Easter Cross Stitch Patterns - New Pattern

 With Easter fast approaching. (It's already the end of the 5th week of term) so only 5 weeks to go! I wanted to remind you that I have a couple of Easter patterns for sale over on ETSY if you're looking for something simple to stitch up. These can be used together or separately to make some simple little gifts.

There are my Easter Bunny and Chick.

They are quick and simple to stitch and require no back stitch.

Also I have now as of today got another Easter pattern. It's a set of three Easter Eggs that can be used by themselves or stitched in conjunction with the bunny and chick. They are the same size as the animals so they look good stitched side by side.

You can find this new pattern HERE

Hope you enjoy my new pattern and seeing the old stuff as well.

What are you making for Easter?
Do you have special plans and make special items or do you buy a packet of eggs from the supermarket? Unfortunately I have to admit that I'm the second kind. I am frequently unprepared though not this year! I want to make a couple of Easter bookmarks for the kids so I will use my new patterns and start stitching ASAP. I will keep you updated as to how my plans go. If you want some help making a bookmark I did a tutorial last year teaching you how to finish them.  

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Lots of crafting this weekend

It has been raining most of the weekend and the kids actually got their cross stitch out and were having so much fun.

 She's almost finished :D Just has to do the back stitch and it's going to look so pretty.

And sorry this photo is refusing to turn on it's side! This is Caiden's work. He has finally finished his Gene Simmons KISS cross stitch by cloudsfactory. Then in one day he finished the rocket raccoon by dork stitch. He's firing along and already started an iron man cross stitch.

I have also been stitching along and having an absolute ball. Though I can't show you my cross stitch it's a secret.

I can show you a sewing project I started and finished today :D I was so excited about this project I have been talking about making Lana a skirt all summer holidays but it was always so hard to get started. So instead I talked to my mother today and with her encouraging me and being the sounding board I managed to start and finish a skirt.

It's very very simple just some quilting fabric sewn selvedge to selvedge with a band added on the top and gathered in.

It looks so lovely on her, though she isn't happy in this photo because Caiden kept pushing into the photo.

Happy stitching,
Caitlin

Witches Brew

Halloween is one of those holidays I normally ignore. We don't celebrate it much in Australia and finding places to Trick or Treat over here is very hard. But I do love witches. Actually I've been hooked on Charmed recently and thoroughly enjoying watching season 1 again.

Because I could I made a little sampler cross stitch pattern for Halloween celebrating a Witches Brew. I love the bright colours of this one and the cute little witch in her purple robe. I had lots of fun today finishing the pattern and stitching up the main part today. I might just leave it as it is.

You can find that pattern over at my ETSY shop

Here is a photo of the full pattern it's a gorgeous little sampler.

I will probably end up stitching the whole design eventually.


Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Cross Stitch Butterflies

Well I was asked a month or more ago if I knew any good patterns for butterflies, dinosaurs and sharks. Now I don't really know many designers outside of random magazines with patterns if I had been asked about simple patterns for people that would have been easy I would have headed to cloudsfactory. But because I couldn't answer I decided that I needed to make some instead.

Now that is a really convoluted explanation for using any excuse to come up with a butterfly pattern. I liked the sound of making one and so I did.

Actually I made two patterns. The first is a Blue Monarch Butterfly and the second is the Australian Painted Lady.

These are the same height as the rest of my patterns so they are only 2 inches tall when done on 14ct but are twice the width because of the wings.

They are up in my etsy shop they come together on the same pattern and you can find them HERE!

I hope you like these patterns and you can check out more of the animals in my shop. I am getting excited about all my patterns and I am going to try some dinosaurs next.

Days of nothing

I had no idea what I should write in my title today but it always feels like my days are surrounded by nothing. It isn't until I actually go through my pictures on my phone that I realise no I didn't do NOTHING! I did something. Yes I did 40 million loads of washing, and I don't know how many clothes I folded or dishes I washed and floors cleaned but I also washed a cross stitch for a little girl and framed it. (Well almost I need to get some tape to seal the back so it stays closed.) 

This cross stitch has been sitting there finished for about a month. I love it because although the pattern was from a book she just looked through my colours and picked ones that she felt like using. It was all her choice and it looks amazing. 

 Unfortunately this image didn't want to spin though I told it to. Oh well! 

So this was me on Wednesday morning at craft group lacing the cross stitch onto a foam core board. Then gluing foam core to the back of the mat board to lift it away from the cross stitch so that the beads don't touch the glass.

I always hand lace anything that needs to be framed that is in a size that I can frame myself. It's just so much easier and when I found this gorgeous frame at photo continental on Tuesday I was ecstatic.

Unfortunately the fabric it was stitched on was a little small so the lacing does come around to the front. It's also good I didn't really have to straighten this much or pull tightly just firmly so I could do this.

 Here is the foam core glued on. It looks really really weird but it does the job I wanted it to do.

Thankfully all this has ended in a beautiful finish :D I must say I'm impressed by what a nine year old can accomplish when they want to. 

Now she will be entering this in the show this year and we'll see how she does!

Happy Stitching everyone, 

Caitlin

Time spent...

The time I've spent on many crafts over the years is something I never regret. I have so many memories of picking out colours or fabrics or whatever with my mum and sometimes rarely with my sister.

One of the stand out memories for me about my grandma was the three days I stayed with them so that I could add the crochet edge onto her blanket that she was making for my cousin as she wasn't able to crochet. I also tried to teach her but that wasn't going to happen she couldn't get used to holding only one loop on the hook. I couldn't even get her doing a chain properly!

I went over to mum's the other day and brought along with me a new pattern that I want to make. It's a duffel bag by Ginger Cake. So we were sitting there discussing fabric choices and what will last longer. This meant going and exploring the cupboards downstairs to find the perfect fabric. Now we didn't find enough large bits that didn't already have another purpose when they finally get put together BUT we did find something else.

When I was about 15 or so... it could have been earlier could have been later I can't quite remember. I made myself a doll. Isn't she beautiful?

 The dress was meant to be fancier than this but I ran out of energy and ability. I was too lazy to hem properly. I remember having a conversation with my mum about it and her going well you do what you feel comfortable with. I now want to make another doll if I can find the book this pattern came out of and do a better finish for the dress. Something that is more to my skills now.

I had to do some hair restoration last night as she had lost some and other bits were falling out so there are two different browns in her hair. I don't know why I used blue thread when I first sewed the hair in many years ago but that appears to be the choice I made.

Back to the pattern. I have a piece of calico that we cut up that I will be turning into a trial run of the bag. Calico is the best thing for trying different patterns. I also have lengthened the handles as I want them to run all the way down the bag as I don't like handles to join just in one hem I never trust them not to fall out. I know myself too well and I would pile the bag up with too much stuff.

I have been working on my granny stripe. little by little it's getting bigger. I'm almost finished the second repeat of colours. This does seem to be the craft I'm going to more and more at the moment. It's just so easy to pick up and go without having to set anything up.

So I have a question if you've gotten this far

Have you ever made a rag doll?
Did you make toys for yourself when you were a kid? What did you make as a kid?
Do you have a favourite doll pattern?
I've got about 5 books but I can not find the pattern that makes this doll. All the arms are too straight out. I have to go through mum's cupboards instead of mine I mustn't have stolen borrowed that book.

Happy Stitching :D
Caitlin

p.s. don't forget my something new link up will be going up on FRIDAY!!! the 28th. I need to get into gear and load up the link widget and stuff ready to go.

An Easter Design

Because of Easter coming up I decided to actually make something for it, I don't usually but when these designs came to mind I couldn't resist.

 Meet Bunny and Chick!

They are the same size as my sprite patterns and other animals so they can be used for other projects and matched with them.

I also have another design in my around the world series. But it won't be going up on etsy until I can get some good photos but here is what it will look like.

It's a lady wearing a dirndl from either Austria or Germany. I will have to add this to my string of characters.

If you have a particular character you would really like to see please tell me and I shall see what I can do. Particularly if you know more about a particular outfit from around the world. 

I've also got a third design that is from a new series ... I'm addicted to disney particularly disney princesses. So I couldn't resist starting a princess series.

Although the chick and bunny are already up on Etsy it will take me a couple of days to get the rest of them up.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Eskimo and Indian

I have another design already... these are catching me!

I now have an eskimo in my around the world series :D

I am so happy with how she turned out. Though this character could be a guy since they both wear (in the photos I found) very similar outfits.


I also have an Indian as well. I am motivated by these designs.

I love this cute little one :D





I've done these all on the same strip because I can. They look so cute together!!!!

I'm loving making this series :D

Just a reminder everyone that my something new linky will be going up on the 28th. We're halfway through march. What new things have you tried already this month?

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin.

New Design - Geisha

I have finally put a new design up on Etsy! It's taken a while because I was trying to do one design and crashed I couldn't work out the colours so I decided to do something entirely different and here is my new series.

This is hopefully going to be part of an Around the World collection if all goes well.

So meet my Geisha

I've done her up on a bookmark fabric so I WILL make her into a bookmark eventually. It will be a matter of time.

I love the colours and I'm really happy with the way the piece turned out. It is all on the same base as my Christmas designs so will be the same height. This only took me a couple of hours to complete so wouldn't take a child very long.

It's all in full crosses so could be done on plastic canvas to create dolls to play with. I can see a whole set appearing at my house soon if I let Lana loose with her needle.   

I feel motivated to make an Eskimo next!

Enjoy and Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Christmas Baking Adventures!

Our Christmas baking adventures! I almost forgot to tell you guys about this!

I've always admired gingerbread houses but I have never made them before because it looks so hard. But this year we were looking through cookbooks and found one and I didn't think it looked that hard!

Oh how wrong we were!! We started looking and then went shopping for lollies and stuff to make the dough.

We made the dough then realised it needed to sit in the fridge for 2 hours.

We rolled out the dough and cut out the pieces then had to move them to the trays without breaking them... it sometimes worked!

Then we baked them and let them cool.

Once they were cool we made the royal icing from scratch and started to ice it with make shift piping bags because mum couldn't find the real ones.

We then realised it had to set before we could actually build it into a house.

This whole process took a day and we still weren't finished. I actually collapsed the next day and vegetated I was SHOT!!!!

But come sunday we put it all together and drum roll please!

 The proud decorators... they helped all the way through and loved eating it on Christmas day!

It's very wonky and has been decorated by a 7 and 9 year old but it was extremely yummy and full of good sugars!

That was all the Christmas baking I could handle!

Happy Baking,
Caitlin

Small Finish and a giveaway extension!

I managed a small Christmas finish yesterday in the midst of an absolutely crazy weekend. You can get my Santa pattern here.

I had 2 performances last weekend plus all the rehearsals. It was kinda crazy. Just one more performance left and then I have a break until next year which I'm looking forward to. Everything will be taking a break including softball.

So I have been working on Santa and I managed to finish him despite the lack of motivation and having to do a couple of exams.

Oh I don't think I've mentioned this yet. I got accepted into a dual diploma course business and management. I'm taking a step away from teaching and we shall see where it leads. As I told my grandma yesterday I want to eventually run my own craft shop but what form that shop takes I'm not sure. I don't know whether I will just run workshops for kids or have a full shop with a cafe attached. There are lots of options and I'm throwing them all around at the moment. Nothing is happening quickly I need experience first and everything I'm doing is testing the waters and moving in that direction.

But back to Santa I finished stitching him yesterday morning I think but only now getting the time to post.

 Doesn't he look SOOOOO cute! To understand the size they are only about 2 inches high. I'm going to turn these into some sort of Christmas quilt hanger or something. I'm not sure exactly what!

 

 L and C were looking for something to do so they both picked up some sort of stitching. L is doing her cross stitch Sampler while C is doing a tapestry style star. He is getting better since I put him on Plastic canvas. I will update with their work soon.

I've also been working on things that aren't my designs. I'm loving the way this one is turning out but I'm so out of practice working on evenweave! I've been working a lot on aida recently.

GIVEAWAY NEWS!
Ohk for those that made it this far I'm giving a couple more days to get an entry into my giveaway. It's a couple of posts back. I understand the silly season means noone has time to keep up to date so I'm giving some more chances to get an entry in. You have until Friday your time to post your entry!!!

Happy Stitching!
Caitlin

Finishing off some stuff

Since I finished some ornaments last year but never managed to finish them properly I finally decided to do some finishing today. I was in the mood.

So today I finished the Ho Ho Ho! Ornament. It's looking awesome and it's ready in time for Christmas presents this year which is even better.

 Because the front is very unsparkly so I kept to a fairly plain fabric on the back as well. I love how it has ended up :D The only thing I may do is add a button up the top in the middle but I'm not sure about that!

I've also almost finished a couple of more ornaments I'm not sure how to do the ribbon at the top for these ones ... it may end up being the same. 

They are done except for the top ribbon... it's going to take thought. 

I have also something wonderful to show you. L has been hard at work on her cross stitch and she's been working on a sampler. For a 9 year old her stitching is extremely neat!

All that's left is the border and her name :D She wants to enter it in the show next year and I think she's awesome for wanting to! 

Happy Stitching everyone, 

Caitlin