A Cross Stitch I Spy at the Beach

That headline pretty much describes the Under the Sea cross stitch pattern from Una Buena Pieza, which is covered with shells, fish and other creatures of the sea. It’s not intended to be an I spy, I don’t think, and most of the same kinds of animals are grouped together, but I think it would be fun for someone who didn’t stitch it to look and see what different things they can find within.

The pattern includes turtles, jellyfish, a whale, shark, ray, all sorts of fish and shells and I’m sure other things that I’m not noticing right now. Dolphins! Coral! Seagulls!

It looks like it would be super fun to stitch and fun to have on the wall during the summer months, or even hang in a kid’s room if you know a young one who loves the beach or ocean animals.

The design is 110 by 220 stitches. It comes out to about 8 by 16 inches, or 20 by 40 cm, when stitched on 14 count fabric. It calls for 19 colors.

This design looks great on light blue fabric as shown, but in the pattern listing on Etsy you’ll also see what it looks like on a darker blue and a white fabric, and they all look pretty good so you can use whatever color you like to suit your decor or your idea of what color the “ocean” should be. There’s even a customer photo that looks like it was done on a sort of tie-dyed green fabricc, which is really fun.

However you stitch it, I think this project would go faster than you imagine because there are so many fun little things to stitch. It will be hard to get bored when you can just move on to a different animal or part of the design.

Check out this pattern from Una Buena Pieza on Etsy.

[Photo: Una Buena Pieza]

I was recently approached by Alyssa, the cross stitcher behind the Etsy shop Stitchonomy, to take a look at her cross stitch pattern subscription club, known as The Pattern Club.

I took a look around and there’s a lot of cute stuff and fun options you’ll want to check out, especially if you love themed patterns that are small, easy to stitch and fun to combine.

The Pattern Club combines cross stitching with a social network. When you open the site you’ll see a news feed and have the ability to share updates much like you would on Facebook. You can see who is online, have buddies and post your own updates and photos. The community aspect is a little sparse right now but that should only grow.

The stitch along hub is the place to find the most recent patterns and information on the current stitchalong. As of this writing the Book Lover’s stitchalong was happening, with little designs like Peter Rabbit, a skull for Hamlet and keys for Jane Eyre as well as authors including Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.

Other pattern collections include European designs, Halloween, ocean life, an allotment garden and more. Alyssa tells me there’s a new theme every month that either she picks or members in the community suggest. You can stitch just the patterns you want or put them together to make a larger collage.

The Stitchanomini vault gives you access to all of the previous patterns, and new patterns are released daily through the stitchalong. You can download individual patterns (most of them are 19 by 19 stitches) as PDFs or Pattern Keeper files. The PDFs include a color and black and white chart as well as a floss list.

Another cool thing you can do is build your own pattern collages from all of the squares that have been released. The collage configurator allows you to add patterns of your choosing to a grid ranging from 2×2 patterns up to 4×4. You can scroll through all the current patterns or search by theme and size to make a project that suits your needs. (Above is an example I made kind of at random but you get the idea.)

If you want to check it out, you can grab a three-day free trial and see all the pattern options. Membership is $7.99 a month, or if you pay for a year at a time you’ll get two months free. In addition to the patterns in the club, members receive discounts on patterns and supplies purchased through the shop within the club. Annual members get access to three paid/retired stitchalongs and lifetime members receive all retired patterns.

If you check it out I’d love to hear what you think!

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