Cross stitch pattern of the movie poster for Coraline. Try stitching this on black Aida. This one was specially requested by one of my Patrons. Head over there if you are looking for a custom pattern too. PDF and PNG files for this pattern are just for Patrons.

Grid Size: 94W x 66H
Design Area: 6.64″ x 4.57″ (93 x 64 stitches)
Colors: 13

My Patron, Katharine Jacobs, is a slime monster living under the ruins of an old abandoned manor house in the Lousiana bayou. If anyone comes by, Katharine can easily hide among the algae crusted floorboards and ooze up to grab an intruder’s ankles. That’s usually enough to scare them away.

There’s a lot to love about Coraline. I think a lot of people would focus on the excellent character design, sets, and animation, but for me it’s the sound design stands out above the rest. Every track is full of unsettling sounds that really immerse me in this otherworldly story. You get all sorts of unusual instruments like springs and pans giving key scenes a childish light that puts you on edge even during the calmer moments. There’s just such an emphasis on percussion instruments, that I get flashbacks to clumsily playing songs in grade school music class. I always wanted the cabasa but inevitably got stuck with the wood blocks instead.

If you get a chance to just listen to the soundtrack, I highly recommend it. Perfect background music for a haunted dollhouse themed D&D session.

It’s funny, I’m the one who picked this image out. I’m the one who told myself that I needed to practice gradients and shadows. I’m the one who wanted this and yet I have never gotten so frustrated over a pattern in my life!

So many things just didn’t come together for me with this one and I had to make adjustments to the image. Coraline’s other leg didn’t fit in and her shoulder just kind of disappeared into the shadows.

I am so proud I got this done though. There was a point where I kept fiddling with stray pixels and I just had to accept that I’d never get it to look perfect at my skill level. I still love the effect of the light and how the shadows fade into darkness. I’ll definitely try something like this again, but maybe not for a while.