Happy Mother's Day plus a free pattern!

The second Sunday in May is Mother's Day in Australia, so happy mother's day to all the wonderful mums out there.

Ozzypip and I - Germany 2010

In particular, Happy Mother's Day to my own wonderful mum, Ozzypip from Ozzypip Quilts.  My mum is a pretty amazing person - she's very generous with her time, and volunteers a lot around the community, particularly for our Church - leads the singing, teachers RE (religious education), helps with the service at the Aged Care Home in town, was coordinator of the Sunday School.

With Ozzypip in Scotland, 2013

She's also on the committee for her patchwork group, used to be involved in the school P&C (when she still had kids at school), was a breastfeeding councillor for 19 years.  Most recently Mum agreed be prompt for the play I'm directing after the girl who was going to do it had to pull out due to a clash of dates - no small task when you consider the number of rehearsals we've been having lately!

   

Doctor Who Spectacular - 2014

More than all that though, Ozzypip and my dad raised four awesomely geeky kids, and put up with us quoting movies and books at every given occasion.  She and my father got me hooked on reading, introduced me to Harry Potter and Doctor Who, showed me the world of British crime drama, taught me the value of audiobooks on long car rides, and showed me how much fun theatre and musicals are.

At the Harry Potter Studio Tour -2013

She instilled in me the value of family, friendship and my religious faith, gave me the confidence to be myself and to know that I could succeed in whatever I wanted to do.  Lately she's been supporting, pushing, and promoting Fangirl Stitches, again showing me that I can do what I want to do if only I strive to succeed.  We've travelled around the world together, and she is my closet friend and confident.  Love you Mum!



To celebrate Mother's Day, I've got a free pattern for you:  the most amazing mum in the Harry Potter series - Mrs Weasley, who went down in history for her line "Stay away from my daughter, you bitch!"

Happy Stitching, and Happy Mother's Day!!

A Love of Stitching

I love cross stitching.  I mean, I really love it.  It's such an enjoyable, varied hobby.

One of the things I love most is the way I can just shut out the rest of the world while I stitch - it's a way of switching my brain off.  I can focus on my stitching - on the counting, on the pattern, on the repetitive nature of bottom-to-top (left to right) bottom-to-top (right to left).  It doesn't matter what else is going on in my life - whether I'm stressed about work or Theatre, whether I'm angry or annoyed or upset, whether I'm lonely or sick or happy or excited - as soon as I start stitching that all goes away.  It's amazing how much stitching I got done when I was stressed about my job overseas, or when I was meant to be studying for exams!

Stitching in progress

Another thing I enjoy is that it keeps my hands busy.  From a sensory processing point of view (I'm an Occupational Therapist) I'm getting tactile (touch) and proprioceptive (joint movement) feedback while I stitch, which means I can sit still longer.  I'm not one of those people who can sit down and watch TV or watch a movie without doing something else at the same time - not enough sensory feedback to remain alert!  I'll get all edgy and twitchy and want to move around.  Unless I'm exhausted or have a massive headache.  So I tend to stitch or play on the computer or iron (pfft - as if!) or something.  Usually it's cross stitch.  I get really fidgety in the cinema too - love going to the cinema, but I just wish there was enough light to stitch by!  I had a house-mate once who was very similar to me - she'd take her knitting to the cinema and knit while we watched the film.  I've also been known to stitch during meetings or conferences - again, it's a way of keeping my hands busy so that I can concentrate on what's being said.  Don't knock it - it sounds bizarre and contradictory but it honestly works for me, and for a lot of the kids I work with.

Cross stitching is light and portable - packs away in the suitcase nicely without taking up too much space or adding too much weight.  With snips or pendant cutters, I can even take my stitching on the plane!

Clover's thread cutter pendant - portable and safe to take on the plane.
And so much more stylish than an empty floss container!

And I don't get car sick when I stitch.  This really is a bizarre one, and one I can't explain, even with sensory processing.  I can't read in the car.  I can't sit in the back of the car when we travel on winding roads - in fact I often need to be driving because the front seat is not better.  I've been known to get car sick when there are too many speed bumps in a row.  Yet I can stitch without any worries.  I can read a pattern, find my place on the material, stitch and count, thread needles, identify colours, and all the other things I need to do while riding in a car.  It was such a lightbulb moment for me when I realised I could stitch in the car.  Finally I had something to do to while away the long hours we spent in the car on family holidays.  My mother's family were a 2 day drive away (and I mean 2 days -  18 hours of straight driving, or 1450kms south, spread across the two days); my father's family were 7 hours north (over 650kms north).  We spent a lot of hours in the car as kids, travelling to see family, or driving around Queensland on camping holidays.  For years there wasn't much I could do in the car except listen to music or audiobooks.  Once I knew I could stitch, those drives passed so much faster!  I probably fought a lot less with my brothers too, although you'd have to ask my parents about that one.

All this without even getting started on the variety of patterns (themes, size, colours), the fabrics, the threads, the adaptability, and the options of designing your own patterns!

Day of the Doctor in progress

I really do love it.

Happy stitching!!

May the Fourth Be With You

Happy International Star Wars Day.  May the Fourth Be With You.

Go Yoda

Life's been very busy lately, and I have barely had 5 minutes to breath let alone write a blog post or design a new pattern!  I've managed to find a few minutes today on International Star Wars Day to sit down and update you.

The main reason life has been so hectic lately is that I've been directing the play for our local amateur theatre group, The Emerald Little Theatre.  We've been in rehearsals for the last three months, and opening night is next weekend.  It's gotten very busy the last three weeks with extra rehearsals, painting and building the set, locating props and trying to get my cast to learn their lines!  We are a very small theatre group (about 10 members at the moment).  Where most theatre companies have someone in charge of set design, someone in charge of sound and/or lighting, a backstage manager, a prop manager, a costume person, etc, in our theatre group this all tends to be the responsibility of the director, producer and cast.  Added responsibilities.  Add that to the fact that this play is a cast of three, and two of those are co-producing the play with me and you get where I'm going.  I have to keep reminding myself that I volunteered for this.  We've been in rehearsals every night last week, and will be every night this week.  With only 3 people in a play that runs for 110 minutes approximately, they've got a lot of script to memorise each and it's taken them (a lot) longer than expected to get there, but I think we might finally have it.

Promo picture for The Bob and Al Show

I do enjoy it.  Really.  My stress levels have been a little (read very) high this last few weeks, but it is all starting to come together.  Opening night is less than a week away (minor freak out) but I know that as soon as the play is over, I will be itching to start on the next one.  One really good thing to happen this week is that I've had three different people approach me to express interest in joining for the next play, and another person who has volunteered to paint the sets for the next play, which is amazing.

I've been back at work for four months now, slowly getting my head back around the role.  The referrals are starting to come in this term for Occupational Therapy, and without a physiotherapist at the moment, there is a fair amount to do.  This term is shaping up to be pretty full on - there are four public holidays this term, plus I am away for 5 1/2 days at conferences - which makes nearly 2 weeks out of a 10 week term where I am unable to visit students in schools.  That's okay - we'll get there. :)

So between Little Theatre, work and church, there hasn't been a lot of spare time for anything else.

I have managed to design a couple of patterns lately.  One was a birthday present for a friend who has over 100 pairs of shoes.  The pattern is now available from my Esty Store

Cinderella's Shoes

The other one I am very excited about but unable to share yet.  It is a gift for another friend, but she won't be getting it till the end of May so I have to keep it under wraps until then.  You'll just have to stay tuned.

That's it from me.  I'm off for an early night.

Celebrate Star Wars in style my friends!

Happy Stitching

How To... Cushions and Padded Wall Hangings

One of the new patterns I've uploaded onto Etsy this week is a door hanging, advertising my inner geek to the world (or at least to my housemates!).

Fangirl Door Hanging

Rather than pop it in a frame, I decided to do something a little different and turn it into a padded hanging.  Now it can hang on a door handle, a hook in the wall, the end of the curtain rail, the corner of the TV, or anywhere else there is an edge to loop it over.  In the past, I've used a similar process to make Christmas tree ornaments and gifts for friends.  Below, I've explained how to make your own padded door hanging or decoration.

Fabric

In order to create your cushion, you will require enough fabric for the front and back of the pattern, plus a bit of a border in order to stitch the hem.  For this project I allowed an extra 3 cm for the hem on three sides.

Making Your Cushion

1. Stitch your project at the top of your piece of material, leaving enough room for the back of the cushion

2. Rough stitch (running stitch) a border around your finished design. This will be the fold line for your cushion.  

3. Trim your material down, leaving a border of 5 squares (10 on evenweave). 

4.Fold the fabric in half, right-side-in, following the bottom border.  Firmly press along the fold.

5. Backstitch along the border line of two sides, joining the two halves together.

6. Trim the corners - this will help them fold easier once turned right-side-out

7. Turn the cushion right-side-out, taking care to pull out the corners.  

8. Fill the cushion with wadding, making sure the wadding gets right into the corners.

9. Fold in the edges of the open side.  Stitch close, using an inverted back stitch.

10. Attach ribbon or thread for the hanger.

Finished!  Now to work out where to hang my latest decoration.

Happy Stitching!!

Harry Potter Alphabet

Check out the latest pattern available from FangirlStitches.etsy.com: The Harry Potter Alphabet!

Now available at http://etsy.me/1qKQfAf

This pattern is the largest in my shop to date, with the finished design measuring 12x18 inches.  Perfect for your library, reading nook, or child's bedroom - I can't wait for my own house so I can stitch and display with pride!

This pattern features 27 different characters - some of my favourites, as well as some lesser-known ones (how many characters starting with X, Y, and Z can you name?).  Let's break it down:

A is for Albus Dumbledore
B is for Bellatrix Lestrange
C is for Cedric Diggory
D is for Draco Malfoy
E is for Dobby the Elf
F is for Professor Flitwick
G is for Ginny Weasley
H is for Hermione Granger
I is for Igor Karkaroff
J is for Lee Jordan
K is for Kingsley Shacklebolt
L is for Luna Lovegood
M is for Moaning Murtle
N is for Neville Longbottom
O is for Oliver Wood
P is for Harry Potter
Q is for Professor Quirrell
R is for Ron Weasley
S is for Professor Slughorn
T is for Tonks
U is for Dolores Umbridge
V is for Viktor Krum
W is for the Weasley Twins
X is for Xenophilius Lovegood
Y is for Yaxley the Death Eater
Z is for Blaise Zabini

Who would you put in your Potter alphabet?

Happy Stitching!