Kara from Craftastical has created and shared her first embroidery pattern, a beautiful collection of paisley designs, perfect for adding to tea towels, pillows or as sweet embellishments on a skirt – I think they’d look awesome on some natural linen, especially in the bright yellow that Kara chose to use. I can’t wait to see what the final project is going to look like! Download the embroidery patterns here. The book that started my love for embroidered Paisley – [...]

I spotted this stitchable iPhone case whilst wondering around Pinterest a few days ago and fell in love with its simplicity and awesomeness, but at the same time, winced a little at the price (+ postage to Australia) and wondered how the stitches would hold up in my handbag, which inevitably seems to collect pencil leads (I only ever carry pens in there) and gummy sweets at the bottom, leaving pretty much everything that enters there covered in a sticky [...]

Megan from The Crafty CPA has been busy creating some beautiful embroidery patterns based around vintage cameras that she’s offered up for download. She’s just posted the final camera in the series of three and I can’t wait to get started, these would look awesome stitched up and displayed in hoops in a collection. Download the first camera here. Second camera. Third camera.

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 [...]

ALLITERATION FTW!!! Continuing the Halloween specials, I give you a super cute trick or treating bag, guaranteed to last from year to year no matter what outfit you’re pairing it with I would like to stand up in my own defence before I get into this one, yes, I quilt, but I am a crazy/scrap quilter, I have a phobia of seam matching and precise measurements, so my methods (and finished product!) probably make seasoned quilters and patchworkers shake in [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]