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!

Throwback Thursday - 50th Whovian celebrations... and a new pattern!

Back in 2013, Doctor Who celebrated 50 years as one of our favourite fandoms.

There were mixed opinions about the various Anniversary celebrations, but I had an absolute ball.  I was living in England at the time, so had front-row seats to all the events and TV specials and radio specials and displays and all the rest.

One of the things I was most excited about was attending the Doctor Who Official Celebration in London.  It was amazing - I attended panels with Doctors 5, 6, 7, 11, Steven Moffat, and Nicholas Briggs (the voice of the Daleks); saw original costumes and sets from the original and new series; spent far too much money; and met people as crazy as I am.

I also really enjoyed the 50th Anniversay episode, The Day of The Doctor.  I've watched it so many times over the last 20 months I can quote it almost word for word.  having David Tennant and Billy Piper back was unbelievable, and John Hurt is a fantastic addition to the Doctor line up.

Today's new pattern features one of those throw-away lines from the episode that just stick in your head, as well as the three different Tardises (Tardisi?) as they appeared in the episode:

Which One's Mine?

I've also updated the Blink, Birthday and Anniversary card patterns to make them more streamlined, easier to stitch, and in a similar style to my other designs.

And because I'm talking about the 50th Anniversary episode, I can't not share the original pattern I designed for this episode, and one of the original patterns in my Etsy store, The Day of The Doctor:

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!

House-warming new pattern - one for the readers

Just before Christmas, my brother moved into a new unit.  I knew I wanted to make him something for his new place for his Christmas present, but I was struggling to work out what to make him.

My brother has always been a huge geek.  In fact, he's the one who introduced me to most of my favourite fandoms - Harry Potter, Discworld, Star Wars, even (to some extent) Doctor Who.  He also introduced me to Tripod (Australian comedy trio), Lano & Woodly (Australian comedy duo), Umbilical Brothers (Australian comedy duo), Dresden Files (book series), QI (BBC TV show), and more.  G's three years younger than me but clearly has always had good taste.

However, he moved to Brisbane and then Melbourne a few years ago, and I move to England (and back to Aus), so I was a bit out of touch with what he was in to these days:

(I may have lied a bit about the "very cool idea" - not sure 'random cross stitch of some sort' really fits that description)

At any rate, reading I could work with and so I created the "A House is not a Home without a Bookshelf" cross stitch.

And now you can create your own because I've finally managed to get the pattern uploaded to my Etsy store!

What are some of your "a house is not a home without..." sayings?

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!):