Introducing Abi of Abi Bella Stitch. She is a Flosstuber and stitcher turned designer and recently released her first two designs! Abi says her patterns represent her Filipino and American culture and that she is inspired by history, politics, and everyday life. Abi’s second design is Alpabetong Pilipino. She says, “I have always loved the red school girl samplers from Europe and North America. These beautiful samplers were stitched diligently by little girls as young as seven. As I have been unable to find an antique school girl sampler from the Philippines that I could reproduce, it became a ..read more

Chag Pesach sameach! Happy Passover! I am delighted to get to share and boost this pattern because we don’t see a lot of Jewish designs in cross-stitch while thankfully it’s fairly abundant in needlepoint. Myself and my immediate family don’t follow any religion, but we do like learning about traditions and such from other cultures. If you’re here it probably means you already know what the afikomen bag is, but for people like me, here is some background: “Passover seders can get a little long and boring for young children, but it’s all worth it for that one shining moment: the search for the ..read more

ABIT Stitches (A Bitch in Time) were inspired to make a cross-stitch pattern from the Apple TV show Ted Lasso and the character Roy Kent. ABITS is run by several members of the Reed family one of whom is also a Roy. Learn more in this post Book Review – A Bitch in Time: 30 Snarcastic Stitches for You to Stab. We don’t get Apple TV at our house, but I’ve heard good things about the show. Also we’re not really surprised that a family business named A Bitch in Time Stitches were inspired to make a quote by a foul-mouthed character. After all their website tagline is “Exactly Our Grandma’s Cross-s ..read more

April is Prevent Child Abuse month in the US. Cross-stitch designer Chrissy of Finally a Farm Girl created a sweet pattern with her iconic character Jeremiah the Bullfrog and family. In a series of patterns Jeremiah met and married Miss Jenny, and now they have a little one with baby Josephine. All of it has led up to this fundraising cross-stitch pattern for Prevent Child Abuse Georgia with 100% of proceeds going to this cause. From the website: “Prevent Child Abuse Georgia believes every child is filled with tremendous promise and we have a shared responsibility to foster their potential by ..read more

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Stitchers Collective (@thestitcherscollective) The Stitcher’s Collective is a new group for designers to collaborate and share ideas. Currently they are only on Instagram but have purchased their domain name which for now points to the Pixel Pixie Cross Stitch website. Stitchers will benefit by following The Stitcher’s Collective because they will boost new and special designs as well as fundraisers. So far they had 65 designers sign up! The collective is helmed by Kristi of Pixel Pixie Cross Stitch, Kristi Corner Needlework, and Dara of W ..read more

The Atlanta Spring Needlepoint Show is wholesale trade show open only to exhibitors and retail buyers in the needlepoint industry. The rest of us can’t attend, but we can follow along with our favorite designers and shops as they post to social media. You can hop over to the Show’s website to see which Designers will be attending, and see if your favorite shop will be there as Buyers. Previews: This will be Coco Frank Studio’s first tradeshow who will sharing previews soon Fire and Iris Designs will also be releasing their 3D canvases at Market with Shell and S’more Judy Tasch Needlepoint ..read more

Here is our roundup of new cross-stitch patterns for Valentine’s Day. The list starts with Traditional Patterns or you can skip down to Goth and Subversive. Traditional Patterns: The Nerdy Pixeler has a lovely Lovebirds pattern new in their Etsy shop Mojo Stitches has a not-technically Valentine pattern but… All my favorite threads are red with the quote and a little heart tree Heart in Hand released Tweethearts from their long-legged bird collection, see it on Instagram stitchcraftbyfwass has a tiny T-Rex that says Love Bites Debra of The F ..read more

“Trans rights are worth more than boy wizards.” by Dee Twenty on Ko-fi banner:noun – a long strip of cloth bearing a slogan or design, hung in a public place or carried in a demonstration or procession. “students waved banners and chanted slogans” This is a new pattern from cross-stitch designer, activist, educator, and trans person Dee of Dee’s Twenty Stitches (they/them). It is a banner statement and the first in a new series called Let’s Make a Statement. See Dee’s Instagram post embedded below which talks more about their thoughts, and you can also read the positive feedback from the cro ..read more

“One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the Spring.” ~ Aldo Leopold. I’ve never heard of geese referred to as a skein, but I thought it was fitting here. This is all we know about March SAL starts. Please note: our roundups for cross-stitch SALs are not exhaustive. Here on Frogging News we typically feature stitch-a-longs created by the pattern designer, and craftivism SALs, and perhaps other community events. Four Seasons Mandalas Spring Mystery Stitch Along Project From Pamela of Kitty & Me Designs. Runs from March to April. F ..read more

Shimanchu Rabbit 2023 by Laura of Tarsier Stitches “I’m not a pattern designer, and I never really intended to be one. But there is just the reality that my culture tends to be a little underrepresented.” says Laura from her YouTube video (embedded below). I thought it important to start off this article with that impactful sentiment because it’s certainly not the first time I’ve heard it. In fact, Laura goes on to talk about other marginalized pattern designers that have inspired her. In the cross-stitch community, YouTube videos on the subject are known as Flosstube. In the video announcin ..read more