I first read The Hobbit sometime during my teen years and then proceeded to devour everything by Tolkein I could get my hands on, even the more esoteric stuff in the Silmarillion. So, of course, I was a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings movies and went to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey when it hit theaters last year. All that to say, if you are nearly as much of a fan of Tolkein books and movies as I am or just a passing fan, then you are going to LOVE this project from Star Shaped and Shiny. It is the first line of the Misty Mountain poem from the Hobbit and get this, it is in Elvish. How cool is that? Get the free chart.
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Designer Spotlight: Lifted Spirit Patterns
Lifted Spirit Patterns is a cross stitch Etsy shop based in Australia that specializes in vintage travel poster style cross stitch patterns, but has a lot of other fun stuff, too. Let’s check it out!
By far the biggest category of designs here is travel posters, including US states, cities around the world and some general country poster style cross stitch patterns. So as not to play favorites, I thought I’d share the Australia poster, which features Uluru. The palette of yellows, oranges and greens is a lot of fun, and in all it uses 13 colors.
The design is 117 by 158 stitches, which comes out to 8.4 by 11.3 inches, or 21.2 by 28.7 cm on 14 count fabric. You can of course make it smaller by using a higher count fabric if you like, but I think that’s a good size for a poster style design.
There are also quite a lot of cat and dog cross stitch patterns, with many different breeds shown and space for the dog or cat’s name at the bottom. Most of these are dogs but there are a handful of cats, too.
Another large category is Christian cross stitch, which includes bible quotes and prayers along with some images without words.
The decorative cross stitch section includes some funny designs, like a hippo playing the drums, as well as some animal faces, birds and a set of colorful mushroom hoops, to name a few.
Other sections include kids cross stitch, mom life, wedding patterns, quotes and poetry.
You’ll also find a great collection of cross stitch alphabets of all sorts. There are script fonts, a Disney inspired font, varsity block letters and letters that look like candy canes, ice cream and jelly beans, to name a few. There’s also a great collection of small cross stitch fonts, perfect for adding personalization to any cross stitch pattern.
Check out all their fun designs at Lifted Spirit Patterns.
[Photo: Lifted Spirit Patterns]