Saturday, February 28

D.E.S.I.G.N. February - Cloudsfactory

As it's 2AM here, it's technically March, but I'll just roll back the publication by a couple of hours, because it's still February on the West coast! hah



I am featuring Cloudsfactory this month, because I'm enjoying their 2015 Mystery so much, and they're fairly new to me.

I started seeing the adorable egg-shaped characters in some on the Facebook cross stitch groups I joined.    The first ones I noticed were the Harry Potter designs that people had stitched or were working their way through - particularly a really humungo pattern with most of the notable characters.



And then I saw some other cute ones - Star Wars, Sherlock, other pop culture and geek references, so I decided to check them out.

And they have a lot of adorable charts.   I know the little eggs aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they are cute, and I have already added the Star Trek series characters to my wish list (TOS and TNG will, of course! be first).  But even better, they have one of my favorite movies represented - Young Frankenstein!





There's definitely tons to like from a geek like me.   Final Fantasy!  Seriously, I think I spent a day on the site just adding things to my wish list  (Game of Thrones!  Smurfs!  Metallica!  Cthulhu! Babylon 5!   All the things! ) ;)

They do have more than just the sci-fi/fantasy geekery, there are pieces that represent different countries and cultures, sports teams, Disney princesses, scientists, just a ton of fun things.

Cloudsfactory produced a fantasy creatures calendar mystery for 2014, so towards the end of December I was seeing a few of those finished, and the fun, geeky pieces really appealed to me, even if they aren't something I would normally stitch.



I can see them making fun little gifts for people, and, well, they are just so damn cute.

I am SO looking forward to the next installment of the Zodiac sampler, which should be released tomorrow.   One more step closer to Aries, too!



So there's a fun "new to me" designer that I just discovered a few months ago.    I know these aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I love how whimsical and easy they are.   There are plenty of non-egg patterns, though these definitely make up the bulk of the catalog.  They're sweet  and even give me a chance to make gifts for people that won't cost me nearly the labor something major might, and I won't have to worry about spending 100 hours making something I don't like nor care about (especially for my all of my unfortunate Dr. Who fan friends - :P )

Edited to add - the legality of some of the designs, particularly tv/movie characters is pretty questionable.   I do really like the original designs, but I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable buying some of pieces based on pop culture characters which are someone's IP without knowing if the designer has permission.

14 comments:

  1. Thanks for this lovely review. I've admired your Zodiac sampler before but didn't realise they did so many designs. I have a little boy here already pestering for a Harry Potter!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! And so many of the designs would be fun for kids! :)

      Delete
  2. Great post, they do so many funny and cute designs, there really is something for everyone's inner geek there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So much geekiness, so little time! I do really like them, even if I wasn't sure I'd be interested in stitching them at first ;)

      Delete
  3. Some wonderful designs there, they make my geeky little heart skip a beat :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. <3 Every time I go through their catalog I "ooh, ooh, ooh!" and start adding away to the wishlist!

      Delete
  4. I love their Harry Potter sampler. I can't wait to see what Aries looks like.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me, neither! I'm so excited - I can imagine adorable ram horns, that's for sure!

      Delete
  5. Really cute designs. Have fun stitching your zodiac sampler.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I probably will. My sister is in town next week, so I'll probably do it while lounging ;)

      Delete
  6. I love cloudsfactory, great post! And I've been asured on several occasions that their designs are perfectly legal...as their designs stray so far from the original ones that it counts more under a kind of 'parody' paragraph. I'm quite sure that really us the case, they are doing a lot of Disney patterns and Disney is known to be quite quick with taking legal actions if applicable...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know some people are terrified of copyright, so I thought I'd throw that out there. I'm a little less worried about actors/bands/etc than I am altered illustrations, but hey ;)

      Delete
  7. Such a fun post~ I love Cloudsfactory patterns too, though not all of them! For some reason, the little egg people do not overly appeal to me but I completely adore the magical creatures calendar as well as the new zodiac.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I get what you are saying! And I do really like those two mysteries/designs best (well, so far! haha)

      Delete

Please feel free to leave any kind of comment or question I love and will answer comments, and if you're new to me I'll stalk you over to your blog and add it to my feed!