Let the people choose-March-Freebies

This month's Let the people choose by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching has to do with Freebies.

Freebies (the little free gift kits that accompany magazines) were at first what got me hooked with cross stitch when I was pregnant with my son. I bought the magazines (mainly Cross Stitcher and Needlecraft) to get the free kits to stitch. I loved them. I collected so many with every magazine I bought that I couldn't stitch all of them at some point. Every January I make a New Year's Resolution to finish my huge pile of free kits from magazines ( I have many gifted to me too by friends) and every year I stitch some but I still have many. At times I give away some as gifts to make other people want to learn how to do cross stitch. I also stitch and give them as gifts.
Here you can see how many I still have.That's a shoe box.(again I say many of them are gifts not bought by me)

Want to see them all?

Now that I see them I think most of my older ones were stitched or gifted. The most of what you see in this photo are gifts.
Anyway freebies are not only free kits from magazines.
Freebies can also be free patterns one can find on various sites to stitch for free.
Be careful here. If you simply look for free cross stitch patterns on various sites they might lead you to illegally shown patterns and not real free patterns from designers. You can read a bit about copyright in cross stitch patterns in this blog post of Minizdiary.
Here I will give you a couple of pages that have some free patterns along with some to buy. I have stitched some of the free ones from these sites and really enjoyed them
First it is The Little Stitcher. She also has a beautiful etsy shop here.
And then it the Snowflower Diaries. She too has an etsy shop here.
You can find lots of free patterns in gazette94 too.
Finally there are some freebies on AjisaiPress and they also have some amazing things on the eshop too.
I hope I have made you want to stitch a bit more now! Till next month!

An Easter exchange

Dear Kaye of Kitten Stitching organised this Easter a great Easter exchange.
Although for years now I don't stitch Easter items I decided to take part as I was in a mood for Easter stitching this year.
Here's what I received in the exchange.

I was the lucky one to receive from the organizer of the exchange herself. Thank you Kaye I loved everything!
Here's what I sent.

 I stitched a freebie design from The Snowflower Diaries blog. I mounted it on felt to look like it is framed. I also stitched a card with a pattern I found on pinterest and added some chocolate, some fabric and a Daphne's Diary.

I am happy to know that Astrid of Astridxstitching who received my parcel found everything to her taste and liked it very much!She has even used the fabric already.
Thanks Kaye for organising this and for the parcel you sent me.

The Snowflower Diaries Joyful World SAL

Back in January I started stitching a SAL( Stitch Along).

It is given for free by sweet Maja of The Snowflower Diaries blog and thousands of stitchers around the world are stitching along this beautiful calendar.

You can join in here on facebook.

You can find more lovely designs by Maja on her etsy shop too.

I am using some fabric I already had which I am not sure what it is but it looks like 28count. 

I coffee dyed it.

I printed my first month and I started using the threads I already had.

Barca keeps me company while I stitch.

Although I am not used to stitching on such high count I managed to finish the first month very quickly because only a couple of days later the second month was coming.

 February was stitched fast as well. Always with Barca next to me.

 February finished.

Every pattern is introduced in the group on facebook on the 10th of the previous month.

And here's March, so sweet.

Barca looked anxiously to see the next month completed.

 No in fact she was looking at my snack.

 And here's April completed.

I have already printed the pattern of May but haven't managed to start it yet!