Thursday, November 2, 2023

Catch Yerself On!

We are big Derry Girls fans in this house. If you've not seen it, it's a comedy/drama from BBC that takes place in Derry, Ireland in the 1990s and follows 4 girls and a guy through their misadventures. It's super cute and very funny. One of the phrases they use a lot is "Catch Yerself On!", which means "get a grip" or "Don't be silly", along that vein. I created this pattern and knocked it up watching Tourist Trap (the horror movie from 1979).
I haven't framed it, but I'll probably just paint the hoop green and frame it up like that.

Last of The New Embroideries (for Now)

I finished up a few embroidery patterns last week, all from Bees Knees Industries. This one is from the Facebroideries set.
These two are from the Animal Expressions set.
I think I did okay for not really having done much hand embroidery in a while. While I do like to do embroidery, I think I just prefer cross stitch. However, I do miss doing embroidery now and then and I would like to get good at it again so maybe I'll do an embroidery for every few cross stitch patterns I do. I dunno.

Monday, October 23, 2023

Weekend Stitching

Just couple of weekend finishes! Our local stitch group, Austitch, had a meet-up yesterday, and I've never been to one, and since I found myself free, I went along. I chose a Cate Avnevski Facebroidery pattern and some cute fabric I got from Spoonflower years ago to work on, since I am between projects and wanted something that wouldn't take concentration of counting in case I wanted to converse. It was at a brewery and we sat outside. True to Texas, it was like almost 90 degrees on a late October afternoon. So I was only able to stand about an hour of sitting in that heat, even with a beer and shade. So I had to leave. I finished my piece last night watching Suspiria (the OG one, which is... just a really weird movie and watching it again, I was a little disappointed in it). I love how it came out, and I'm happy with the colors and fabric I chose. I like to do a patterned fabric with these since a lot of them have a lot of blank space because I am not an embroidery painter- I am not spending 6 hours filling in large spaces with floss. And honestly, I think mabye doing these on patterned is sort of what the creator envisioned when she made these into embroidery patterns (not only because that's how I want to do them LOL but when she posted a picture of some she had completed, they were on patterned fabric as well).
I also finished this one by PeachNeedlebyBrandy on Etsy. I stayed up way past my bedtime Friday finishing this one out while watching Judge Judy on streaming. It was a Stick N Stitch, which means the transfer stuck onto the fabric and then you wash it away when you're done. I didn't do very well with this one. Some of my stitches are wonky, there is space between them (which I find often happens when I am using the Stick N Stitch transfers- maybe because I can't see good enough to make sure the stitches are indeed flush against each other, I dunno), and the stitches are too short, and I don't like the wobby look it gives them. Oh well. I have to accept that I haven't done embroidery for YEARS and it's gonna take me a while to get back to the level at which I was before cross stitching became my main thing...
Until next time!

Friday, October 20, 2023

Alice in Wonderland by Cate Anevski

Another Cate Anevski post! I have a lot of her patterns soooo... I really love her take on the Alice in Wonderland Characters. I can't remember if she ever actually made any patterns out of these- she had a lot of cute illustrations that she didn't put into patterns, but that I downloaded so that I could stitch for myself, and I think these may be some of them.

Queen of Hearts:
The Mad Hatter and Tweedle Dee/ Tweedle Dum
They are just SO GREAT!! I need to see if I can find out of she did any other ones because I'd love to do all of them!

2023 Ornaments So Far

Christmas is my favorite holiday. It's been hard for me the past few years, having lost both grandparents that I was very close to within a year of each other, and they were always so very excited about Christmas. I can't think too much about it, or I'll get sad and I don't want to be sad, so I'll just leave it at that. Christmas makes me miss them, but I really try not to let it get me down too much, because they wouldn't want me to be sad at that time.

I KNOW. It is TOO TOO EARLY to start thinking about Christmas, because we haven't even hit Halloween yet. And I'm honestly only thinking about it because I wanted to get a head start on my holiday stitching. So, I made quite a few ornaments. I usually make one for my sister, one for my mom, and one for all of my friends, and I end up keeping a few for myself.

I did this one from a few different snowflake patterns I have. The fabric is sparkly, but the picture didn't pick that up :(
The next couple are from a vintage pattern from PearlShoreCat on Etsy. These make me think of ornaments my grandparents had.
The next couple of ornaments are from CrossstitchByCoconut on Etsy. They are part of a pack of 100 Creepy Christmas patterns.
My husband and I are huge Seinfeld fans, and I like to do a little cross stitch for him now and then, so while I was at my ornament stitching, I did this one for him really quickly. He has it hanging on the wall by his desk :)
This is one is from TheBadWitchCrafts on Etsy. She did an advent calendar last year and this was one of my favorites.
Lastly, of course, I have to do a skullflake! This one is from StitchxLove on Etsy.

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Memory Lane

I was going through my blog for the heck of it and noticed I did not post pics of all of the onesies and stuff I did years abo, back in 2011, so here are some more cute little things i did! Some of the pics are blurry because this was still the time of digital cameras and so getting a good close-up was not my strong suit. These are from a Japanese embroidery book. I made onesies and I made some burp cloths (eww).
This is a cute owl and I forgot where he came from.
I think these are from a Wild Olive Pattern.
And this tea towel is
from the Sublime Stitching Cute Faces pattern pack.

Tinies

If you have read this blog, you know I love doing tiny cross stitching in between bigger projects. Here are some cuties I've worked on in the past. These are from Makoto Oozu, who is the master of tiny embroidery. I put them into pendants to give as gifts.
I don't remember where I got the patterns for this bow and this tree, so I can't credit these creators...
I got this teeny Cthulhu on a nerdy stitch blog, but I can't remember the name of it.
And as usual, I also can't remember where I found this Elder Sign from the H. P. Lovecraft Mythos.
More to come!

Horror Whore

Horror movies have been a huge part of my life. I grew up watching horror movies, because my mom is a horror fanatic. I also read a lot of horror novels (most of them probably NOT being what I needed to be reading that age). I love talking about them, discovering them, sharing them, and especially watching them while I do craft stuff.

I have hoarded many horror themed patterns, but here are some of the ones I’ve actually done, and I’ll credit the designer where I can.

“Sometimes, Dead is Better”- Pet Cemetery- StarKissedJade on Etsy
Freddie Krueger- A Nightmare on Elm Street (one of my favorite horror franchises)
Jason Voorhees- Friday the 13th- Iotacons
Michael Myers- Halloween
Leatherface- Texas Chainsaw Massacre
May Zombies Destroy this House Last- JackTheStitcher on Etsy
Bloody hand prints- The Blair Witch Project (I basically just made red hand prints for this one)
We All Float Down Here- Stephen King’s IT- Found this one on Pinterest
I have many more, but I need to save them for another day.

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

To The World...

To say I am obsessed with Good Omens is an understatement... I had this pattern custom made aby PixelsInStitches on Etsy. This is from the first series and it captures the Angel Aziraphale with his flaming sword (that was "flaming like anything") and the Demon Crowley with the window handle to his 1928 Bentley, as they go to stop Armageddon (Spoiler, not sorry).

Flashback Stitches

For longest time, I just did a bunch of snarky cross stitch patterns that were mostly cross-stitched letters. I have since stretched my wings and branched out into a bit more complex pieces. But here are some cute ones I did way back in the day. I saw this quote somewhere and loved it, so I created this pattern using a cross stitch alphabet that I found online.
I copied this one from Pinterest but I had to alter it because the way it was created, it was obviously created to say "I never finish anyth" and I wanted it to look like a truly unfinished cross stitch.
I did this so long ago and I can't remember who created this pattern. I can't find the original on my computer. But it's 100% accurate.

Really Cross Stitch

I wouldn’t actually say I’m a feminist. I believe in gender/gender fluid equality, I am proud to be a woman, I am all about the divine feminine and women’s power, and you will often hear me talk about how men have so totally fucked us beyond any hope of repair.. Wow, I guess I sort of am a feminist, I’m just a bit more quiet about it. Anyway, I bought this book a couple of years ago called Really Cross Stitch by Rayna Fahey. The patterns are political in nature, which I didn’t actually realize when I purchased it, but that’s okay, because political cross stitch will always be a thing. So far, I’ve done four pieces from this book. I kept two and gifted two. This is my favorite piece from the book, and I wanted to do it for my sister, because, well. However, while my sister is one to stand up when she sees injustice, and of course is super into woman power, she’s not got the activist energy that my other friends do. So I did this one for my friend Liz.
I did this one for a friend, but decided to keep it because it’s from a show called Father Ted, and I think it’s funny. I did her another one…
This one I did for my friend Rebecca. She’s a Star Wars fan, and this quote has been stitched and plastered all over Genereal Leia merch. I love the sentiment, and I love how it’s associated with General Leia (she was my hero when I was a little girl), so I thought it was more appropriate for her than the other one, though I can totally hear her saying “Down With…This.. Sort of Thing..”
And this is hanging in my bathroom. The guy who came in to redo our shower thought it was hilarious.

Anglophile

I’m a huge Anglophile. I love a lot of things about the UK. Their snacks, their accents, their sayings, their funny little ways.. and probably most of all, their TV.


Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge character has a special place in my heart. I think he’s so funny, so when I found this cross stitch pattern by 8bitNorthStitch, I knew I had to do it.

Another good British show that I could watch over and over again is Broadchurch. David Tenant is just… perfect, and so is Olivia Coleman. Oh, and Jodi Whittaker. I love them all, and that series was gut-wrenching and perfectly cast and acted. David Tenant plays Alec Hardy, a cranky asshole Scottish detective who obviously hates life. He has a few kind of funny lines, although the show is a crime drama and not a comedy, but one that stood out to me was “BLOODY TWITTAH!” Not because it’s funny, but because the way he said it was funny. I was making a cross stitch guy for a friend of mine, when I realized I’d accidentally made Alec Hardy, so I decided to keep him for myself and redo the friend’s design, and to add “Bloody Twittah!” under it. I made another that says “Millah!” because that’s what he calls Olivia Coleman’s character, and he just says it in a way that’s so mockable. Also, since Twitter was purchased by a lunatic, and he renamed it, this one contains a bit of history too.




Finally, my two favorite alcoholic drug users- Pasty and Eddie from Absolutely Fabulous. I discovered this show in the mid-nineties, I think on Comedy Central. My boyfriend at the time told me it glorifies drug use. If he had watched it, he would understand it was meant to make fun of rich, shallow drug users, and that it did not AT ALL glamorize or glorify drug and alcohol abuse. I still love it.
These are not all of my British TV cross stitch pieces, and I have a lot in the pipeline too...

Scotland's Story

I have always known there is a lot of Scottish ancestry in my family, but recently, I found out that you can trace our roots right back to Robert the Bruce, first king of Scotland and free-er of the Scots from English rule, and that our ancestry is 61% or more Scottish. I have always loved Scottish things and people, and three of my very favorite bands are from Scotland- Cocteau Twins, Teenage Fanclub and Belle & Sebastian. My favorite Doctor is also Scottish- Mr. Peter Capaldi! We were also lucky enough to be able to spend a week in Scotland for our anniversary this year. It is the most magical place I have ever been. I cried when we had to come home. I cried this morning when I saw something I purchased in Scotland. I am homesick for a place I have never lived in! We will definitely be going back. The point of all this is that I am very proud of my Scottish heritage and also that I found an Etsy shop called SonofaCrossStitch, and it has quite a few Scottish slang and insult cross stitch designs.
For more Scottish insults, check these out for starters (once you get past these, a lot of the websites have the same ones): https://www.buzzfeed.com/hilarywardle/chew-mah-banger https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/21-best-scottish-insults-22931947