Having a mini-rant about freebie cross stitch vs non-freebie cross stitch + WIPS

Why do people automatically assume that because you prefer to stitch freebie patterns, you must be a troll????

(for those that don't know, as I understand it, a 'troll' is someone, in the land of cross stitch, who tells on people who have illegal copies of copyrighted non-free charts on their sites, to the designers whose charts are being infringed upon)

For anyone interested - designers included - I AM NOT A TROLL. I just like freebie charts. It is because of freebie charts that I tend to buy copies of non-freebie charts. Freebie charts give me a chance to see if I like a designer or not. If it weren't for freebie charts, I wouldn't be such a fan of the likes of Lizzie*Kate and Dragon Dreams (both of whom I have bought copies of non freebie charts).

I appreciate the designers more who offer freebie charts, even if they are only one or two a year (in the case of The Prarie Schooler), or every month (in the case of Vermillion Stitchery), because I like the'try before you buy' mentality.

In this blog, I will primarily be stitching freebies, but I will also stitch the odd non-freebie.

Now, onto actual stitchery-things.

I still haven't finished the Orchid. I've been struggling with it for months. To be honest, I don't know that it is much more advanced than the last time I posted a picture of it, so I won't include one just yet. The flowers that I said would be 'so easy and quick' to stitch, are turning into a right pain, because they are quite finicky!

Other things - like all stitchers everywhere, I too have a WIP box (Works In Progress).

I've decided to include some scans of things I found, and which I promise to finish soon enough (although tonight I will be starting a new chart just because!):

(Oddly enough, though, none of the WIP are freebies.)

This is from Donna Kooler's Cross Stitch Designs book. It still has the backstitch to go, but apart from that, it's pretty much done. It is one of the coaster designs.
 

This is a lovely african elephant and its baby, from a British cross stitching magazine. I've a long way to go on it yet, but one day I'm sure it will get finished. The red boxy thing at the edge is part of the 'frame'...