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!

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

Merry Christmas and a free pattern!

Merry Christmas everyone.  May your day be filled with love, laughter, friendship, family, food and fun.  And the chance for some stitching and geeking.

We're having a very Whovian Christmas this year.  We made a Tardis gingerbread house (seen here), my mother (Ozzy Pip) received Season 8 of Doctor Who, my brother got a Tardis mug, and I received a Doctor Who calendar, Tardis-coloured table-runner and set of coasters my mother made, and an actual Tardis!  I asked for a shoe rack, and received this:

It's a Tardis Shoe Cupboard.  How cool?!
More pictures to come soon.

Now we are sitting around in the air conditioning with very fully bellies, watching "Into The Dalek".  What better way to spend Christmas Day?  Okay, watching the Christmas Special would be preferable, but Australia doesn't get that until tomorrow.

While you sit around with full bellies and fight the urge to sleep, why not stitch this Doctor Who Christmas decoration?

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Stitching!

- Fangirl Stitches

It's beginning to look even more like Christmas

There's only 3 days to go until Christams.  A little hard to believe it is so close already.

Time to fill you in on my latest holiday stitching and other make-your-own decorations.

First there is the Christmas Alphabet Cross Stitch.  I had a lot of fun coming up with this pattern - trying to find words for each letter that were a) Christmassy, b) relatively Christian, and c) not snow related!  Q was the hardest.  In fact, this was the only 'Q' word I could find.  If you can think of any others, let me know!  The pattern is now available in my Etsy shop.

My friend saw a picture of Ninja Turtle Christmas decorations and decided we should make some for my tree.  So we did.  They were surprisingly easy to make - baubles, ribbon, googly eyes and glue.

Turtles in a half-shell, Christmas power!

Then we were on a roll and wanted to see if we could make any other Christmas baubles.  Minion family anyone?  We even managed to find denim print duct-tape which worked perfectly.

Minion Baubles

Minions, Ninja Turtles, and a cat on the tree.

We have to work out how to make the Death Star next.  I think that may be a bit more complicated...

Our minister then sent us a picture of a TARDIS gingerbread house she had found on Facebook and challenged Ozzy Pip and I to make our own.

This is the picture we were sent.  The instructions to make it are here.

For some reason when we first followed the link we wound up here so used this was the recipe and instructions we used instead.  This is what we ended up with.  Not bad for a first effort, but I don't think we're giving up our day jobs any time soon!

Boo was the closest we could come to an alien invader.

Time for some flashback Christmas stitching.  I love this cross stitch design.  I found it in a pattern book at the library and originally planned on stitching it for my mother, but it took longer than expected so I ended up keeping it for myself!  It's hung in my parents' house every Christmas since I finished it, but this year Mum returned it to me to hang in my own house.

The name of the book this came from has been lost
to the winds of time, but it's a gorgeous pattern.

I've also uploaded a couple more geeky Christmas cards to the Etsy Store.  There is the Cel-e-brate Dalek Christmas card:

 

and the Pikachu Holiday card:

Two more days till Santa comes!

Happy stitching everyone,

- Fangirl Stitches

Decorating for Christmas

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and the weekend closest to 1st December, which means it's time to put out the Christmas decorations!

I love decorating for Christmas.  I get it from my mum.  When we were kids there were decorations everywhere - in the kitchen, in the hall, in the lounge room, even in the bathrooms!  Hanging decorations was one of my favourite family Christmas activities - that and looking at Christmas lights.

It still is one of my favourite Christmas activities.  Finding unique or special ornaments on my travels, reliving the memories as I decorate, or creating something special of my own.  These are some of my favourites on display this year.

The cross stitch Nativity scene on plastic canvas.  I started this about 10 years ago, although it took me awhile to finish.  It was a 3-parter in a CrossStitcher magazine probably about 15 or 20 years ago.  We had one of the parts and Mum managed to track down the others so I could stitch the series.  There's also an angel, a star, and the Inn Keeper and his wife, but I need to buy more stands to display them!  I've used game piece stands which work a treat.

Blackwork Christmas Angel.  This one also came from a magazine, although I can't remember which one!  It was one of the patterns I stitched in 2012 when I lived in the UK. She was meant to have a border around her, but I didn't like it, so I left it off - after all, life's too short to stitch background.













My cross stitch advent calendar - another one from a magazine!  I think this was also from CrossStitcher.  There's a stitched picture on each reverse side.  4 and 15 are missing because I have to fix their hangers.  Mum made the hanging quilt.  It has tabs to hang on a dowel hanger, but I'm using a skirt hanger in the meantime.

Ninja turtle baubles.  They were surprisingly easy to make  - green baubles, ribbon, googly eyes and some craft glue.

My Christmas decorations from my travels in the UK and Europe.  They should be hanging on the tree, but my 7 month old kitten thinks the Christmas tree is her new climbing frame and that anything hanging on it is hers to attack by right.  So instead they are on sticky hooks on one of the high kitchen cabinets to keep them safe!  The teacup and crown come from the Royal Palaces in England, the shamrock from Ireland, the purple bell is from Germany, the man in the red circle is from Iceland, and the two on red ribbons are from Harrods.

My second advent calendar - Lego Star Wars!  Very excited to start this tomorrow. Each day you get a little thing to create or build.  I had to hunt it down online because the only one I could get locally was the Lego City one.  And Star Wars is so much cooler.

Discworld Christmas cards.  I bought a set of 4 one year, gave two away as presents, and kept the other two as decorations.  They did hang on my wall for about two years before joining the Christmas decorations box.  Artwork by the very talented Paul Kidby

The Willow Tree nativity scene.  I love Willow Tree figurines - they are some of the only dust-collectors that I own.  The nativity scene is just stunning in its simplicity.  There are a couple of other sets you can buy to build on it - the wise men, and a set of animals.  Maybe one year.






Do you decorate for Christmas?  Do you go all out, or only have a few special decorations?  Do you prefer to have colour themes, or do you keep and collect your decorations to use year after year?  Are you a geeky Christmas person, or more traditional?  Religious or mainstream? Or maybe you don't do Christmas at all - maybe you do Hanaka or forego religious celebrations. I'd love to hear how you decorate (or don't) for Christmas, or any other holidays.

Happy Stitching!

Geeky Christmas Designs

The count down to Christmas is on.  Advent starts next Sunday, and the Christmas decorations will go up.  The stores have had them on display for at least a month.  Tuesday will be one month to go.

However, there's still plenty of time to start and finish your Christmas stitching!

I've designed a number of Christmas cards and decorations that are now for sale in my Etsy store.  As a true fangirl, these designs are all geeky in nature, incorporating as many fandoms as I could.

Ron and Harry wish you a very Magical Christmas.

The TARDIS Christmas set, featuring a pair of earrings, and two different cards.

How cute are the earrings?!

Why not say "Happy Christmas" in Klingon?  Perfect for any Star Trek fans

In case you were wondering, it says QISmas DatIvjaj 'ej DIS chu' DatIvja 

Death as the Hogfather, as portrayed in the film Hogfather

Death as a more modern Hogfather.  Both cards are available in the one set

On a side note, these designs also don't have snow.  My biggest bug-bear about standard Christmas designs is that they are predominately just snow scenes.  Being Australian, snow doesn't really feature in my Christmas celebrations, so it doesn't appear in my designs.  Christmas designs for the Southern Hemisphere.  But feel free to use a few white beads or extra white stitches to add some in if you're in the Northern Hemisphere! :)

Happy Christmas and Happy Stitching!