Let the people choose-September-Bees

Hi everyone!
I never managed to do the August issue of Let the people choose as I was not in town and also didn't have anything monochromatic to show.
But September's theme is bees and I should have something ready but I haven't.
Still I am showing it to you as its theme is bees.
It is the summer kit by Craftpod .
I loved it although I haven't stitched it yet as I seem to be out of stitching mood. It will come back eventually as long as we will be entering cold, rain and winter, I guess.
Anyway Craftpod is a kit that comes out every four months. It is a surprise so you don't know what there will be in it. It usually has two things to make.
Here's the bees themed kit. There was a hoop embroidery  and a recipe.

 Let the people choose is the brainchild of Jo of Serendipitous Stitching and you can visit her blog and see more blogs participating in it.See you soon in the next GG.

Let the people choose-July-Finishing

Hi everyone!
Let the people choose is Jo's of Serendipitous Stitching brainchild.
The first Saturday of the month we post on our blog according to a theme.
As I don't do finishing at my cross stitch pieces and only frame them I can't show you much. My finishing is usually a custom made frame.
Like this one for example.

With that only I will only wish you a happy summer!

Let the people choose-June-Mermaids

Hello everyone!
On the first Saturday of each month I take part in Let the people choose, one more of Jo's of Serendipitous Stitching brainchildren!

This month the theme is mermaids, such a great theme as I love summer, the sea, mermaids, sea world and sea glass!
What can I show you to stitch about mermaids?
There are some free patterns that I'd love to stitch one day.
First this mermaid by Alita Designs. You can find it here.

(photo taken from Alita Designs site)

Second this little mermaid by the Snowflower Diaries.

(photo taken from the Snowflower Diaries site)
Third a HAED free pattern.It is called The shell maiden. It would be a dream to stitch this one. Only 24 pages of pattern but I love it!

(photo taken from Heaven and Earth Designs, page)
Now apart from these there are lots more mermaid patterns that I'd love to stitch one day.
I have even bought two second hand ones from a fb destashing page. One is of the Mirabilia mermaids.The enchanted mermaid.

Mirabilia even has a free mermaid pattern on their site.

(photo taken from the Mirabilia page)

 And I also bought a Satsuma Street mermaid. Which if I ever stitch it it will be on white or light blue fabric and not dark blue or black as the original.

 But what I must definitely show you is this pattern which was gifted to me by dear Laura of
 The Little Stitcher.
She creates beautiful patterns so you have to visit her etsy 

I stitched  the pattern and added it on this fabric bag which was a gift from a friend and it had a shop advert on it. Doesn't it look lovely? Thank you Laura!

You can even find a free mermaid pattern on her site. It is called The guardians of the sea. I have stitched this many a time and have given it as a gift to sea glass friends.

(photo taken from The Little Stitcher blog)

Here are mine.

Finally I'd like to show you some mermaids paintings from a recent exhibition I went to. The exhibition was organised by the Northern Greece Painters Association.(SKETBE).

The first mermaid with lots of glitter on it is by Penelope Kapetanoudi.

 The second which maybe is not a mermaid but still very beautiful is by  Mary Keremidou.

 Look at all that detail!

  Finally this one by Pelagia Lehou. I love how the sunlight enters the water on her.

 Hope you enjoyed my Let the people choose post! See you next time!

Let the people choose-May-Flowers

Hello everyone!
On the first Saturday of each month I take part in Jo's of Serendipitous Stitching game Let the people choose.

Every month we choose a theme and show items we have stitched on that theme or things we would like to stitch one day.
I usually stitch something for the theme but this time I didn't manage to finish the piece I started.
Still I decided to show it to you.

 I have started April in my Bucilla Flowers of the month bookmarks. In fact I started it last April 2018 and this April I haven't finished it yet. I have to work harder on it otherwise it will be my longest WIP.
Here it is so far.I am making it into a frame and not individual bookmarks.

Of course I have lots of patterns and kits with flowers to stitch but I wonder when I will manage to make them all. Apart from the Permin pattern all the others are gifts. I want to stitch those first.When?

But anyway to compensate you I will show you photos of flowers from my recent trip to Poland.

Now why don't you visit Jo's link up party and see all the other blogs too?

Let the people choose-April- Specialty Stitches

Hello everyone!

This month's Let the people choose has got the theme of Specialty Stitches.
Let the people choose is the brainchild of Jo of Serendipitous Stitching and you can read this month's blogpost and link-up post here.
As you probably know by now I do cross stitch and sometimes embroidery. So I am not into specialty stitches.
Therefore I have nothing to show you! LOL!
 But a long time ago I had won a giveaway win at a fellow stitcher's blog and I was sent this magazine. It is full of specialty stitches projects.
No, I am not going to stitch any of them or start working with specialty stitches. I have enough cross stitch for the next twenty years.
So if any one of you would like the magazine please let me know and I will send it to you. Just let me know in your comment that you want the magazine.
Cross stitching, crafting and blogging is sharing after all! Right?

 Some of the pages inside.

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!

Let the people choose-February-Hearts

Hi everyone!
This wasn't a good week. It started with my birthday and I was sick!Had the flu so nothing much to say for my birthday. Also other things happening around make me sad and I don't really feel like stitching.
But there are some things I can do. Like this.Let the people choose, Jo's of Serendipitous Stitching first Saturday of the month activity is to show you things one would like to stitch or have stitched according to a theme.
This month the theme is Hearts!

   If you are looking for free cross stitch heart patterns there are some here at the DMC site.
I have subscribed to their newsletter and they send me their news about patterns every now and then.
This is one of their free patterns.

Also Alita page has free patterns also Valentines.

What have  I stitched?
I have lots of threads some are not DMC, some are old, vintage, no numbers on them but I really want to use them up so I decided to use them on gifts I want to make and not to care about numbers.
I wanted to make a heart gift for someone I really love so I chose this free pattern from pinterest.

 I followed the link and found the pattern on this blog from Brazil called Croche maravilha de art.
So I stitched the pattern with all the blue threads I had on a gifted fabric with huge holes and turned it finally into a cushion!I won't show it to you now as I am keeping the photo for the Valentine card blog hop.

I'd also love to stitch this heart too one day.It's from the blog Passion Creative

Which heart would you choose to stitch for someone you love?

Let the people choose-January-New Starts

It's the first Saturday of January(it was yesterday) and also of the year. I am here to write about my New Starts in Let the people choose, Jo's of Serendipitous stitching new brainchild.
But before I do that I would like to wish all of my followers, readers, friends and relatives, fellow stitchers and crafters or not, all the best for the new year 2019. Let's hope it is better than the previous ones.

As the title says it all Let the people choose theme this month is about new starts. So what am I going to start stitching this year? I made a quick decision.
First of all I am going to stitch one small thing every month.These are all little freebies, kits I have received with magazines I had bought in the past or gifts from friends who know that I love stitching. So here there are 12 smalls.

There are three bookmarks (one from Scotland, two from Canada), a magazine freebie to make a stitched cube and a stitched little cottage,a freebie beadwork card, a little butterfly picture, a little flower picture in a frame, a pincushion, two needle cases and a florist's card. I don't know which one I will start first, probably the needle cases.
Then come the New Starts from my kits.

 The kitchen bell pull and the cardinal picture were gifts from my friend Marabeth and the third one I had bought to make for our wedding anniversary. It is printed fabric but you stitch on it too.
Of course I will make my craftpod which is the winter box but since I have a yearly subscription I still have two more to come in the year.

Of course I still have my wips and I want to show those too.

I will start with the Karaghiozis as I have to finish that one too. I am planning to continue stitching the flower monthly bookmarks each one in its month. I have already finished the first three so this wip will start in April and it will probably finish after many years as I usually get bored after making a couple of bookmarks. The seasons embroidery piece I will continue later as I have only Spring and Summer to stitch. And the blue and white one will go little by little as I am in no hurry to finish it.
Of course I know I will have more things to stitch in between like the Let the people choose theme every month and of course I want to start my Christmas stitching early this year.
I also want to make some sea glass felted stones for friends.
Finally I have a wishful thinking list of items I would like to start stitching one day! LOL!

Well that's all, and I hope I will manage to finish some of all those things I want to accomplish.
Have a great crafty and stitching year!