Charm on Wheels: Whimsical Cross Stitch Bus Pattern

When tasked with creating a design for the smalls/ biscornu issue of Down The Rabbit Hole, I found myself pondering various ideas. Should I revisit a floral motif like last year, or venture into new territory? Inspiration struck once again while I was commuting on the bus or train, my sketchbook in hand. As I mulled over ideas, I couldn't help but notice the lacklustre appearance of modern trains – just dreary grey boxes on tracks. However, our buses exuded charm with their vibrant designs. Basically they were more colourful and I could do something with that!

 

Do you find yourself frequently travelling on public transport? Like me, perhaps you rely on it daily. Here, our bus and train system utilizes cards called go cards for fare payment. I couldn't bear to leave mine in its plain plastic sleeve, so I decided to give it a makeover. Transforming it into its own miniature bus seemed fitting – mirroring the cheerful decorations adorning buses in our city.

Each major city in Australia now boasts its own mini bus, capturing the unique colouring and character of its public transportation. Though I empathise with Hobart, where the buses are simply plain white!

Ensuring accuracy in colour representation was crucial, albeit challenging. I scoured online sources for reference photos, striving to faithfully recreate each city's distinct bus design. Of course they are not perfect but they are cute :D Can you tell I'm trying to be a bit over the top right now? I tried to be accurate but it wasn't always easy. 

Now where can you find these designs?

The set of designs is available from Down The Rabbit Hole's Patreon. 

You can sign up for a subscription or just buy the individual magazines. 

I hope you enjoy this little design. 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

 

 

Realising how much time keeps passing

Everytime I turn around I find that so much time has passed I'm not actually sure what I have and haven't shared here anymore! Life has been very busy. I started a new job in December which is what I was doing but a little bit more but it's about learning all the new systems, which they do everything differently!!! Then my Grandpa passed away in mid December so that was On top of that my partner ended up cutting half the index finger off his left hand. That made for an interesting January and then time just kept passing really quickly. 

I have been stitching, though it seems I only have time to stitch my own designs. My grandma gave me some money for christmas so I spent it on some fancy metallic watercolours and OMG I am having sooooo much fun painting!!! I've then been turning some of those paintings into cross stitch patterns. I can't share a lot of them but I will share what I can. More about them at the end of the post!

I made this cute little Easter dragon for the autumn edition of down the rabbit hole. I called it Easter Surprise because you don't expect to find a dragon in your carefully decorated Easter egg :D

All this from a quick little sketch I did. I didn't even add colour to the sketch I just fell in love with it.

 

I also created some cute little dancing girls for the latest smalls magazine. These little cuties just make me happy. I finished them with a felt backing glued onto a magnet and they are currently on my fridge. They just make me happy looking at them each day.   

I'm also working on the winter design but of course I can't show that one yet because the magazine isn't out yet. So I also can't show the painting I did to inspire it. But there is a lot of white which you would expect in a winter design.

Hannah is growing up fast she has just turned 2 and it's like a tiny cyclone has hit our house every day! She is into everything but she also just loves to help. We have what's called a learning tower which is essentially a stool with a wooden cage area for her to stand up in so she can't fall backwards. But every night when I'm cooking dinner she will climb up there and help me to cook. She can't do much but she likes to feel like she is helping. 

Here are some of the pictures I've done while playing with my watercolours. The colours are from Chelsea Venz Art a lady on the gold coast who makes handmade watercolours. I am so in love with the effects these give a piece of art.

I think I will turn this father's day owl into a cross stitch eventually but not sure when. Let me know if you want it sooner rather than later. It won't be going to a magazine. So would go straight onto my etsy. 

This sea monster while cute as ... is too much like the character from the drawing book to be able to be used in my cross stitch but I will see if I can do a variation like I did with the dragon that I can turn into cross stitch.

Here is a photo of the lovely watercolours. I want to get more of her stuff but that will have to wait. 

So Happy Stitching Everyone, 

Caitlin

p.s. I hope it's not too long before my next update but this is me and life is busy!

Winter Owl and a Round Flat Finish

 

My latest pattern is now available in Issue #7 of Down the Rabbit Hole. It's called Winter Owl and adds to all the cute owl patterns that I seem to be loving to make at the moment. I just love cute owls and I hope you love them as much as me.

I really like these round designs at the moment and I really wanted to try a new way to finish this pattern. I did some research and figured I would do a round flat finish. I did watch this tutorial and use it as a guide. But I changed it for what I actually had at home. I used cardboard that I had from a box at home. Not the best stuff to use but it was what I had.

I cut out circles of the cardboard and also the wadding that I had. I glued two layers of wadding on one piece of cardboard and one on the other. I just used PVA glue which didn't hold very well but I didn't need it to hold for long.

 I cut out the fabric in circles and did a running stitch around the edge and used that to pull the circles on. You can see what they look like here. It was so quick and easy to get the circles looking great. Much quicker than lacing a square flat finish. (though I still love little pillows!)

I then used a ladder stitch to sew the two parts together. It looked really awesome but the connection wasn't always the neatest. Good thing I planned to put a rope around.

Using my normal glue I glued the rope on and created a loop. I glued the two ends together and hid them behind the top. Though silly me didn't take a photo.

I hope you enjoy this pattern and this gives you ideas of how you can finish it. 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Mermaid

 This does feel a little late but I wanted to talk about this awesome pattern. It came about the way most of my patterns appear these days. I was playing with a drawing in my notebook while feeding Hannah and then I realised I HAD to make it happen. So I grabbed out my phone and turned the drawing digital and then into a pattern. Of course it took a few more months than that sentence suggests. I can't go near my computer at the moment without a baby climbing me trying to help me so I am a little bad about making things happen quickly. But that is slowly changing as she becomes more independent and lets me do things.

I love this original drawing. It was just a fun little sketch I did. and I never did finish the drawing properly.

The digital version turned out good too though I think I want to try and work with it one day to neaten it up a bit. I did the bare minimum to give me something to work with to create the cross stitch pattern. I think I will go back in and make it good to distribute as a print itself because it's kinda cute!

While I did design this piece to use metallic thread for over the tail and top you could just use the black thread if you really don't like metallic threads. I do think it adds an awesome aspect but it's not needed. If you do want to use metallic thread use shorter lengths and you'll find it works better.

And just to be exciting this is the first pattern I'm linking to from my new website. Which is scary and exciting all at once. While I will still have some patterns on Etsy I just can't afford to keep paying their fees so I'm in the process of starting up my own website. It will make some things harder and I'm going to have to work on marketing my patterns a bit better but I won't be charged just for the privilege of displaying my patterns. 

So you can find the mermaid pattern HERE if you wish to purchase it. I hope you do like it as much as  I do. It was a lot of fun to design and make. 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

What do you actually NEED to start cross stitching?

I'm getting this question a lot in my Facebook Group and I wanted to make a post that I can refer back to each time. There is one thing I love about cross stitching and it's that the threshold to enter the hobby is really low. You don't actually need a whole lot to start. Like with all hobbies you can start to fall down rabbit holes and spend quite a bit on luxury supplies and tools but none of that is needed to start. 

So what do you actually NEED to start with?

There are only 3 items you actually need to start with. 

Fabric, Threads and Needle.

That's ALL!! You don't need the 30 gadgets that everyone says you do!

But now I'm going to go into more detail about what fabric etc. and a couple of other items that you may want sooner rather than later. But the entry point for stitching is very low.You truly do only NEED to buy 3 items.

Fabric

What fabric do you need? You will hear people talking about a fabric called 14ct Aida. This is the fabric most commonly used by beginners and beyond. You can find this at all good craft stores. You will also hear people talking about Evenweave fabric but that isn't beginner friendly.

 

Aida fabric has easy to see squares.

If you are looking at getting a younger child into cross stitch I would recommend plastic canvas rather than a fabric. Because you can't pierce the plastic and it's even easier to tell where the holes are. 

Threads

The threads you use for cross stitching are called six stranded cotton. The most popular brand you'll hear about is DMC but Anchor, Madeira and Sullivans are all reputable brands. You don't stitch with all the strands at one time. Usually only 2 strands are used on 14 count fabric but I will talk about this another time. Threads come in many colours and patterns will state which colours you should use. Depending on the pattern you can change it up to suit your tastes or the colours you have available in your stash. Don't believe that you must buy exactly what is written on a pattern though I do recommend that you understand some basic colour theory before changing too much. My most recent pattern the Valentine Owls have two colours for each owl plus eyes and a beak. You could use any available yellow for the beak you just need to make sure that it contrasts enough with the colour you choose for the owl, so too light/dark may not work. But it's also 4 stitches so don't go out of your way to buy the exact shade of yellow!

Needle

A cross stitch needle is usually a blunt tipped needle that is less likely to pierce the threads/fabric in a way you don't want it to. I personally prefer a size 26 tapestry needle. I like the size of these and find the slightly thinner needle easier to hold. I will use a size 28 on smaller count fabrics. A lot of people like the size 24 but I personally find I don't like the way it opens the holes too much. But the thing to remember is the tapestry needle it has a blunt head.

If you are doing a piece with a lot of backstitching I recommend using a sharp needle for this as it helps pierce the threads better which is often needed at that point. 

 

But why haven't you included XYZ on this list?

Ohk as some eagle eyed people may notice I have forgotten to mention a couple of items that most people would deem essential for cross stitching!

Scissors! 

Guess what? You don't need scissors. And you really don't need that $40 pair of cute embroidery scissors. If you have a pair of scissors at home fantastic. If you have nail clippers they work GREAT! (sometimes even better than scissors because they're small.) If you have a dental floss container with the little cutting thing you can use that. Even a kitchen knife, just make sure you wash it first. As long as you have something to cut your thread you are set, you don't need to go all fancy and buy a pair just for cross stitching. If you really enjoy it you may end up with a set especially for stitching because then you are certain of where it has been and always knowing where to find them but you don't NEED this.

Pattern

 I'm sure a lot of people are wondering why I didn't mention that you need a pattern. But the truth is unless you are after a particular picture you don't need a pattern. You can do squares/lines etc to your hearts content. But I also haven't put it down as something you need to purchase because you can find lots of cute patterns for free to test out whether this is something you are really into. I have a few in the files section of my group.  Eventually you will purchase patterns as you find designs that really call to you but you can do a lot without that.

Hoop

I have to use a hoop. Or some sort of frame. I like really tight fabric and when I try to stitch in hand I end up giving myself really bad cramps trying to hold the fabric tight. On the other hand my friend can't stand working with a hoop and just always stitches in hand (means holding the fabric in your hand). Neither is wrong or right they just are. But it's because of this that I won't add a hoop to a must have for anyone. It is entirely your choice. Try without one and see if you like it. Get a cheap wooden hoop and see if that is better for you. If you really like hoops maybe in time try a q snap (I hated q snaps and I don't really know why because others swear by them.) But the point I'm making is this is a very personal choice and you can try a couple of options but you don't need them to start stitching.

 

 

 

Every time I see this question come up so many people try to add their own items to the list. The things that THEY won't stitch without. The thing is these items have been found by them over time and often with a bit of trial and error. Their perfect pair of scissors with the plastic hoop and stand may work for them but probably won't work for you because you sit in a different spot and hold your hands differently so you like these clippers better and stitch in hand because it suits you. Also what you want and like will change over time as well. 

 

I hope this helps you know what you need to start with and I will have to make up a comprehensive list of more accessories that you can get when you are ready.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Down The Rabbit Hole - In Flander's Fields

I know I did talk about this when I first started designing for this magazine all the way back in 2020! Gosh that seems like a long time ago! You can see the first design I did for them here.

They are now onto issue 6 and each issue I have designed a new piece. It has been a great bonus. I finished the Aussie Animal Seasons series. They were so much fun to design. I love these little characters :D You can still get these patterns by buying magazines 1-4. I will eventually release these in my shop but I haven't gotten there yet. 

 

Once that series was done I had to come up with something else for the next summer issue... so I ended up making this cute little cricket owl :D Because cricket is such a great summer sport here. Also owls... do I need anything more?

The autumn issue is always hard. Living where I do in Australia I don't feel any connection the autumn because it seems to just disappear between summer and then suddenly it's mildly cold. But ANZAC day falls within Autumn and I found myself drawing a poppy. I had so much fun playing with pens and pencils. I love it when my drawings become designs it makes me really proud of how they turn out.

 I had this stunning red music fabric and I surrounded my piece with it and it just makes it sing.

 So this piece 'In Flander's Fields' can be found in the latest issue of Down The Rabbit Hole that has been released on the 15th of Feb.

I hope you enjoy all these pretty designs.
Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Free Valentine's Day Pattern - Owl Love

 

It's been a while since I've released a free pattern and I had a need to make this cute little pattern. As normal at the moment I started with an idea I randomly sketched out and then decided I needed to make it happen. So if you're looking for a cute little piece to stitch for your partner or for your friends this weekend this little piece would be perfect!

Though the final result ended up being a lot simpler than this was I just loved the idea of it. You can find the pattern in my facebook group HERE. If you aren't on facebook send me an email/message and I can send you the pattern another way but facebook is the easiest way to share PDFs with large groups of people. Please remember to answer the questions if you aren't in the group yet as I tend to turn down people who don't! 

 

 

I hope you enjoy this little pair of owls and if you stitch it share your finished piece with me. 

 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Free Witchalong for October

 

I was so excited about the drawing I made and the thoughts of joining all of you for a stitchalong in October and I was wondering how I would organise it. I also realised that October is my birthday month but it's been a few years since I last did a free pattern for my birthday. So to celebrate that (since I can't have a party this year) and to thank everyone for their support of my designs and me over the last few years I am offering this pattern for free and inviting everyone to join me for a witchalong for the month of October!!

I spent all weekend test stitching this little cutie so that I would have it all ready to share with you. I'm so happy and proud of how it turned out and VERY excited to do this stitchalong or witchalong ... I think I like witchalong better :D!

So how do you get access to this pattern? 

I'm going to offer it in two forms.

1. It's going to be available for download from my facebook group. It really is the easiest way to share PDF patterns.  As I release the parts (the cross stitching and then the next week the back stitching) all the pattern parts will be available there to download and for you to share your stitching as you do it.

2. But because I know not everyone is on facebook, I'm also going to send it out to everyone on my email list because I want as many people as possible to get access to the pattern. You can sign up to my email list from here. At the top of my blog page is a subscription box to sign up for my mailing list. 

 

 What will I need?

Well the pattern itself is only about 30x45 or so stitches so it's a little piece. You can use scrap pieces of aida or evenweave. Unless you want to play with the different colourways and try out a few of them and then you'll need a bigger piece of fabric. 

The pattern only uses 10 colours. With the 4 main ones being 4 shades of the same colour. When trying to decide on the colours to use to test it I ended up laying out a few choices and while I only had time to stitch one all these will be possible colours you can use (or you can use your own entirely.)

 

My tester was done in the blue but I'm also going to start a purple one because ... why not? And it's me and purple!

Thread Colours

Every colourway will use these DMC colours:

920 for the hair

945 for the skin and 841 for the cheeks. I haven't worked out what would suit for darker colours but if you go too dark you may need to change the backstitching colour... 

434 and 744 for the broom.

For the blue colourway:

797,798,799,800

For the Purple:

550, 552, 553, 554

For the Pink:

3802, 3803, 3687,3688

For the Green:

500, 501, 505, 562

 What else do you need to know?

So the first pattern will be released on October 1 ... if you wish to get all the patterns via email you must be signed up to the mailing list by then I'm not sure if I know how to resend the emails but I may be able to send the link out if you email me. 

I will release the backstitching on the 8th :D Which I kinda like the symmetry of as that is my birthday! An awesome present for me!! To give you wonderful stitchers the full pattern. 

The week after I will release an email talking about finishing techniques. Over the years I have written NUMEROUS tutorials on how to finish your cross stitch as everything from pillows to book covers and a few things in between. SO I'm going to dig out those tutorials and we can have a look at all the cool ways you can make this design look cuter. 

There is one thing I ask of everyone participating. SHARE. Please don't share the pattern itself but share about the stitchalong on social media. Share photos with me and with others. Let people know where they can get a hold of the pattern themselves. I want to see what you are creating. That is half the fun of a stitchalong. 

So Happy Stitching and I look forward to seeing your creations, 

Caitlin

Stitching Update

 I've been a bit sick this last week. Ended up with a couple of days off work and it just hasn't gone to plan. It doesn't help that I have absolutely no energy thanks to having been sick. I often get home from work and just collapse. You know those days? I've got all sorts of amazing goals and thoughts going around for my stitching but I am really struggling to actually follow through and finish them. 

 

Some of what is coming IF I can get myself to actually follow through on my goals. 

 - I'm trying to write a book. It is a book to help beginners with techniques and talking about what you need and don't need to know to actually cross stitch. I want it to be the ultimate resource for people to go to if they need to know something. It will have a selection of exclusive patterns to teach each of the techniques and I'm so excited. I have been adding more words each week so it is something that I am really working on but it may be months more before I have everything written. I want it to be comprehensive and give as much information as possible. I want to do it right. So if you catch me asking questions about techniques you want to know about please give me answers because it's probably for this book. 

- I'm playing with a tonne of new designs. I have a aussie summer design I'm looking to submit to a magazine that I need to work on ASAP. Also a mermaid pattern to go with my fairies which is pretty much done but I am testing out the pattern at the moment so I need to get that finished. 

- I have a tonne of drawings and ideas constantly going through my head. I just have to find time to do it all, which could be why I sometimes struggle to get anything done.I think I just need to focus on a couple of designs and just push through with those and then pick up the next ones. Just little by little! 

So what do I have to show you? 

Well my mermaid is currently looking like this ... so it's getting there. Honestly I don't know what is slowing me down! 

My book dragon has gotten more done on it. I'm missing a few critical colours at the moment and I need to organise to get them but the local store has a horrible selection!

I have also been sewing I needed another skirt for work so I tried out making an 18th century style petticoat. It's secured by Ribbons not buttons or zips. So it was a really quick make. I have worn it a few times to work and it's been perfect and exactly what I needed. I had the zip on one of my work skirts break a couple of months ago so I was getting desperate!

So this is what has been happening in my cross stitch and crafting life at the moment. So much happening at the moment! 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Fairy Party

Who doesn't love to think about the fairies that obviously love at the bottom of the garden? We all know they must be there. So with my obsession about fairies in full swing after a passing comment at a cross stitch meeting about fairies being good to stitch for kids particularly since she was thinking of making something for a little baby I felt the need to do some designing.

You can get the pattern here

Now this was about 4 months ago that I started with this idea going around in my head... but as I keep saying nothing has gone to plan this year and everything has been out of order.

But last weekend I was bored and going through patterns on my computer when I happened upon the file for the fairies. Well that was me done and I settled in to do some test stitching.

I grabbed my boxes of threads and lay them out and then I had to start picking colours. The pattern was originally in generic greens and pinks and I knew that wasn't what I wanted but it was what was easiest when designing so I could have some fun. Of course being me I gravitated straight to the purple :D

Does anyone else love playing with colours and just looking in the pretty boxes full of threads? No? Just me? Oh well!

I had a lot of fun playing with these and knew I didn't just want to offer it with a light skin tone so I played with a darker brown for the next one and even without purple I fell in love with this one too!

Isn't she so cute? I just love the way she looks :D Then because I had the metallic bug and I went a bought a pile of pretty sparklies that I KNEW I needed to try out something for! I used the dark purple sparkly E718 and it ended up being soooo pretty!

But it's so hard to get a good photo of the sparkles but you get a good idea looking at it here! What colours would you play with if you made these fairies?

So what would you make for your fairies?

The pattern is now available in my shop and it comes with the three fairy designs which are two styles of dresses and two styles of wings and hair. You can make these however you want and I would love to see what you come up with! So many awesome options!

I hope you enjoy this pattern as much as I enjoyed making it!

Happy Stitching,

Caitlin

Owl Tic Tac Toe

   

OWL TIC TAC  TOE

This one has been a while coming. Honestly I have been meaning to release this one for a long while but the last few steps to finishing the board were just taking me ages! Partially because l was getting bored with one colour and partially just because I kept putting it down. Amazing how easy it is to forget a project that is in a bag you haven't opened for weeks. Which is just what happened what little time I've had has been taken up by other projects and a whole lot of school and work.

On the board game front I designed and stitched up a nine men's morris board and you can find the info about that here.

Then I designed a checkers board to match the other game and it's available from my facebook group as well.

Now here we are. I have finally finished stitching the board and managed to get some photos of it which is often the harder part! They're even beautifully staged. Which took AGES !!! Do you know how hard it is to get a phone to focus and just take the photo? Particularly once I realised how dirty the camera was.

I love how this one has turned out. I still have a lot of stitching to do to finish the rest of the pieces but it looks so awesome!

Just letting you guys know all my patterns come in Black and White and Colour versions. So they are easy to print out but also easy to use on a phone or computer. They come in PDFs and this pattern comes with instructions on how to finish the game board and pieces. 

I hope you like this pattern and that you enjoy playing the game. 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin