Free Pattern Friday: Super March Edition!

Well, if I'm getting back into the blogging swing of things, that means Free Pattern Friday is also due for a return.  Since I've missed the past few weeks, I have a super sized edition with 3 different free cross stitch pattern links to share!  Actually, this could even be considered an "international edition" of FPF.

First of all, March is my birthday month, so I'm going to spend FPF's sharing charts with one of my favorite sweets: cupcakes!   This is a cute and sweet (no pun intended) chart from one of my favorite UK designers, Lesley Teare.  It's the perfect size for stitching up and making a quick little birthday card, keychain, or magnet.  You can find the pattern and key to save in JPEG format on Lesley's blog archive.

And since my birthday is coming up this weekend specifically in March, I also have a cute little birthday chart to share.  This cute little bear and his snail friend are surrounded by lots of colorful confetti and comes from the Russian design blog Aliolka Designs.  Normally finding cross stitch patterns on Russian websites indicates a red flag for pirated patterns, but I'm happy to report this blog is totally legit!  She even has some alternative color schemes for this same pattern on the post if you're interested in changing the colors up a bit.  The pattern for this design can be found here in JPEG format.

And last but not least, March is also the time of Saint Patrick's Day (which is also the birthday of one of my oldest friends).  St. Patty's is not until next week, but since FPF will come the day after, now is time to share a themed chart.  It's actually the perfect design for when Easter is in March like it is this year because it combines Irish themeing into a Faberge style Easter egg.  This comes from the Facebook page of another one of my favorite UK designers, Durene Jones.  You can find the chart for this free cross stitch pattern here, although I think you might have to log in to Facebook to access it. 

Happy stitching!





If you ever come across one of my posts that contains a chart that breaks copyright law, please email me and let me know right away. In picking and posting my free cross stitch pattern posts, I make every effort to ensure the designs I share are legitimately free charts.

A Long Overdue Update

Hello readers!  I hope you haven't all given up on me, LOL.  It's past time for a new stitching update from me, but I just have been so busy with work and personal issues over the past few weeks I haven't really found the time to blog much.

As I reported in my last post, I had some major carpal tunnel like flare ups in my wrists at the end of January the derailed my Crazy January plans.  I had hoped to pick it back up in February, but that didn't happen.  By the time I was feeling better enough to stitch, I had to get some projects for my round robins done, and well, there you go.  Best laid plans.  Hopefully next year's challenge will go better!

I did consider doing a new project a day type challenge in either April or May but I think at this point I don't think I will do that.  I really, really want to finish the stockings for myself and my family for Christmas this year, and if I want to get through all that, I'm really going to have to crack down to have them finished in time.

So since early February although I haven't been blogging, I have been stitching.  Thus I have A LOT of updates to share with you.

First of all, last check in I was working on Sweets to the Sweet for WOCS.  Well, that one was finished:

It was done on 14 count white aida with charted DMC threads.  Didn't make any changes on this one except I didn't attach the charm that came with the pattern.  I really like this one, and might do it again, but will probably do it in different colors because by the end I was really sick of that shade of red.

After that, it was time to finish up the motif I was working on in Ink Circle's Garden of Stars for the Sampler Round Robin I'm in:

The only thing I didn't like about working on this one was that I only got to work in one color.  Seriously though, the size of this project is MASSIVE.  I had no idea from looking at the model photo.  Even if you stitched it 1 over 1 I'm sure it would still be huge.  The linen on this project was a little fiddly too, which was a little frustrating (had to frog a few things).  Over the past year or so I've been doing round robins, I've really become comfortable with stitching over 2 now, but I have to say I think I prefer evenweave over linen because I just don't like the variances in thread thickness or the transparent quality that linen has in many cases. 

But, moving on.  I also finished up the next square for the WOCS "sweets" theme.  This is Chocolate Box by Little House Needleworks:

For various reasons, including time and convenience, I did this one much different than charted.  The original has a 2 part border surrounding the chocolates, complete with beads.  Since the deadline on this one was coming up, I decided to only do the chocolates themselves and I left off most of the lazy daisy, french knot, and backstitching embellishments.  This is also on 14 count white aida, and I used the DMC floss conversions in the chart.

The first project in my Lizzie Kate round robin came to me, so I finished up my section of that one.  I forget the name of it at the moment.

Overall it was a pretty quick stitch and nicely cheerful.  It was weird to completely start a new project for someone though, LOL.  Usually the project owner does a bit before they send it out into the world for the RR's I've participated in before. 

My section for February for the sampler round robin was also a really quick stitch:

This is part of Country Cottage Needleworks Snow Sampler, and surprisingly I actually got this done in all one night which is unusual for me.  I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the whole thing before sending it on though.

So that's it for the finishes, which brings me to my current stitching.  First up is the next project in my Lizzie Kate Round Robin:

I'm doing the February Block of the Monthly Stamps Flip-It series.  The floss colors were a bit modified by the project owner, but I think it will still be very pretty when finished.  I'm actually a little farther along on it than this, but I haven't taken a new picture lately.

My work project is another WOCS square, this one for the Snowman theme.  Here's what Let it Snowman looks like lately:

He's much father progressed than the white blog I shared after his start during January.  I'm pleased with the way he's turning out, but I'm thinking I will skip a lot of the fussy backstitching on this one.  I just don't think he needs it really. I'm hoping to have him finished and on his way soon!

Free Pattern Friday: Be Mine

Hello readers!  It's Friday, which means it's time once again for me to share a free cross stitch pattern with you.

But first, you may be wondering where I've disappeared off to for the past couple weeks?  Although I managed to keep up with my Crazy January stitching through January 24th, it was getting harder and harder due to a flare up in some carpal tunnel like symptoms in my hands.  So finally on January 25th I decided I needed to take a break and slow the stitching way down rather than risk damaging something so I would need more invasive medical attention.

I'm still planning on doing starts for Days 25-31, they're just going to have to wait a little longer.  Maybe I might be able to pull some out for this weekend.  I know I need to catch up in my reporting of what I did get done before I had to take a break, but sadly, typing imitates the movements that make it hard to stitch, so I've had to cut back on the blogging as well.

Anyway, in the meantime, I can take a quick bit to share a new free cross stitch pattern with you.  We all know Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and although I'm not a big fan of that holiday, I do love kittys, so I found this adorable kitty couple pattern that I can manage to stomach for Valentine's Day.

This pattern comes to you courtesy of Alita Designs, who did one of the snowman patterns I showed a few weeks back.  It's the perfect size for a card or small token that you can easily whip up between now and the big day.  You can download this free cross stitch pattern directly from the designer's website.

Happy stitching!





If you ever come across one of my posts that contains a chart that breaks copyright law, please email me and let me know right away. In picking and posting my free cross stitch pattern posts, I make every effort to ensure the designs I share are legitimately free charts.

Free Pattern Friday: Snow Couple

Welcome to another edition of Free Pattern Friday!  Today's free cross stitch pattern continues January's theme of snowmen, but as it's the last Friday in January, it also gives a nod to the upcoming February holidays as well. 

This cute little snowman couple and filigree heart is from the German blog Kissy-Cross.  It's a nice size pattern without a lot of color changes, which means it's something you could whip up really quickly for a gift or ornament.  I bet the filigree heart border would look really cool in an over dyed or variegated thread as well. 

You can get this free cross stitch pattern in graphic format from the designers blog. 

Happy stitching!





If you ever come across one of my posts that contains a chart that breaks copyright law, please email me and let me know right away. In picking and posting my free cross stitch pattern posts, I make every effort to ensure the designs I share are legitimately free charts.

Free Pattern Friday: Bashful Bunnies and Snowman

Welcome to another edition of Free Pattern Friday, where I share a free cross stitch pattern link with you (mostly) every Friday!

Have you ever heard of Designs by Gloria and Pat?  They were more popular a few years ago, but these are the publishers of the Precious Moments, Cherished Teddies, and Playful Kittens patterns, as well as artists like Dianna Marcum's work in cross stitch.  Most of their chart books are out of print or harder to find now, but the good news is that they've gone digital.  In addition to offering a lot of their chart books as PDF downloads now, they also have a lot of freebie patterns for you to download and try.

Continuing with our snowman theme, this week's pattern I'm sharing is one from the Bashful Bunnies line of patterns they offer.  It features a cute little bunny building a snowman buddy.  For those who've never done one of the Gloria & Pat patterns before, this is a good one to practice with.  They do usually have several fractional stitches with lots of backstitch, something I would call more "old style" than a lot of the minimalist patterns that are available and popular now.  But I think the designs are cute anyway, so I will definitely be trying this bunny.

You can download this cute free cross stitch pattern in PDF format from the Gloria and Pat website. 

Happy stitching!





If you ever come across one of my posts that contains a chart that breaks copyright law, please email me and let me know right away. In picking and posting my free cross stitch pattern posts, I make every effort to ensure the designs I share are legitimately free charts.

Progress Update: Crazy January Challenge Days 15-18

Well, I hope everyone had a good weekend, and those off in the US had a good 3 day holiday.  It was nice to rest and relax for most of the weekend.  Luckily my cold hasn't blown into full on sick mode yet, but I definitely am still feeling off my game.  Monday I had a visit to my thyroid specialist for my monthly checkup and apparently the radioactive treatment I had in October has finally taken full effect.  So my sick symptoms could be caused by the fact that I am now officially hypothyroid.  I'm going on a new medicine for that starting tomorrow, so hopefully that will help bring me back up to feeling better in the next few weeks.

In other news, my brother made it to Florida okay and has now completed his first few days of working at Walt Disney World.  Yay!  So proud of him. If anyone would like to read his adventures about working as a Walt Disney World cast member, he has his own blog here.

But now onto stitching.

Things were slow on the January Challenge side of things, mostly because I got far enough into Swirly Lollipop that I wanted to hurry up and finish it.  So ta-da!  It's now done:

This is a chart from Dailycrossstitch.com and was done on 14 count white aida with the charted DMC threads.  I did modify a few of the stripes slightly and I made the lollipop stick only 1 row instead of two because I thought it looked better.  This is a project stitched for WOCS (World of Charity Stitching) and was started on January 3rd and finished on January 17 of this year.

Friday I decided I wanted to start something new since I have a bit more extra time on the weekends instead of working on a WIP.  So I pulled out this piece of fabric for a project I'm calling Butterfly Sampler:

As you can see I only got a stripe of 1 color of 45 stitches in.  By the time I tracked down and pulled all the colors, I was pretty tired from the long week and ready to go to bed.  This is a series of 4 freebie butterfly charts by Durene Jones that I'm stitching together as one piece.  I think it will look really neat when it's done.

Saturday was another new start.  This is Homegrown Melons from an old copy of the (US) magazine The Cross Stitcher.  Sadly, I'm not sure who the designer is.

My plan is to frame it and gift it to my mother, since watermelons were a large theme in our kitchen and house when I was growing up.  Right now I just have a few stripes of a pink blob, but I actually didn't want to work on this one too much because I ended up working on it when we got together to watch a movie Saturday night.

My project for Sunday was also a new start (noticing a theme?).  This is Britty Kitty stocking by Brittercup Designs.  I've gotten the crazy idea in my head to attempt to stitch stockings for my family over the next year, and these is the one I've chosen for myself.  I spent most of my stitching time on Sunday finishing up Swirly Lollipop so this actually didn't get much attention, but I got two rows of a tree branch done.

Monday's project was also a stocking; this one is called Tate's Stocking and is done by Raise the Roof Designs.  It's originally charted on a 20 count linen from Weeks Dye Works, but I don't particularly like working on linen because of the uneven weaving and slubs, so I swapped it out for a sparkle evenweave instead.  I then spent like 30 minutes (no kidding) on trying to decide to do it over 1 or 2 threads.  If over 1 thread, it will be slightly smaller than the other stockings I'm doing, but if over 2 it will be much, much bigger than the other stockings.  So in the end I decided to stitch it over 1 and just have this one turn out a little smaller.  I'm probably going to get flak for it later on from the person I'm giving it to, but oh well.  After all that time debating, I only had the energy to make the barest of starts on it:

After that I needed some mindless stitching, so since Swirly Lollipop is now done I moved onto Sweets for the Sweet for a bit more progress on the lettering.  That turned out to be a good thing because most of the night was spent stitching while having a massive discussion/argument with my aunt about getting scholarships for college and so the mindless stitching was nice to not have to think too much about:

Not sure what today's project will be yet.  Honestly, I was still pretty tired from being sick/not sick/whatever all weekend, so I didn't plan the rest of the challenge out all the way like I was thinking I might.  So we'll see what I pull out of the WIP or new pile when I get home tonight and see. 

Progress Update: Crazy January Challenge Days 11-14

Despite my best intentions, this is the first opportunity I've had to come on and do a Crazy January Challenge update since Monday.  Somehow I find myself getting sick (again!) and combined with a very busy week at work again, it's really slowed me down.  Bleh. 

But enough complaining.  Let's talk about funner things.  Here's a recap of what my challenge progress is.

January 11th, Monday, I did decide to pull out another WIP project rather than start something new.  I decided it was time to work a little bit of Sunshine by Satsuma Street, since it hadn't seen any love for awhile and is actually pretty close to being finished.  So I pulled it out and took it from here:

To here:

Not too much left to go on this one, so I should be able to wrap this one up pretty quickly soon, although maybe after January and the challenge is over. 

Tuesday night I started a new project.  This is Lizzie Kate's Autumn Alphabet, which I sent out this week as the start of a new Lizzie Kate round robin that my Facebook group is doing.  That's right, I'm pretty much crazy because I signed up for another round robin at the same time.   This one was hard for me to miss though, because I absolutely love Lizzie Kate designs. 

I stitched the middle "M" block on my project so my fellow stitchers have a base point to start their stitching from.  Here's what it looked like when I sent it off:

I'm super excited about this project because it's the first Lizzie Kate chart that I've splurged for the charted Weeks Dye Works and Crescent Colors overdyed threads.  Although you can't really tell with this block because the orange is the one color of DMC in the pattern and the very slight variation in the dark brown hasn't shown up in the small amount of stitching for this letter.  I can't wait to see how it turns out as a whole though.  I plan on doing all 4 in this alphabet series eventually. 

Wednesday I decided that after all the Mill Hill kits I did in December, I was really kind of missing doing the little Mill Hill kits.  So I pulled out Kitty's Stocking and managed to put in one more stripe of color, taking it from this progress last year:

To this:

Not much progress, but hey, progress is progress, right?  I was still in a Mill Hill mood the next night, so Triple Scoop got a little love to take it from where I left it last year:

To this:

Again, not much progress, and in posting this now I see a mistake I need to go back and fix.  But most of my challenge stitching this week was done on lunch breaks, since I've been working on other things during the evening.  Swirly Lollipop has got almost all of its stripes now:

Just the green stripes, white, and the stick to fill in.  I also made a dent in my chosen mandala motif of the Ink Circles piece I'm doing for the sampler round robin for January. 

So that's coming along too.  So what's my plans for the weekend?  Well, I haven't picked my project for today yet, so we'll see what calls to me tonight when I settle in for my nightly stitching session.  Other than that, I want to organize the rest of my potential crazy project pieces and choose which ones I will most likely stitch on during the rest of the month.  Oh, and rest.  Lots of resting.  This getting sick thing is no fun, I tell ya.  : (   Good thing we have a 3 day weekend which gives me more time to recuperate.