The Return of Free Pattern Fridays!

My poor little neglected blog.  Long story short, although my stitching has continued (mostly) for the past couple years, I've not been as good posting progress.  Although I recently started an Instagram account, which I'm hoping my get me to share that stuff more often.

Anyway, I was thinking it was high time to bring back Free Pattern Fridays.  I probably won't be posting every Friday, but I think it's a worthy goal to try and tackle at least some Fridays.  :)

So for today's pattern I have this adorable American Flag sampler from Jean Farish Needleworks.  I know the 4th of July was yesterday, but I love patriotic patterns all year round.  And you can always get a head start on next year after all.

You can download this cute free cross stitch pattern in PDF format from Jean Farish's blog. 

Happy stitching!





Patterns are free and available at the time of posting.  Unfortunately sometimes post are removed or moved, which may make the links in this post no longer viable. In picking and posting my free cross stitch pattern posts, I make every effort to ensure the designs I share are legitimately free charts.  Please let me know if you see a problem with something I've posted so I can update it.  Thank you!

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.

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.

Free Pattern Friday: Snowman Bookmark

Welcome to today's free cross stitch pattern link!  As I said last week, January is going to be full of all sorts of snowmen.  This week's pattern happens to combine two of my favorite things: snowman and bookmark patterns.  In fact, I can say stitch and designing bookmarks is what really got me back into my stitching bug a few years ago after I lost it somewhere around 16 years of age.

This friendly snowman features a vest of stained glass style blues and greens with a jaunty purple scarf, and is offered by English designer Amanda Gregory.  I became familiar with Amanda's designs through a cross stitch forum I stop by from time to time, but her designs have started to get more and more popular lately.  She's popping up again and again in my Cross Stitch Gold magazine with her bright (usually) botanical designs.

You can head over to Amanda's blog to save this bookmark pattern in picture format.  You'll have to scroll down a bit to see it (as of the writing of this post).  There's also a matching biscornu pattern featuring this same snowman if that's more your thing.  Either choice is a great free cross stitch pattern!

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: Baby It's Cold

That's right, it's actually a free cross stitch pattern post!  As I stated in my post a few days ago, one of my goals for the upcoming year is to get back into posting Free Pattern Friday.  If anyone has joined the readership the past few months since I've done this, the idea that on Fridays I post links to free (or nearly free) cross stitch patterns that I've come across in my internet browsing.

Since it's January, I'm going to spend this month focusing on snowmen!  I don't know why, but I'm really on a snowman kick lately.  I blame the World of Charity quilt that they're doing for February with a snowman theme.  It really made me go through and search out lots of snowman patterns.

For this Friday, I have a pattern called Baby It's Cold Outside by Alita Designs.  This pattern is a great example of using negative space, so if stitched on white fabric it should stitch up really quickly and make a great last minute ornament.  I'll have to remember that as it gets closer to Christmas, since this seems to be one of my mother's favorite Christmas songs lately.

You can download this free cross stitch pattern from the designer's website in PDF format. 

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: Jane Austen

Well, today is Friday, so it's time for another free cross stitch pattern post.

Today's feature is a very quick pattern you could easily stitch up in a day or two, and it would make a great gift for any book loving friends you have.  I'm a big Jane Austen fan myself, so this little pattern was a great find.

You can head over the designers blog, My Hobby Gallery, to download this free cross stitch pattern in picture format.

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: Watermelon Welcome

Well, now that I'm back into the swing of things, and it's Friday, it's of course time to post about a free cross stitch pattern for you to download.

I don't know about all of you, but here in Mississippi we're fully and squarely in the summer heat.  And there's something about being hot in the summer that really makes me want watermelon.  So I went looking for a good free watermelon design and came across this patchwork watermelon welcome sign.  I can't wait to stitch this one myself. 

This is available for download in PDF format from the Glory Bee Stitch website.  You can download this free cross stitch pattern from there, and then get 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.

Well, I'm Back...

Hey everyone,

So I kind of disappeared for a lot of June, didn't I?  As I mentioned in my last stitching update post, things were a little difficult for me health-wise.  Add to that a crazy stressful month at work, and things have been sparse on the blogging front.  I even missed most of my check-ins for the last month including TUSAL, WIPocalypse, Smalls SAL, and Stitch From Stash.  I'm definitely feeling better from the almost-pneumonia, and although I have some additional health things I'm waiting to sort out, things are doing better than they were, so that's progress.  I'm hoping to get back on top of things this month.

Although I may not have been blogging much, I still have been doing some stitching, so I do have progress to share with you.

I finished my fish pond square and sent it off to Love Quilts in time for the end of the month deadline:

This ended up being a pretty quick and easy stitch.  It was done with charted DMC threads, 2 over 1 on white 14 count Aida.  It is a free pattern from Happy Stitch, which you can find over at that blog.  There's even a matching cat pattern as well. 

Moving right along, there is of course the always progressing Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin project I'm participating in via Facebook.  This month brought the Once Upon A Time sampler to my door.  This one will be interesting because the owner of the pattern actually made quite a few of her own conversions to the originally.  I'm stitching Rapunzel this time around, and here's my progress so far:

Yeah, so I haven't done much yet.  Mostly just the two borders, and then that bit of tree you can see over there on the left.  I'm actually struggling with this fabric.  Most of the other round robin pieces have more or less got me used to stitching on linen/evenweave, but I don't know if it's the color of this particular one or what, but I'm having a very hard time with the over 2.  I've had to pick out a lot of stuff so far.  The color is beautiful though, so I'm loving that. 
 
In other news, Sunshine by Satsuma Street is moving right along.  I almost finished the sun side of the face, but ran out of the yellow, so I moved on to starting some of the rays while I wait for a chance to obtain more of the yellow floss in the meantime. 

It's actually turning out a little smaller than I pictured it, but that's okay.  This will be a square for World of Charity Stitching, so although it's technically "deadline stitching" the due date is pretty flexible, so I'm taking my time and enjoying it. 

Free Pattern Friday: Stars and Stripes

I've had a super busy day today, but I'm popping in really quick to make sure I share this week's free cross stitch pattern.

It's almost half way through June, which means my thoughts are starting to turn to the 4th of July holiday coming up here in the US.  So with red, white, and blue popping through my head, I found a perfect pattern from the Janlynn company that features all those great patriotic items like stars, stripes, and flags.  It's a cute smallish pattern that should be a perfect quick stitch to do up if you're feeling in a Independence Day mood. 

You can download the PDF of this free cross stitch pattern directly from their website. 

Until next time, 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: Super Edition

Well, I know I've been a little behind in posting Free Pattern Friday for the past couple weeks.  So to make up for it, I have links to 3 free cross stitch patterns today.  I actually plan my posts several months in advance, so rather than just ignoring these great patterns, I want to make sure that you are aware they're out there.  So without further ado, here we go.

First of is the latest installment of the Flower of the Month series by EMS that are part of the 2015 SAL I'm hosting.  If you want to come join us there's still time to sign up, all the signup info can be found here.

June's flower as designed by Ellen Maurer-Stroh is Wild Rose, not to be confused with the cultivated roses, which have a multiplicity of meanings.  According to Google, the wild rose has it's own symbolism and stands for pleasure and simplicity. 

The PDF for this free cross stitch pattern (if you haven't downloaded it already) can be found over at the EMS website.

And since we're into June now, I'm starting to have all things summer on my mind.  Graduation just finished up here at work, so now it seems like everyone is kicking back and enjoying their summer vacations (unless, like me, you have to work year round).  Summer makes me think of beaches, and I found this adorable pattern by Rainbow Gallery that fits right into this theme.

I have to confess, I'm not a super huge fan of beaches.  I don't like swimming in water where "things" may touch me, and I don't like getting sand in every imaginable crevasse when changing out of my swimming suit.   But I love the idea of beaches.  And this cute little pink fish is perfect for a beachy stitching project.  The pattern calls for all Rainbow Gallery fibers, but you could easily sub those out for your favorite brand of threads instead.

The PDF for this project is available for download at the Rainbow Galley website. 

And speaking of the beach, here's another great thing that usually comes with beach trips: flip flops.  Now I love flip flops (I blame it on the California girl in me) and I usually wear them year-round, at least inside the house.  But there's nothing better than finding a new cute pair of flip flops for the summer.  The partner I'm stitching my summer exchange project for love flip flops, so I almost chose this pattern to make for her, but ended up choosing something different instead. 

This cute free cross stitch pattern is done by Janlynn, and is available to download via PDF from their website. 

So that's it for this mega installment of Free Pattern Friday.  I am going to try to be better at posting these weekly again...

Until next time, 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

Well, I've fallen off the Free Cross Stitch Pattern Friday bandwagon the past couple weeks.  Between being sick and the previously discussed shakeups at work, I just haven't gotten around to it.  So I wanted to make sure I actually posted one today.

Things are starting to get a bit hot here in Mississippi, but everything is still in bloom, and it really reminds me that May is still time for spring and flowers.  Of course I'm learning that here that also means tornadoes and thunderstorms, but I prefer not to focus on those.  Instead, this design of spring tulips from DMC is a happy reminder of why I like spring so much.

I absolutely love the colors in this one.  I've always wanted to stitch it up as a bookmark, but it's just a tidge too wide for that.  Oh well, I'm sure I'll find a place for it somewhere.  You can download this free cross stitch pattern via PDF from DMC'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.

A to Z Challenge: Z is for Zoo

Today is the last and final day of the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  It's been a fun experience, but I am definitely read to think about more things to blog about than alphabet letters (haha).

Z is for Zoo

Although my normal Free Pattern Friday post isn't until tomorrow, I thought it might be fun to wrap up this challenge with some free patterns, and they even fit into my Z letter post too.

This is a zoo themed alphabet by Lucie Heaton.  She does a lot of alphabets for the British cross stitch magazines, but if you're not familiar with those, you may have not seen her work before.  She's definitely a cute and whimsical designer for most of her projects (although she does artistic well too). 

These cute little letters would be great for monogramming projects, or you could string them together to make a room sign or personalized tote bag.  They are free to download in three different formats from the Cyberstitchers site.  You do have to download them in sections though, so that's a bit of a bother, but not too much trouble.  Here's the links for A-F, G-L, M-R, S-V, and finally W-Z.

I hope you have enjoyed this trip through the alphabet with me this April.  It's been a lot of work, but a lot of fun too.  I do plan on doing it again next year, although I'm not sure exactly what format it will take.  Guess I have a year left to decide those specifics.

Here's a link to all my past A to Z posts in case you missed any you would like to visit. 

A is for  Alphabet
B is for Britty Kitty
C is for Carousel
D is for Debbie Mumm
E is for Eat
F is for Frogs
G is for Garden Cat
H is for Hats 
I is for Ice
J is for Joan Elliott 
K is for Kokeshi 
L is for Lesley Teare
M is for Margaret Sherry 
N is for Noah's Ark
O is for Owls
P is for Pumpkins
Q is for Quaker
R is for Rules 
S is Sue Hillis
T is for Travel
U is for Ursula Michael
V is for Vermillion Stitchery 
W is for Wreath 
X is for X's and Oh's 
Y is for Year

A to Z Challenge: V is for Vermillion Stitchery

Today is Day 22 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. This also means it is the last Saturday post for the challenge, and also tomorrow will be the last break in posting for Sundays during the challenge. If you are new to the blog and haven't heard of this challenge before, the basic idea is to blog (almost) every day in April, taking one day for each letter of the alphabet. Since I have a cross stitch blog, I am blogging about cross stitch patterns in my stash and on my wish list for this month of April.

V is for Vermillion Stitchery

Now, V is a letter I thought I was going to struggle with.  And I actually had originally had a different topic in mind for today's letter.  But at the last minute I had a brainstorm, which has brought us to this topic.

I first came into contact with Vermillion Stitchery when I saw a blog post about a Violet Tea Cup pattern the blogger (can't remember who it was, sorry!) was stitching for her grandmother (I think).  After a quick search, I found that the pattern was actually a series of Teacup Posies freebie charts, one for each month.  This led me to explore the other designs Vermillion had.

I immediately fell in love with this series called International Bears.  Although I've never been a huge teddy bear pattern fan (they're okay, I just don't love them or anything) I do love "world costume" type patterns.  And these were just screaming at me.  Apparently they were offered as a series of patterns many years ago, but now are still being sold on the website.  It just figures that the US bears are a pair of cowboys.  Is that the only unique fashion style the US has contributed to the world?

There's another companion set called International Bears II, which I also adore, especially the Elizabethan style bears (appropriately named Henry and Elizabeth) that are down for England.  I also had a friend in high school who did Irish Dancing, so I love that the Irish bears are dancers as well.  The only thing I don't really like about the Vermillion patterns is that they do have a LOT of quarter/three quarter stitches.  I will definitely be waiting to stitch these until I get more comfortable working on linen and evenweave.

Sadly, the site doesn't appear to have been updated since February 2014, so although the above patterns were available for purchase as a digital download, it made me a little nervous.  Luckily, I was able to get a print copy from someone on Facebook.  In addition to the International Bears, she also had the set of Fantasy Bears, so I added that pattern to my stash as well.  Some of these bears I really like, and some are just weird (the centaur for one) so I don't think I'll be stitching all 12 of these someday.

If you'd like to get the Teacup Posies freebie charts I mentioned above, they're still available to download from the website.  But I would hurry and grab them if you haven't already since there's no telling when they will disappear. 

One of the other A to Z blogs I've been reading had the excellent idea of adding links to previous posts at the end of a particular day.  So if you'd like to see my previous A to Z entries:

A is for  Alphabet
B is for Britty Kitty
C is for Carousel
D is for Debbie Mumm
E is for Eat
F is for Frogs
G is for Garden Cat
H is for Hats 
I is for Ice
J is for Joan Elliott 
K is for Kokeshi 
L is for Lesley Teare
M is for Margaret Sherry 
N is for Noah's Ark
O is for Owls
P is for Pumpkins
Q is for Quaker
R is for Rules 
S is Sue Hillis
T is for Travel
U is for Ursula Michael

Free Pattern Friday: Honeysuckle Seeds

Today's free cross stitch pattern is a little different than the usual patterns I post because you only have a limited period of time to pick this one up.  I normally don't like posting about limited time patterns for my Friday posts, simply because I want to share patterns that you'll be able to find for more than a small amount of time. 

But this one was so cute I had to share.  This is a vintage style Honeysuckle seed packet design by Maria Diaz.  I really love seed packet designs, and this one is so bright and colorful, it's amazing. 

This is Maria's April free pattern offering, so you can download the free cross stitch pattern on her website, but only until April 30th.  Starting May 1st there will be a new pattern there, so get this while you can.

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 to Z Challenge: Q is for Quaker

Today is Day 17 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  If you are new to the blog and haven't heard of this challenge before, the basic idea is to blog (almost) every day in April, taking one day for each letter of the alphabet. Since I have a cross stitch blog, I am blogging about cross stitch patterns in my stash and on my wish list for this month of April.

Q is for Quaker

I'm not really sure how to describe Quaker patterns if you don't already know what I'm talking about.  The best I can do is these samplers tend to be made of up many different small to medium geometric motifs.  The tend to come in either monochrome or simple color schemes.  I would describe them as tending to be more on the country or primitive style.  Of course, that's by no means a complete or hard and fast definition, so don't take my word for it.  :)

I tend to dislike Quaker patterns for the most part, perhaps because I don't really like most country/primitive patterns in general, but I do have one Quaker pattern in my stash (shock and horror).  In fact, Halloween Quaker is one of my Turtle Trot pieces for this year.

So knowing this post was coming up, I pulled the piece out and gave it a bit of an update.  Here it is now:

This is a slightly modified San-Man Originals pattern that you can download for free from Cyberstitchers. You may notice mine already looks a little different than the model picture.  There were a couple motifs I didn't like, so I moved things around a bit and changed the charted colors slightly.  I don't know if this pattern appealed to me because it was a Quaker designed by one of my favorite designers or what exactly drew me to it.  It definitely could have been the cat.  I have a weakness for all things cat, especially a SMO cat.  Although the designer must have at least something to do with it, because if I ever do another Quaker, it will probably be this Valentine's Day one (also by San-Man Originals, and also free for download from Cyberstitchers).

For this one, the draw definitely is the birds.  Or the chocolate.  Or both. 

One of the other A to Z blogs I've been reading had the excellent idea of adding links to previous posts at the end of a particular day.  So if you'd like to see my previous A to Z entries:

A is for  Alphabet
B is for Britty Kitty
C is for Carousel
D is for Debbie Mumm
E is for Eat
F is for Frogs
G is for Garden Cat
H is for Hats 
I is for Ice
J is for Joan Elliott 
K is for Kokeshi 
L is for Lesley Teare
M is for Margaret Sherry 
N is for Noah's Ark
O is for Owls
P is for Pumpkins

Free Pattern Friday: May Lily of the Valley

It feels like I'm always saying this, but I can't believe how fast April has flown by.  Mostly becasuse projects that are due at the end of the month aren't done yet I guess.  But since it's the 3rd Friday in April,  it's time for May's Flower of the Month series by EMS that are part of the 2015 SAL I'm hosting.  If you want to come join us there's still time to sign up, all the signup info can be found here.

May's flower as designed by Ellen Maurer-Stroh is Lily of the Valley, which will be our first white flower.  According to Google, this flower was chosen as the May birth flower because that is usually the only month it blooms in.  This flower has been used in bridal bouquets dating all the way back to medieval times, which has contributed to it's traditional meaning of chastity, purity, humility, and sweetness. 

So now you can have a sweet time stitching this free cross stitch pattern, and go download the PDF from the EMS Designs website if you haven't already. 

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 to Z Challenge: K is for Kokeshi

Welcome to the first A to Z Blogging Challenge for this second week.  In case you haven't heard of this yet, the idea is to blog (almost) every day in April, taking one day for each letter of the alphabet.

K is for Kokeshi

If you haven't heard of these yet, Kokeshi are Japanese friendship dolls, traditionally made out of wood with no arms or legs.  You can read more about them here.

Like the similiar Russian version, Matryoshka dolls, I've always had a liking for these Japanese dolls (perhaps because I like Geisha patterns so much).  My favorite kokeshi pattern by far is this one, called Kokeshi Friends by Joan Elliott (see, told you she would pop up again during this month).  This design was originally published in the 200th issue of World of Cross Stitching magazine (which is how it ended up in my stash), but the chartpack is now available directly for purchase from Joan's website, or from your favorite needlework retailer that carries Joan's patterns.

And as a bonus for you, here's how you can get your hands on a couple of free kokeshi cross stitch patterns.  One of my previous DESIGN features, Corinne from the French blog Passion Broderie 77, has a whole page of free cross stitch patterns featuring Asian themed designs, along with many kokeshi patterns.  My personal favorite is this one with a ladybug and daisy themed kimono. 

One of the other A to Z blogs I've been reading had the excellent idea of adding links to previous posts at the end of a particular day.  So if you'd like to see my previous A to Z entries:

A is for  Alphabet
B is for Britty Kitty
C is for Carousel
D is for Debbie Mumm
E is for Eat
F is for Frogs
G is for Garden Cat
H is for Hats 
I is for Ice
J is for Joan Elliott