Craft Blog

New crewel embroidery pattern up for your stitching pleasure! I originally created these little guys in their costumed finery with the intention of putting them on a Halloween wall hanging, but now I’m more convinced that they should be on display all year! They’d look great stitched onto black fabric destined to become a bag, a notebook cover or even just framed. Just download the pdf, print it out and transfer the pattern onto your fabric (I like to use carbon paper or use my window as a light box!) to create these Halloween Bunnies.

Download the Creepy Critters Embroidery Pattern PDF.

Halloween is on its way, and what better way to mark it than with some needlecraft, here’s a few of the free embroidery patterns that I’ve found online that celebrate the night of ghouls and ghosties! Click on the pictures to get to the patterns!

Quixotic Pixels has some beautiful (and very cute!) embroidery patterns to decorate trick or treat bags or Halloween decorations. I’m hoping to find the time to make a wall hanging featuring these before the month is through!

The Pattern Bee has a large collection of vintage patterns for fans of crewel embroidery, including this particularly creepy floating pumpkin scene.

About.com offers various cross stitch patterns, one of which is this superb monster pattern featuring Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, a mummy and a werewolf. They also have pumpkins and black cats for you to stitch up here.

Stab and Stash has a great counted cross-stitch pattern of a spell gone wrong!

And finally, I stumbled on this absolutely beautiful sampler pattern with a Halloween theme from this site, although if you do wish to save it for later use, I recommend saving the pattern to your computer or printing it out as opposed to bookmarking it as the site will be closed down fairly soon by AOL.

What are your crafty plans for Halloween? Decorations? Costumes? We don’t make a big deal out of Halloween in our house, but I can’t resist the excuse to make up some cute spooky themed crafts at this time of the year!

If you’ve created a Halloween tutorial or have something that you’d love to show off to the CraftBlog readers get in touch with me and let me know!

My first (of hopefully many, but we’ll see!) free needlework pattern is up and ready to be put on anything you fancy!

Pictured is my version of the twirly birdy, I wanted to add more colour to the outline so double threaded some pink in with black, and I must say it looks pretty good. I also chain stitched the legs to add a bit more bulk. It wasn’t placed onto anything special, just a piece of cotton, but I have a feeling I might sneak the fabric into a quilt some time in the near future, maybe hidden away on a pieced back as a little surprise.

Download the PDF for the Twirly Birdy Pattern.

As with all the patterns and tutorials on CraftBlog, this is licensed for personal use only, please do not sell or make any profit from the Twirly Birdy Pattern, either in pattern or completed form. Thank you!

Ed’s Note: Please welcome Sharon to CraftBlog! I’m very excited about some of her tutorials and information posts that she has planned, including giving us the insider goss on the best craft stores in Melbourne, this post is the first of a series based around my new favourite craft, Sashiko stitching.

Sashiko is a Japanese running stitch that was traditionally used to reinforce points of wear or tears with patches. Cotton was expensive so farmers and fisherman used it to extend the life of their garments. White cotton thread on the traditional indigo blue cloth gives Sashiko its distinctive appearance. I have made my samples into placemats by putting fusible Pellon inside and topstitching the edge by machine. But they could just be made up as napkins, or even used as quilt blocks.

Other coloured threads, fabrics and designs, both traditional and contemporary, are now available and one of my favourites is this “Cool of Water” design in wedgewood blue thread on pale blue fabric.

This Sashiko stitching is used to make up individual blocks into a Double Wedding Ring design. I have made it into a place mat, but it could easily be extended into a beautiful quilt.

In part two, coming next week, I will be showing you what supplies you need in readiness for my tutorial and visiting Kimono House in Melbourne.