I’ve started (just barely, as you can see) a relatively big/complicated cross stitch project (the Baba Yaga house from Happy Little Mouse I told you about a while ago) and I knew that for this project I was going to need a little help keeping track of where I was and what I needed to do next. Adding grids to your cross stitch fabric is a quick and easy way to help yourself when you’re working on a big project. Your chart will have grids marking off every 10 stitches and every 10 rows, so having those same markings on your fabric can only make it easier for you to follow along. There are a few ..read more

When I was casting about Etsy to find a designer to spotlight this week, I landed on Little Dove Samplers and felt like this might have been a designer that I showcased before. It turns out that I shares a summer sampler of theirs a couple of years ago, but I remembered the bright and cheerful designs, which once again drew me into their world. This UK based designer does a lot of colorful sampler patterns, with a focus on seasons and holidays. In fact, speaking of that summer design, you can actually purchase a set of all four seasons, which have coordinating designs so they could be displaye ..read more

Anzac Day is marked each year on April 25 as a reminder of the battle of Gallipoli, a conflict against the Ottoman Turks in 1915 that resulted in the deaths of more than 8,000 Australian soldiers. Anzac is a nickname for the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, and the day serves as a memorial for all Australians killed in military operations (similar to Memorial Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world). As is traditional in some other countries, poppies are used as a symbol of remembrance, and there are many lovely poppy cross stitch patterns, whether specific to Anzac Day or othe ..read more

French knots are a pretty common embellishment in cross stitch patterns that might be used for eyes or to add texture like polka dots or stars on a project. If you delve into other genres of needlework you’ll find French knots coming up in all sorts of ways, and you can even stitch up whole projects that are just made out of French knots! It’s worth it to take some time to explore French knots, how they’re made and how you can get a different look based on how many threads you use and how many times you twist the thread around the needle to make the knot. Generally the pattern you are working ..read more

Notforgotten Farm is an Etsy shop dedicated to primitive needlework patterns and supplies. Based in Virginia, the shop has patterns for counted and uncounted cross stitch, embroidery, punch needle and appliques, as well as a couple of hand-sewing patterns. They also sell wooden notions such as spool caddies and needle boxes, and embroidery hoops. But we’re here to talk about cross stitch so let’s get into it. To start with, if you’re wondering at the difference between counted and uncounted cross stitch, an uncounted design is transferred x by x onto the linen or other fabric that you’re going ..read more

In addition to writing about cross stitch for Craft Gossip, I also write about knitting and lesson plans, which means I’m always on the lookout for holidays, real and fanciful, that I can write about and share patterns and projects related to. On a recent flip through the National Day calendar, I learned that April 19 is cat lady day, which of course compelled me to share some cat cross stitch patterns with you. (I am a cat lady, after all!) Tango Stitch made this cute geometric cat cross stitch pattern that you can change the colors on to match your cat and your favorite colors. You can get ..read more

I’ve just recently started what for me is the biggest cross stitch project I’ve ever attempted (the Baby Yaga House from Happy Little Mouse) and I know that there are going to be some mistakes in it. It uses a lot of colors, and there are a lot of similar colors, and the symbols are kind of small and I have old lady eyes, etc. I think for the most part I will just let mistakes go, because it is such a colorful pattern and the colors are so similar in a lot of places. Unless I just completely mess up and put a stitch where there shouldn’t be a stitch at all, I don’t think I’ll try to correct a ..read more

It turns out I’ve shared a lot of Mother’s Day related cross stitch patterns through the years, so this post will serve to share some of the older roundups I’ve done as well as some new patterns I found this year. You can stitch up some hearts for Mother’s Day, keep your projects sweet or make them snarky or funny if your relationship with your mom is like that. These are going to fall in the sweet category. For example this one from Red Bear Design on Etsy that keeps it short and sweet with a “love you mom.” The pastel words and flowers are pretty but you can change up the colors as you like ..read more

Super detailed, full coverage cross stitch designs are what you’ll find at the Etsy shop Stitches Sew Beautiful. Many of the designs are created from digital art (with permission from the original artist, of course) making the designs incredibly detailed and using lots of different colors. These are definitely projects for experienced stitches who are up for a challenge. Not all of the patterns say how many colors would be needed but as an example that did, the pretty dragon pattern shown above calls for 100 colors. The design is 300 by 400 stitches. If my math works, on 14 count fabric it wou ..read more

I consider myself a barely intermediate cross-stitcher, so there are a lot of things you can do with cross stitch that I haven’t done (yet! I’m working on it!). One of the gaps in my knowledge or skills or whatever you want to call it is cross stitching on linen. It looks beautiful but I’ve always been a little intimidated by it so I haven’t tried it yet. The good news is, there are plenty of smart and experienced cross stitchers out there to show us the way when we don’t know how to do things. Catkin and Lille wrote all about their experience working with linen, the pros and cons and how you ..read more