Feature Pattern Friday - Game of Thrones

It's time for Feature Pattern Friday which today is the Game of Thrones Alphabet

Game of Thrones Alphabet

This has to have been the most requested pattern suggestion of the last couple of years, and it made it to my shop about 6 months ago.

I have a confession to make - I don't watch Game of Thrones.  I watched the pilot episode and decided it wasn't my thing - child murder, incest, rape... nope, really not me.  No judgement against those who do watch it (each to their own, and I've been told it improves a lot in later episodes) but I couldn't get past the pilot... which did make coming up with this alphabet a little difficult!  I had to make best-guesses for some of the characters and their outfits (all approved by my GoT friends and family).  However, don't forget you can always request a customised pattern if your favourite character or outfit is missing.

Happy stitching!

Feature Pattern Friday - It's a Slayer Thing

It's Feature Pattern Friday!

Each Friday I am sharing a pattern from my Etsy store - new, nearly new, and were-new-once.

The thirdever Feature Pattern Friday and I'm already changing things.  Today, rather than feature just one new pattern, I'm showing off a set of new patterns.  They're all in the one theme though, so surely that counts (of course it counts - this is my event so I can set and change the rules as I like :))

Today's Feature Pattern Set features quotes from the cult television show Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Buffy and Dawn

Buffy's Valentine

The Slayerettes

Spike and Dru

Spike

Xander

Although they haven't been overly popular on Etsy, these patterns are a big hit at the Conventions.  I'm expecting them to be pretty popular at the next two conventions I'm attending because...

Watch the video here

David Boreanus is coming to Australia!  For the first time!  He will be attending the Gold Coast and Melbourne Supernova Conventions in April, both of which I happen to be going to as well.  Rather excited about that. :)

Happy stitching (and slaying)!

Nostalgic Cross Stitch patterns

Christmases at home always make me feel nostalgic.  I remember Christmases spent building cubby houses, watching DVDs (or videos), building marble racing tracks (which my parents had way more fun doing than us kids) and reading new books.  I'm a big one for Christmas traditions, and as my sibblings and I got older I began to long for the gold ol' days - back when my brothers enjoyed the Christmas preparations as much as I did, and joined in, back when everything felt magical and special.  I guess everyone goes through that stage as they get older, hit their teenage years where the magic of Christmas doesn't feel quite real anymore.  It does come back though, and I still find Christmas a magical, fun, traditional time, although not quite in the same way I did when I was 7 or 8.

Christmas nostalgia reminds me of my childhood and the things I enjoyed as a child - the TV shows and the music and the movies and the books I loved.  Which is probably why my latest cross stitch patterns feature these things.

Firstly there is The Incredibles.  I was a teenager when this movie came out, but I loved it immensely and it is still my favourite Disney Pixar film.  I'm always sad that there was only one of them.

The Incredibles, now available on Etsy

Then there are The Rugrats.  Lil and Phil were always my favourites.  In fact, there are two versions of The Rugrats patterns.  Firstly there is Tommy and his Friends, ready for mischief and adventure:

Rugrats now available on Etsy

The second pattern features all of the Rugrats families.  Stitch the whole pattern, or for a quicker project, why not stitch an individual family?

Rugrats Families, now available on Etsy

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays, however you are spending them.

Happy stitching!

Supernatural pattern now available!

The Supernatural alphabet pattern, which I am stitching for the A to Z blog challeng, is now available from my Etsy store!

Visit Fangirl Stitches on Etsy to check it out.

Not long now till the start of  the A to Z challenge... I really need to get organised. Good thing I'm on holidays this week so have some spare time up my sleeve.

Happy stitching!

Getting ready for the A to Z Blog Challenge

As motivation to get back into the whole blogging regularly thing, I've decided to participate in The A to Z Blog Challenge again. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not - I did get serious blogging burn-out after April last year.  But it was fun and I want to do it again!

For those of you who don't know, the A to Z challenge is where you post each day in April (except Sundays), working your way through the alphabet.  Some people blog on a theme, some people just post randomly.  It's a lot of fun and a great way to discover new blogs.  It's how I met a lot of you. The host blog page has a lot of useful information about the challenge, how to sign up, a list of people who have signed up, and lots of information to get you ready or decide if it is right for you.

My favourite blogs last year, and the ones I'm looking forward to finding again this year, are the people who cross stitch from A-Z (particularly those who were/are stitching my patterns!).  I'm going to be joining them again this year - just making the final decision/s on which alphabet/s to stitch.

Now is a good time to start planning if you are thinking of cross stitching your way through the A to Z Challenge.  You'll need time to get your supplies ready, rule up your fabric, stitch any boards/backgrounds/fancy bits, and of course choose your pattern!  Depending on the pattern you choose, you may also want to get a head-start stitching the letters so you are not stitching until midnight to try and make the deadline!

Alphabet patterns available from Fangirl Stitches

There are a lot of great A to Z cross stitch patterns out there.  A search on Google or Etsy will turn up thousands of different ones in various themes, colours, styles, and degrees of difficulty.  It can be a good place to start though and help stimulate the thinking process while you choose a theme or style.

I'm biased of course and think the ones in my shop are pretty fantastic ;)  To make things easier for people getting ready for the challenge, I've added an extra search category, and now you can find all the alphabet patterns in one handy location.

Alphabet cross stitch patterns available from Fangirl Stitches.  Can you name them all?

 I'm going to be sharing as I get ready for the A-Z challenge, although I'll leave the "big reveal" until the actual Theme Reveal date (21st March).  If you've got any tips or suggestions for stitching your way through the challenge, I'd love to hear them.

Alphabet cross stitch patterns available from Fangirl Stitches

Are you stitching for the A to Z Blog Challenge?  Leave a comment below and I'll drop by your blog to say hello and add you to my "to follow" list.

Are you stitching a Fangirl Stitches pattern?  Let me know that too - I love watching people work on my designs!

Happy stitching!

The 13 Doctors - It's a New Pattern!

When I had a stall at Oz Comic Con last year, I lost count of the number of people who asked if I had a pattern of all the Doctors from Doctor Who.

I didn't.  I also wasn't sure why I didn't.  This is one of my favourite TV shows.  I LOVE Doctor Who.  Why on earth did I not have a pattern of the 13 Doctors??!

I think it was because when I first started designing there were a couple of other patterns of all the Doctors, one of which I had stitched myself, so I didn't feel the urgency of needing to create my own.

Whatever the reason, I didn't have a pattern and you were asking for one, so I needed to design one.

It's taken another few months to get it finished, but at long last I can reveal The 13 Doctors, my tribute to this long running, fantastic television show.

The 13 Doctors, available from my Etsy Store

Enjoy people!

P.S. Keep an eye out next week for some more Doctor Who patterns.  They're very... companionable... ;)

Catching you up on some New Patterns

I mentioned in my previous blog post that I've released a lot of new patterns over my recent 8 month blogging hiatus.  I thought I'd try and catch you up on a few of them.

In celebration of the new Star Wars film, there is the Episode VII: The Force Awakens line-up:

Available from www.fangirlstitches.etsy.com

 Continuing in the Star Wars theme,  is the Star Wars character alphabet, featuring 26 of my favourite characters from the franchise (or the-only-character-that-starts-with-that-letter).

Available from www.fangirlstitches.etsy.com

This pattern was originally designed before the release of The Force Awakens.  Tonight I have released the Force Awakens additional letters!  Now when you purchase the Star Wars Alphabet, you receive a second pattern featuring 5 alternative letters for the main characters of the new film.

If you've already purchased the original Star Wars alphabet, don't worry - send me an email with proof of purchase and I'll send you the updated pattern FREE OF CHARGE!!

Happy Stitching!

Ros

Choose your faction - it's a new pattern!

It took me a while to discover the Divergent book series.  If you've read my 2015 Reading Challenge post, you'll know the story.  If not, let me share it again:

I avoided this series for a long time, book and film.  Some people were describing it as "the new Twilight" (which I refuse to read) and others were describing it as a poor copy of The Hunger Games (which I loved, so I didn't want to read a poor copy of it).  My housemate Bek had bought the book earlier this year and was telling me how much she'd enjoyed reading it.  Note: Bek doesn't read.  She just doesn't.  I can probably count the number of books she's read on my fingers.  For her to a) have actually read the book and b) enjoyed it made me think "I have to read this book".  I borrowed it off her and read it in about two days.  Great concept - a bit Hunger Games meets Brave New World.  The rest of the series has been added to my 'to read' list.

I've since read the second in the series, and watched the first film.  I'm still playing catch-up, however that didn't stop me designing a Divergent cross stitch pattern or 3.

I chose the wrong fabric colour so the white writing only shows up
in certain light/angles.  Whoops.

I went a couple of ways with this new pattern: there's a male and female version, and a combined version. To make things even more interesting, I've done this pattern in two different styles: the standard pixel style, and the more realistic style with quarter stitches, as seen in the Once Upon A Time pattern, so you can choose your favourite.

Male and Female Divergent factions - pixel-style

Male and Female Divergent factions - with quarter stitches

Combined Factions - Pixel style

Combined Factions - with quarter stitches

Happy stitching!

WIP Wednesday

It's Wednesday which means it's time to update you all on my latest work in progress (WIP).

This is where I got to last week:

And tonight's progress puts me here:

"Rose Garden" 14 count aida from Sew It All

Hopefully it's becoming more obvious what it's of :)

I still need to work out the letter colouring as my original choice (green) I think will blend too much with some of the characters.  I'm going to wait until the rest of the characters are finished before I stitch the letters so I'll make the colour decision then.

Back to the stitching... if I can dislodge the cat who has decided to sit on my arms while I type!

Managed to free my arms so I could get a face shot - isn't he cute?

Happy stitching!

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-nana - it's a new MINION pattern!

You know the Minions, the cute yellow henchmen from Despicable Me?

Did you know they have their own songs?

Did you know they have a song about bananas?

Did you know this song has actual lyrics, so you can sing along?

Did you know that these lyrics are now in cross stitch form so you can create your own sing-a-long picture?

Now you do!

My ex-housemate and good friend is totally Minion-mad so for Christmas I designed her her own sing-a-long piece, and now you can join in the fun too.

Introducing the Minion Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-nana Cross Stitch Pattern

And because the piece is predominately back-stitch, it's very quick to whip up so you can make one for all of your minions.

I've got so many Minion-themed cross stitch pattern ideas racing around my head at the moment - I just need to find the time to get them down on paper.

Happy Stitching!

P.S. For those who haven't seen the Minion's song yet (or who want to sing along!):

I Know - it's a new pattern!

A good friend rang me up one night:

"I have an idea for a new pattern for you: you should do a Star Wars Wedding pattern" she said
"That's a fantastic idea!" I replied
"I know" she quipped.

I did run into a small dilemma - do I use Anakin and Padme, who actually got married in the films, or the cult classic Leia and Han Solo?  I put the question out to Instagram, and the response was unanimous. I don't even know why I asked really.

And thus (several weeks later) we have the Star Wars Wedding cross stitch pattern!

Now available in my Etsy store. :)

Happy Stitching, and may the force be with you.

WIP Wednesday

This week I've started work test stitching a new pattern!  This one has been in the design stages for almost a year but I finally managed to finish the pattern last week with a bit of input from a couple of friends.

I started the piece on Friday, and this is where I've gotten to today:

I'm stitching this on "Rose Garden" 14 count aida from Sew It All

Not the fastest of stitching, but I've been working on a few other new patterns as well - which is why they take so long to design - I keep distracting myself!  On that note, stay tuned - I've added several new patterns to my Etsy store and will be detailing them in full over the next few blog posts.

Any guesses as to what this one might be? ;)

Happy Stitching!

Star Wars Day... it's a new pattern!

Happy International Star Wars Day!

To celebrate, I've released a new pattern, featuring Princess Leia in her complete costume collection from the three films:

I'm very excited about the new Star Wars films coming out in December, especially since I heard several of the original cast are returning.

Apparently, once the film is released Princess Leia will become the oldest Disney Princess of all time.  How's that for a record?

As my present to you on Star Wars Day, if you use the code MAYTHEFOURTH when buying one of my patterns, you will receive a 10% discount!

May the Fourth be with you all.

I know I used this picture last year, but it's so cute!

Happy stitching!

Preparation for the A to Z Challenge

I've signed up to participate in the A to Z blogging challenge this year.

Basically, for the month of April, you set yourself a theme and blog once a day for each letter of the alphabet (excluding Sundays).  The A to Z blog people explain it best on their webpage:

"Can you post every day except Sundays during this month?  And to up the bar, can you blog thematically from A to Z?  Using this premise, you would start beginning April First with a topic themed on something with the letter A, then on April second another topic with the letter B as the theme, and so on until you finish on April thirtieth with the theme based on the letter Z.  It doesn't even have to be a word--it can be a proper noun, the letter used as a symbol, or the letter itself.  The theme of the day is the letter scheduled for that day."

I'm still trying to decide on my theme.  It is going to be cross-stitch related (of course!) but the problem is, what theme after that?  Keebles (who first mentioned the A to Z challenge to me) got me thinking about my character alphabets, after she requested the Once Upon A Time pattern as a possibility for her theme.

Not that I'm short of options!  Themed alphabets have become my "thing" of late and there are more than a few now available from the Fangirl Stitches website.  This might be a good excuse to stitch one or two of them. :)

Happy Stitching!

The Christmas Alphabet, Discworld Alphabet and Geeky Alphabet

The Veronica Mars Alphabet, Pokemon Alphabet, Whedon Alphabet

Harry Potter Character Alphabet, Doctor Who Alphabet of characters, Mario Brothers Character Alphabet

The Doctor Who Quotes Alphabet, Christmas Carol Alphabet and
Once Upon A Time Character Alphabet

The Mario Alphabet

Time to show off another new pattern - this time one designed for my bible study group.  It's The Alphabet according to Mario.

When I first moved back to my home town in 2009, I started a bible study group with my fellow young adults (aged 18 to "I feel too old"). We'd meet on Thursday nights to have dinner together and do a reading and study (if there was more than 2 of us, which often there wasn't, there being only about 5 of us at the time). After I moved overseas in 2011, this group more and more became Mario Kart. It was refered to as "The Gospel According to Mario".  When I returned again in 2014, I found Mario Kart had become Thursday Night Dinner as other people had left and joined our little group (which is now up to about 10 or 12 people - huge!) but it is still occasionally referred to as Mario Kart by some of the older members of our church.

This alphabet is for them.

Cross stitch pattern now available on Etsy.

Happy Stitching!

Temporary Suspension of Instant Downloads on Cross Stitch Patterns

This week I have been trying to get my head around International taxation laws.

On the 1st of January, I received an email from Etsy informing me that of the 1st of January 2015 (that's right - that day!) there would be significant changes to European Commission rules related to Value Added Tax on sales of digital goods.  Nothing like a little bit of warning or a heads up!

The email from Etsy informed me that:

"The new rules state that all businesses selling digital goods and delivering them electronically to consumers in European Union member countries will be required to pay VAT based on the VAT rates of the country where the customer is located, not on the rates of the country where the business is located.  If your shop is based outside of the EU, it is unclear how the VAT rules will be enforced."

"We're working on a tool that will make the process easier for you and give you the ability to verify the country of your buyers.  We'll be releasing further details in January 2015".

You know, after the new rules have come into place.

As far as I have been able to find out:
1) this rule covers the sales of digital patterns
2) each country in the EU has a different rate of VAT
3) currently there is no way to add VAT to sales, to identify where customers are from prior to purchase, or to limit sales to specific countries, which means that
4) currently if I have to pay VAT it comes out of my pocket, rather than being charged to the customer which is what is meant to happen

But most importantly:
5) The United Kingdom has taken the position that PDFs manually emailed by sellers are not covered by the new rules.

As a result, I have taken the position to temporarily remove all instant downloads from my Etsy store, and to instead email the patterns to customers.  It's a lot more work for me, and means that it will take a bit longer for you to receive your orders.  However, as the largest majority of my sales are in Australia, the USA and the UK, this is the easiest, cheapest way for me to abide by the new EU rules as an international seller.

This has all thrown me a bit and made me realise that I need to become more aware of the Australian taxation laws affecting Fangirl Stitches, and of the International taxation laws.  It's also meant that I've been more than a little distracted as far as cross stitching is concerned.  I have a number of new patterns that will be appearing in the Etsy store soon, and a new direction for Fangirl Stitches that I'm quite excited about, and I hope you will be too.  More on that soon, I promise!

Hopefully Etsy will come up with an alternative solution quickly and I will be able to revert back to Instant Downloads, which are everyone's friend.

Happy Stitching!

- Ros at Fangirl Stitches