Free beatles inspired valentine embroidery pattern

I created this Beatles-inspired embroidery hoop for Valentine's Day last year. I wanted to share the pattern with my blog readers. You are welcome to download and print the pdf pattern featured at the bottom of this post.

There's something so uplifting about the Beatles "All You Need Is Love". Reading about the song online, the Beatles said this song: "cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything". With this in mind, I was inspired to stitch a section of the song.

I transferred my template onto a piece of vintage fabric, but it works equally well on plain fabric.

I created my hoop using backstitch in a bergundy thread.

You could use any stitch or colour thread - how about embellishing the text with your own design ideas? Maybe some extra hearts or flowers.

Click on the arrow in top right corner of the image below to open in a new window. Free to download and print...enjoy!

If you love crafting, you might like to join our new Instagram community. Tag your creative images with #craftingismytherapy_february to join in. The hashtag will change to reflect the month we are currently in. Head over to my Instagram account to find out more...

I'm linking up with these lovely blogs:

HomeEtc over on thetwinklediaries.co.uk and mummyofboygirltwins.com

February Craft Project: Love Is All you Need

I decided at the start of the year to make more time for crafting. I want to aim to complete one sewing project a month. February is the month where we start to see red hearts & cuddly teddies in the shop windows. As soon as the Christmas decorations are out of the way, the shelves start to fill up with Valentines gifts.

There's something so uplifting about the Beatles "All You Need Is Love". Reading about the song online, the Beatles said this song: "cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything". With this in mind, I was inspired to stitch a section of the song.

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.

Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.

Nothing you can say, but you can learn

How to play the game

It's easy.

Nothing you can make that can't be made.

No one you can save that can't be saved.

Nothing you can do, but you can learn

How to be you in time

It's easy.

All you need is love

All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.

Love it or hate it, you can't get away from Valentine's Day. But love is about more than a few overpriced roses and a shiny card...

There are so many forms of love. Whether it's for a child, a partner, your parents, good friends and even pets. They are all equally important and we all need it in one form or another.

If you love to craft, you may like to take part in my new monthly "Crafting is my Therapy" blog linky.

The focus of the linky is crafting for pleasure, basically taking some ‘me-time’ to unwind in our busy lives. It doesn’t have to be a finished project, I love seeing work in progress photos or tutorial posts too.

All crafts welcome!

This week I'm linking up with these lovely blogs:

"Happy Days" over on www.whatkatysaid.com and www.quitefranklyshesaid.com

My new blog name: Me, You and Magoo

I’ve recently waved my daughter off to school & it has brought about a huge adjustment for me. As a stay at home Mum for the past five years, I am currently in a period of transition. Looking for work or a role that will fulfil me as much as being a Mum has fulfilled me. I’ve blogged under the name ‘Pouch’ for the past eight years, recently I wanted to revamp & rename my blog so that it reflected my life better.

Me, You & Magoo is about our life as a family of three.

Although we always thought we would have more than one child, this hasn’t worked out for us. Worrying about my daughter being an only child is something I’ve struggled with for a long time. But life doesn’t always turn out the way you plan. I’ve made a conscious effort to focus on what I do have and not on what I don’t have.

We are so fortunate to have been given the chance to raise our daughter, aka Magoo. She came into our life in 2009. It was love at first sight and she’s been rocking our world ever since.

In some small part, I want to try and stick up for all the only children out there. They are often labelled as 'lonely', 'selfish' and 'weird'. Similarly, parents of only children are often seen as 'selfish', 'lazy' and even 'cruel'. I don't agree with any of this. Our daughter is loved beyond measure & is a happy, outgoing child with a kind & thoughtful soul.

Magoo came home from school last week with the picture featured at the top of this post. She told me "it's me, you & Daddy in front of our house". I love the hearts surrounding our home in the drawing & I think it pretty much encapsulates our family life. Magoo might not have any siblings, but she does have our love & attention & she has grown into a bright and sociable little girl. She brings out the big kid in us and we love to do wild & crazy things together. We build dens, dress up, bake, create and get ourselves out into the great outdoors as much as we can…

I'm still going to blog about all the things I did before...my weakness for all things vintage, my latest crafting project and championing the handmade movement here in the UK and worldwide.

Me, You & Magoo is a place to talk about life, family, creativity and everything else inbetween. Welcome aboard!

I'm linking up with Brilliant Blog Posts over on @HonestMummy's blog

Vintage Love: Paddington Book

We took our five year old daughter to see the new Paddington film at the weekend.
I adore Paddington, I've always loved him. His duffle coat, his wellington boots, his obsession with marmalade and his general clumsiness...what's not to like?


One of the best things about having a child of your own is getting to indulge in the things you enjoyed as a kid all over again. So with this in mind I dug out some of my Paddington books to share with my daughter.
The cover image shows Mr Curry leaning over the fence watching Paddington striding off with some plywood and a box of tools. You just know it's not going to end well, Paddington and "do it yourself" do not mix...

This book dating from 1977 is based on the TV series I watched as a child. It was endearingly entertaining and employed stop-motion animation. I was always intrigued as a child by the way Paddington was a 'real' 3-D bear and the other characters were 2-D drawings. Somehow it worked and I can still hear Michael Hordern's distinctive voice bellowing 'bear!' every time Paddington messed up...which was quite often.
The illustrations are by Barry Wilkinson. The pages make up a really beautiful collection of ink and wash drawings featuring lots of bright colours, perfect for children.

The new Paddington film is really rather lovely. The styling is suberb and I fell in love with the Brown's house. I feel inspired to paint a blossom tree on the wall on my stairs after seeing the film. The new Paddington film is about acceptance, family and love...with lots of clumsiness, marmalade and mess along the way.