Collection of Freebies - Cross stitch

With the release of my new pattern I wanted to remind everyone that I have a few free simple patterns available as well. It's been a while since I last designed a lot but I've started getting back into it and I'm going to be releasing a lot more in the coming months so keep your eyes out. But onto the freebies!

Birthday Cake

To start with I designed this awesome little cake for my birthday about 4 years ago now.

You can find the free pattern for it here

If you like the little banner below the cake it's actually a set of banners I sell that can be added to all kinds of cross stitch projects.

Ghost

 Also another year for my birthday and since I had released my witch pattern just weeks before I had this little freebie of a ghost available as a companion to it. You can find the ghost pattern here and both of these patterns would look cute stitched up on pillows decorating your house for Halloween. You have plenty of time to work on them before October!

Crochet Mug Cosy 

If Cross Stitch isn't really your thing I do have this pattern for a crochet mug cosy that I designed as Christmas gifts one year. They were a big hit and really quick to stitch up. This was a while ago now but that owl mug is still going strong! I even linked this project to Ravelry so if you use that to keep track of your crochet/knitting projects and ideas you can find it there.

Knitted Beanie and Glove Set

I made this knitted beanie and glove set for my kids and I just winged my way through a pattern. So I figured since I worked out how to do this I would share the basic idea of how to do it yourself. You can find it on Ravelry here :D 

 They're really comfy to wear particularly being knitted rib and I should make more of them as they are SOOO quick to knit. Chunky needles anyone?

 Fabric Book Covers

 For those moments that you want to use your little cross stitches in something but don't know what? Well this might be the way to go.  You can find a full tutorial here on how I made these and instructions on how to make them for yourself. If you like the little kangaroo pattern it's another one of mine and you can find it here.

  

I'm realising now as I'm going through my archives that I have a lot more freebies/tutorials than I realised. I have been doing this blog for 8 years and although I haven't always been really consistent about posting I do like to share my knowledge and love of crafts with you. I am sure I have missed some as I wasn't always consistent with my labelling so it's kinda hard to find some of them. That's one thing I need to go and fix up.

Hope you enjoy all these projects whether you remember me posting them back in the day or they are entirely new to you. Do you remember these projects? Or are these all new to you?

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Squat Girl - A New Pattern

 Squat Girl Pattern - Available Here

It has been way too long since I've had the opportunity to write this! With everything going on I have been struggling to find the creative drive and also in knowing what direction I want to take my patterns. I was feeling a little stale as it seemed that all I was doing were the same tiny characters in varying forms. But I was drawing a pile of different characters and really getting into a cartoon style of drawing. So I started thinking more and more. Well why can't I turn my drawings into patterns? When I asked myself that question things started to make a LOT more sense and I started the process. Of course it was slowed by uni getting in the way but last week I with the help of my new toy (a windows surface laptop thingy) I got in and did it! So much quicker to work with a pen not a mouse.

So what does that whole diatribe mean? it means that you get the lucky privilege of a new pattern! I started with my squat girl. This started as a little character I drew while on the phone at work, then I uploaded it onto my phone and digitally altered it. It was so fun and I loved the character so much I actually am using it as my avatar for instagram now. But I knew I couldn't stop there and I pulled it into my cross stitch program and now have an awesome pattern to offer you.

It went through a lot of changes particularly when going from paper to digital. Also unlike most of my other patterns this one is very big on the back stitching. Actually it's the backstitching that really brings it together. I tried to do my usual style with a thick outline and it just looked wrong. So back to the drawing board I went and got rid of the outline and it looked so much better. Unfortunately this does mean it is no longer what I would term a 'beginner' pattern but it's only 9 colours so definitely not hard.

If you feel confident I would recommend using evenweave as the backstitching does sit in the middle of a lot of squares in order to get the detail needed. As I said it's very different from my typical design but I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!

Find the new pattern here

I hope you enjoy this awesome pattern.

Happy Stitching,

Caitlin

Friday Finds: upcycled thrift store find

I'm not usually an advocate of touching someone else's work but this is fantastic! It was obviously well loved once and then got passed on and now it is getting actually used. I also love the glow in the dark element :D

Who doesn't want to see their work actually being enjoyed?

What do you think of this? Would you do this yourself? Do you like the original or the changed version?

I like both but I really like what he has done with the jacket, it's now wearable art. Also this was sitting in a thrift store so to me it's fair game.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

A cute little finish :D

This is such a cute little character. This is a little design by Joan Elliott.

It's from an oriental design magazine I bought YEARS ago.

I love how this turned out and I'm trying to work out how exactly I'm going to finish this design. Maybe a Flat finish.... I haven't done one of them for a while?? 

What do you think would suit this little character? 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Book Review: War of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

If you have spent any time around me you would know that one of my big book weaknesses is fantasy. Especially epic fantasy. I enjoy a great romance, I love a great cozy mystery/crime novel but my heart just LOVES a great epic fantasy. I think it is because of the worlds. I love to disappear into these worlds and imagine the people and the way they live. My partner finds it fascinating that when I read a book that truly grips me I just disappear into it and you won't see me for days. On so many things I will flit from one item to the next without spending ages on it, but for books I will remain enthralled until I turn that last page. So why is that so important? Well I embarked on an epic novel last week. I started by listening to the audiobook which I had got with my audible credit. That was about Wednesday I think at work. I then proceeded to listen to it for about 6 hrs each day at work until my headphones ran out of battery and then I would charge them ready for the next go. I could barely put my phone down when I was in a situation that I could just listen to it by myself. This meant hiding in the bedroom with the book going.

Then on Sunday I managed to pick up the second half of the book from the Library. Oh gosh! Then it was on for young and old! To understand the size of this task, this book is 1000 pages long. 70 something chapters! It is often sold in 2 separate volumes because it is such a big book. Now I'm going through book withdrawal... I want to get onto the next book in the series but at the same time I really can't as I don't currently have a copy of it. I am scouring the Libraries at the moment and I think I can get ahold of one soon :D

Anyway I have included my spoiler free review from goodreads below. But if you haven't work it out yet I LOVED this book. If you like epic fantasy then you will like this one.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I started off by reading it on audio book and then managed to get to the Library and binge read the rest of it last night. I loved the audio book it was easy to listen to and got me over the start which apparently is hard to read for some people. This is the 7th book of his I have read and every time I read one I am drawn in by the detail he puts in his stories. There is so much that happens at the beginning of the book that you realise is really important to the end. I liked that fact that all the stories are slowly drawing themselves closer and closer and you have an inkling of where it might end up. Though if it follows the way the first mistborn trilogy went there will be so many twists and turns you won't be able to predict it!

I am really excited to see where this series goes though I'm nervous too because I really dislike waiting between books in big series.

My favourite character was Kalladin and I really look forward to seeing what else happens with him in future books.




View all my reviews