The Snowflower Diaries

To my dear Visitors, I wish you a happy and blessed Easter with this little card I had painted recently with watercolor art pencils. I wish I could send a copy with a handwritten message to each of you by post to all the countries you came, because you gave me so much support and love in the past three weeks since I have opened this blog.  I am very thankful. I have a big announcement. From the very beginning the majority of my visitors are from France, the least I can express my gratitude toward you is that from now on, the upcoming designs of The Snowflower Diaries will be available in three languages: English, French and Hungarian.   A nice lady will help me translating the patterns to French. Hugs with love, Maja IN HUNGARIAN: Kedves Látogatóim! Ezzel a kis képeslappal kívánok kellemes, áldott Húsvétot Nektek, melyet nemrégiben festettem akvarell ceruzák segítségével.   Bárcsak mindegyikőtöknek küldhetnék belőle egyet postán, kézzel írot...

I had joined a HALLOWEEN ORNAMENT SAL group this year where each month we have a different Halloween ornament theme (pumpkins, witches, black cats and bats etc) to stitch, a paradise for someone like me who loves Halloween and makes a pumpkin land out of her flower garden at home.    The March theme is haunted house and I came up with this design I share with you in this post. Now that I am ready, I think it would have qualified more to the ghost theme of May.   The poor haunted house is only a background decoration:-) The model was stitched on Nina 's Syringa Dark hand dyed Zweigart linen with her threads (Onyx, Pumpkin, Old Berry and White Sheep).  Please welcome some pictures of this very nice ghost lady with flowers in her hair.  I made a little pouch for my old white buttons... heritage from people who had once lived and loved and laughed.   You can download the pattern  here IN HUNGARIAN: ...

I have to tell you I have no strength to resist the temptation when it is about building my needlework stash.  Furthermore I love visiting the eyecandy stash posts of foreign stitching blogs and I am happy to share with you my first one of such in my diary here. (In case my husband asks, all these things costed ten bucks altogether, okey?) As you have noticed I am in love with hand dyed fabrics and threads.  I hope one day I can get lost in one of those amazing needlework stores you have in France, England in the USA as we do not have such stores here, so 95 % of my stash is from online webshops.    I am very blessed that despite this handicap, one of the most talented fiber artist, Nina is not only a fellow Hungarian but lives very close to my house.   No matter what I asked (and I have a wild imagination what colours and linens my heart desire, believe me) she brought  them to life. Soon.  I did not have to be anybody, and I am still a nona...

This Easter I decorate our house in white and shades of purple with a hint of yellow here and there.   Of course ot of the million tulips I had planted in our garden during the cold autumn days none is happened to blossom in purple, but well, let's stitch some, right? :-) My latest design is called: TULIPS WITH CHICK.   (You can check its twin pattern: Tulips With Bunny here ). I have stitched the model with Nina's Threads (with the extraordinary and amazing Punk that is only for the bravehearted stitchers, Butter Squash, Artichoke, Daffodil and Oak) and black and white DMC.   I am the half-blood prince little white flower:-) IN HUNGARIAN : Idén húsvétkor fehérbe és a lila árnyalataiba öltöztetem a házunkat itt-ott némi sárgával fűszerezve. Természetesen abból az egymillió tulipánból, amelyet a hideg őszi napokon ültettem a kertünkben, egy sem bont lila szirmokat, de majd legfeljebb hímzünk párat, nem igaz? :-) Legutóbbi mintám c...

I am so happy to open the first post I dedicate to all those lovely ladies who had stiched one of my designs, especially that my designs had just came out of the oven. I had also opened a board on pinterest  for this - hopefully - growing collection.   Please, send me a picture of your work, I would love to see it! 1/ Stitchers: top left: Adrienne Hegyes (Hungary), top right and bottom right: Tímea Tanner (Hungary),  bottom left:  Anne Marie Courly (France) 2/ Stitchers: l eft:  Catherine Dewasmes Fossé (France), right:  Anik (Hungary) ,  3/ Stitchers: top left:  Senarah (Germany) , top right:  Erin Wilburn , bottom left:  Anne Marie Courly (France) 4/ Stichers: left:  Marielle Tirot - Crosstitchfairy (France) , right:  Anne Marie Courly (France) 5/ Stitcher:  Emese (Hungary) IN HUNGARIAN: Nagy örömmel nyitom meg az első olyan posztot, amelyet azoknak a hölgyeknek s...

The blog is 8 days old today.  I  have never imagined to see so many visitors (more than 13 000) and almost two hundred followers so soon!  I am so honoured.  I will do my best to serve all this wonderful welcome and support you gave to me, you are great!:-) This Saturday I brought you the spring sister of my very first published design here, it is called: SPRING WITCH 2013 and my first tulips this season.  They were so small, cheap and neglected, I always want to save these flowers with my son, and look at them, aren't they wonderful? They grew so huge and so beautiful. The model was stitched with Nina's Threads  (Caramel, Sea Breeze, Grizzly, Olive Oil, Mossy Brick) and DMC. You can download this pattern  here You can find the Autumn Witch (below) of this seasonal series  here IN HUNGARIAN: Ma 8 napos a blog.  Sosem álmodtam volna, hogy ennyi látogatóm lesz máris (több mint 13 ezer) és majdnem ké...

The seventh design is a primitive one, very simple and yet very powerful.   It is called: TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY. It has nothing to do with the Savage Garden lyrics with the same title or with the wonderful movie starring Alan Severus Snape Rickman, I just thought these three words together would be perfect for a Valentine sampler. I stitched it with Nina's Threads  (Grizzly, Hibiscus, Bark, Prune and Champagne) and white DMC.   On the cover you can see that I did a small photoshop trick to show you the sampler 100 hundred years later:-) You can download this pattern  here IN HUNGARIAN: A hetedik minta primitív ugyan, nagyon egyszerű, de mégis erőteljes.  A címe: Igazán, őrülten, nagyon.   Nincs köze a Savage Garden ugyanilyen elnevezésű számához vagy ahhoz a filmhez, amelyben Alan Perselus Piton Rickman játszott, mindössze úgy gondoltam, ez a három szó együtt tökéletes lesz egy Valentine samplerhez.  Nina ...

I brought you today a little Halloween ornament called HALLOWEEN MOON I designed in 2011 after I discovered cross stitching.      I really like the rough style of it, it reminds of the the brush strokes of my paintings that time.    It was designed for DMC, because I had no idea that hand dyed threads exist on Earth!    Nor had I knew about the stitching world and communities or the lots of designs and stash.   I was stitching "freestyle" on a Tesco bedsheet with my four noname cheap threads we used for hanging the Christmas ornaments! Don't tell anybody!   It is still an x-file, why I started stitching, I cannot recall how it came to my mind:-) You are welcome to download this pattern  here IN HUNGARIAN: A mai napra egy kis Halloween dísszel készültem, amely a Halloween hold címet viseli és 2011-ben terveztem miután felfedeztem a keresztszemes hímzést.   Nagyon szeretem a nyers stílusát, az akkor festményeim e...

I study symbols with great interest from a very young age.   Probably it is not a coincidence if you grow up as a daughter of an abstract artist, is it? :-) I believe in the power of attraction and that happiness is a choice and attitude. That is why this simple, fifth design is called FORTUNE SAMPLER and I believe it has magical power.  Who does not want to have a little bottle of Felix Felicis?   I am sure Professor Snape is not willing to give me any slip since I dared to design bunnies in pink skirt and pink flowers.   The duck between the Earth and sky representing luck, fidelity and home is me.  (Seems I am attracted to white birds like I am to white flowers)  Look at those legs!  you have to tell you I am such a  bumbling daydreaming creature that I have a lot of silly accidents, fallings, leaving my belongings, umbrellas and papers behind.   The model is stitched with Nina's Threads  (Butter Squash, Green Mold, Old ...

On the fourth day I give you my husband's favourite with a black cartridge killing cover photo.   It is for sure not a wise colour choice for your downloadable cross stitch designs, but I could not resist to combine the model photo with one of my digital paintings. The relation is simple:  this pattern was born as part of my Severus Snape fandom back in 2011 when I started stitching (the painting is from 2009).   I could not imagine a better thread choice than Nina 's Onyx, the colour of this monochrome had to be fifty shades of dark to fit him.   Maybe I should have decorated it with a hundred black buttons:-) Just kidding.   You are welcome to stitch it with any colour you wish. You can download this pattern  here IN HUNGARIAN : A negyedik napon az uram kedvencét hoztam nektek egy fekete tintapatrongyilkos borítóképpel.   Egész biztosan nem jó ötlet a letölthető keresztszemes mintádhoz ezt a színt választani, de nem tud...

First of all I had almost passed out how many visitors came to my little blog in the first two days! Thank you very much, I am truly honoured.  (I thought by the end of March I will have five followers, and three out of this five would be an uncle or a cousin expressing their support for the poor girl.) My third design is called:  TULIPS WITH BUNNY. The model was stitched on 40 ct French Vanilla hand dyed Zweigart linen by Nina  with her threads (Hibiscus, Rooster Combs, Amber, Grizzly, Old Jeans) and black DMC for the eye. Again, my friend, Tímea Tanner saved this piece from getting forgotten and lost in my drawer where I am building a pile of various stitched items waiting their good faith to become an ornament, a box cover or something nice one day.  Without her help to finish some of the items I could have written only about the weather here. On the cover photo, under the ornament you can have a peek of one of my sketch books.   Maybe I will show you...

I designed and stitched these lovely bunnies in winter when it was freezing January outside.   I love seasonal designs so much, because they give me another excuse to redecorate the house which I practice a lot.   The title of this first spring design is: Spring Bunny Love.   The model was stitched on 40 count "French Vanilla" Zweigart hand dyed linen by Nina with her  threads: Daffodil, Amber, Rooster Combs, Grizzly, Hibiscus, Nutmeg and black DMC.   My dear friend, Tímea Tanner was so kind and finished it as an egg ornament I can hang anywhere. The ribbon is hand dyed 'Petal' Pure Silk Ribbon by Nina.   I hope you will like it, Easter is on the way!:-) Please, feel free to download it!:-)  Click to enlarge the picture.  It is free for personal use, happy stitching!:-) Nina has created a thread pack for this pattern, it is available in her etsy shop . IN HUNGARIAN:  Ezeket a kedves nyuszikat ...