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Thursday 27 February 2020

On Patterns New and Old

I have a confession to make... I am hopeless at making sure I get these patterns out in a timely manner. I get so excited when I first draw up the pictures and then I digitise the drawings fairly quickly. That process goes generally quickly and then I pull them over into my cross stitch program. At this point it will go back and forth for a while and I will question my sanity multiple times! I will often have a pattern done fairly quickly though and then it just sits there.

And sits, and sits, and sits.... for me to remember that I actually got to this stage with a pattern and hey I really should release it because it's doing noone any good just sitting there. But then I start to question myself. Is it really something that people want? Will they actually like it... and it continues to sit there for longer than it should.

So I started combing through my pattern drive on Monday, and let's just say that this month is going to be a really productive month!


See that little girl at the top of the panel of Around the World characters? Yeah that one... well that pattern was created by me about 6 years ago. I don't know why I didn't release it. I don't know what was going through my head at the time. I don't know if I always intended to and just forgot??



And what about this cutie? I designed this seal as part of the Circus Collection below. (oh you haven't seen that collection before this either)

 This collection was done about 4 months ago when I got inspired by something. I completed it and everything but never managed to do any more with it.


Aren't seals with circus hats cute? 

I've also taken the time to reevaluate where I was at with the deadlift girl and found that I actually loved how it was sitting and I finalised it up and I'm stitching up a prototype! 


 *sigh*


Here is the current list though missing deadlift girl in this photo (now added to my list). And while a couple of these will need some mild tweaking with colours they actually are ready to release.  So please hold me to it but by the end of two weeks you should be seeing a few more new patterns from me.
-The Owl Tic Tac Toe is taking longer not because of the pattern itself but because of the instructions I'm writing for finishing it. 

So here is my promise to you guys (that I NEED you to hold me to!) By the end of Saturday the 14th of March I will have released 7 new patterns. I think that is perfectly reasonable and with a bit of fiddling 3 are already uploaded as drafts waiting for a couple more photos. 

Can you give me the encouragement I need? 

Happy Stitching, 
Caitlin

Monday 24 February 2020

Craft Every Day week 6&7&8

It's been a bit of crazy 3 weeks and with going back to university I have kinda been avoiding my computer a little bit and have been delayed in posting this update. I go back tonight so I figured I had better get this update up ASAP!

I have been really good though I did have a couple of days off between James feeling sick and then I got sick and honestly just enjoying reading instead of anything else I enjoyed a couple of days without putting pressure on myself. But I came back out of that more energised and feeling better about creating. It wasn't that I didn't want to create I just think being sick meant I was worn down and just needed to not do at all. BUT the thing I find really interesting is although I wasn't creating I turned to books instead of my phone and I didn't just zone out into the TV which is kinda one of the things I'm trying to encourage in myself with this challenge so I count it as a win.

I'm just going to sum up my projects over the last 3 weeks as there are a lot of repeat photos of projects and some thoughts on new projects.


It's been three weeks with the peppermint purple SAL and I've made some great progress! I'm loving how it's turning out!




My shawl is coming along nicely and I am constantly drawn to it at the moment. Depending on timing I think it will only be a couple more weeks and I will get this one done. I think I have only another repeat or two of the pattern before I run out of yarn anyway!



You can see my book obsession coming out in this post... I've read this one Georgette Heyer book These Old Shades many times over the years and I still love it. Then I moved on to Stephanie Laurens, it appears I was in the mood for a lot of historical romance styles.



Each repeat of the pattern is 12 rows but each row is longer than the one before because of an increase on one end.


I'm working on the game board for my tic tac toe game and if I can get the stitching done ASAP I hope to have the pattern out in the next week. But as I mentioned earlier University goes back tonight so we shall see how I go with that one!

 Also got a few of my old patterns out to show off when I went to a cross stitch meeting over the weekend and realised that I had never released the norwegian girl. So I'm going to have to do some work and get this one ready to release. Hopefully *fingers crossed* in the next couple of days.

I also had a mild request for more jungle animals /faeries in this style of character.... so I may have to fiddle a little bit and make that happen. Again time and mood pending!

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

p.s. I intend to make these posts weekly again but please understand that uni gets kinda crazy. If you do want to see more regular posts you can follow me over on instagram as @naughtscrossstitches.



Friday 7 February 2020

Friday Finds: Crystal Carved Wand


I am still in a Harry Potter obsession at the moment and when I saw this video I just had to share it! Who doesn't want a want that looks like this? It is absolutely beautiful and I wish it was mine!

I now want to learn how to create a wand of my own. But that may be a goal for in the future.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin 


Tuesday 4 February 2020

Craft every day week 5

I will admit that I did start this year wondering despite saying I would do this challenge wondering if I could A actually make it happen daily and B wonder if I could take photos each day.  Now we are in February and I've added prompts for this month and I'm loving this challenge, it gets me OFF my phone for a little bit and I'm actually making things.


I am getting closer to finishing this crochet blanket... slowly .. slowly! But probably doesn't help that I'm sitting there and reading Harry Potter :D I am getting better at understanding this book. But it is still very slow going!


 I was drawing at work on this day because that's what you do isn't it? I'm really happy with this one because I managed to do a face that wasn't staring forward and it looks alright.




I managed to finish this square FINALLY! It took waaaaaaaay too long but that is fairly common for me at the moment. BUT I managed to complete this before the end of the month so I'm happy!

Then February rolled around and I started working from my prompt list. And as I expected it really isn't having a huge impact of the projects I choose at least not at the moment but in time it may. More I'm just being a little more creative with photos.


Things like actually taking a photo of my softball cleats while I'm at the fields. Or posing with a collection of purple items on Sunday so you can see my full purple obsession! I was even (not quite deliberately because I needed to get it done anyway) working on my peppermint purple SAL piece and using a purple thread and wearing purple tights and using purple scissors.


But I'm all up to date with this one. I think this is the only SAL that I have ever managed to stay up to date with outside of one week! I love this one and how it is turning out. It just makes me happy to see!


I then kept working on Baroque and I do have a question... these are the threads I picked out YEARS ago for baroque and I'm happy with everything but that light brown... I really am thinking it's too light? What do you think? 




Oh yeah and to answer the question tea or coffee? Tea all the way since coffee sends me crazy. I also am in love with fancy teas and cute tea infusers :D who doesn't like a cute owl?


I hope you enjoy this weekly update. I am loving that thanks to this challenge I actually feel like I am doing something worth posting about each week and it's really boosting my creativity!

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Saturday 1 February 2020

Craft Every Day February

It's the start of February and I decided for this month to give everyone a list of prompts that they can use for the #crafteveryday2020 challenge.


So it's kinda a photo challenge and it's kinda a craft challenge. Basically it's to give you a bit of an idea of what you can do to spice up your photos. (you can be as creative with the photos as you want) You don't have to use this but it's fun to think about how you would incorporate the prompts into your craft. Whether you pick up a project that fits the prompt (which I think I can actually do that with most prompts ...way too many projects) or just that you photograph your project in a fancy way that involves the prompt somehow. I wanted to make it a bit fun and give people ideas of daily photos they could take particularly if you are working on the same project for a few days.

You are welcome to take this image and share it around in other groups and on Social Media. I would love to get as many people as possible joining in the craft every day challenge as the more people doing it the more fun we have!



So join us for #CraftEveryDay2020 and in February have fun with the prompts :D

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin
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