hard I couldn't stitch at all. :D I took some of my Crazy january Challenge projects with me and I got two stitched, one finished and one has a lot more stitches in it.

My fourth Crazy stitching was Brooke's Books' freebie Stitchie Witchie and I got all the stitching done.

My third Crazy stitching was Pelin Tezer's freebie "Zeugma - A Bookmark for Mom" and I got all the stitching done and finished this as a bookmark with lace.

Tralala's "Moutons de saisons" series, the spring, got a few more stitches in it. I had stitched only a small part of the border berfore so I am happy with how much I stitched. 

On Saturday morning I heard that my friend Ritva, who was also there at the stitcher's weekend, had her birthday on Saturday! I wanted to make something for her and I stitched this minibiscornu for her using linen fabric and Atalie's thread called Cedre. The chart is a part from Jardin Privét's chart Mini Quakers. It took me a couple of hours to stitch and finish and I gave it to Ritva on Saturday afternoon. Luckily she was sitting on the other end of the table so she couldn't see what I was stitching. :) 

We received surprise envelopes from Violarium. The envelopes were waiting us on our beds and of course I had to open it right a way. :) These lovely things were inside:

We also had the Violarium shop open during the weekend. The shop was open all the time that Lennu from Violarium was awake so we could buy lovely things when ever we felt like it. And we did feel like it quite a lot. :D I bought two Nimuë charts, more Atalie's threads, linen band, laced zippers and ribbons. Thank you Lennu for keeping the shop open until the late hours of the day. :)

Here is my place at the table. My projects and my snacks. :) And other picture is taken from the end of our table. There was also another long table full of stitchers and one smaller too.

"E" as Eija and "Baa" as a sheep

I took part in a freebie exchange at Finnish exchange blog Lennun ristipistovaihdot. The theme was to stitch and finish something with a freebie chart. I made this little sewing box for Eija. The chart for the "E" in the cover is from Filanthrope Broderies Floral Alphabet chart, I stitched using blue as it's one of Eija's favourite colours. I finished this by covering the box with fabric that has blue tones and also made a padding inside so the scissors and other stuff wouldn't rattle inside it. :) And as I always forget something, this time I forgot to take a photo of the inside, you can see it here.

I got this gorgeous and very neatly finished bag from Anni. She told me that the chart is from gigir.canalblog.com blogi and I just love those sheep! One of my favourite colours is green and this has just the perfect tones of green. Thank you Anni!

The spring should be here by now but we still have minus degrees here in Finland. But the sun is shining and the birds are singing so I think the spring is just around the corner. It really is, look! :D

Button exchange from me to Neili

I got to stitch the Button exchange to Neili. As soon as I heard that there was going to be an exchange with buttons theme I remembered this chart. I have wanted to stitch this to myself since it appeared in the magazine loooong time ago... and I will some day! :D
I cut a circle of from the lid to mount the stitching to it. I attached the buttons to cardboard pieces, there are four different themes with the buttons: Nature's Creatures, Flower Power, Traditional and Fairytale.

Malli: Stylish Stash from the CrossStitcher magazine issue 214/june 2009

Fabric: 25ct Floba

Stitched with on thread over one

Pistelty yhdellä säikeellä yhden langan yli