Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Our pumpkins had a dinosaur theme this year, so I did a Tyrannosaurus Rex. My sewing and creating has been focussed on Halloween costumes and pumpkins lately and I'll share soon. Off to trick or treat in the rain!

Friday Felicities - Star Trek cross stitch pattern

Image from weelittlestitches on Etsy

I'm linking up to Friday Felicities again to celebrate things that have made me happy this week. One fun thing is that the folks at Wee Little Stitches have finally come out with a Star Trek: The Next Generation cross stitch pattern! I've already purchased my copy and can't wait to stitch it up! I'm a trekkie and TNG is my favourite Star Trek series. When I heard the pattern had come out, I thought I'd give this image macro meme thing a try and created this image:

Worf "Today is a good day to cross stitch" image by me

If you're a fan of the series, you'll know that this is Worf, a Klingon Starfleet officer. A famous Klingon phrase as they head into battle is "Today is a good day to die". I'd rather cross stitch than go into battle any day. 

I actually bought this pattern using my other main Friday Felicity, my new Android phone! After seven years with the same old flip phone, I have taken a giant leap into the world of smartphones. You can now find me on Instagram as hollybroadland (and if you're not on Instagram, I've been tweeting my photos and you can see them here @myredbike). I'm am loving having a camera with me at all times. I finally got to take a photo of that real estate sign I've been wanting to photograph for weeks because it's great inspiration for a quilt.

Now that I have a great new phone, I'm learning how to text (finally!) and I can see where all those funny DYAC posts come from. I've been trying to be very careful to avoid funny autocorrects, but as I was buying the Star Trek pattern I accidentally sent the message "Live long abducted" instead of the more traditional Vulcan saying, "Live long and prosper"!

Cross stitch wedding portrait

What do you give the bride who makes her own wedding gown? A hand-stitched wedding portrait, of course! When I heard that my friend Rebecca had spent over 250 hours hand-stitching her dress, I knew I wanted to commemorate that with a wee little stitches custom cross stitch. With a little sleuthing from Rebecca's sister, I had photos of the dress and the couple to send off to Jacqueline. Jacqueline quickly created a custom pdf pattern that included metallic thread on the bodice and train of the dress to represent the lace in the real dress. I stitched most of this project while on a family camping trip on the Sunshine Coast and it was lovely to sit outdoors while thinking of Rebecca and Eric and wishing them a happy life together.

The wedding was gorgeous and I have to say, the portrait really does look like Rebecca and Eric (even down to Rebecca's hairstyle!) If you ever want to create one of these portraits, check out weelittlestitches on  Etsy for a custom pattern.

p.s. Rebecca had awesome shoes!

I'm linking up to The Handmade Parade at There & Back