Arthur-Inspired Cross Stitch Patterns

My daughter loved the TV show Arthur when she was growing up, and the other day I came across what I assume is an Arthur-inspired cross stitch pattern that sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole looking for more.

Someday I may have to design a “having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card” bookmark pattern, but for now here are a few Arthur cross-stitch patterns I found.

It all started with this “funny elk with guitar” pattern from Smart Cross Stitch. I assume it’s supposed to be George if he traded his ventriloquist puppet for an axe. The pattern is designed by Nadezhda Mashtakova and is 87 by 113 stitches. It uses full and half stitches as well as a backstitch and has 23 colors. The pattern is free.

From there I found a couple of patterns on Etsy that are more directly about the Arthur television show.

Of course there would have to be Arthur’s clenched fist, which became a meme way back in 2016 but I still see it every now and then. (I never knew the image came from an episode in which he actually hits D.W. for breaking his toy airplane.) The cross-stitch version is from Hot Cross Puns Studio, uses six colors and measures about 7.1 by 4.7 inches when stitched on 14-count fabric.

And speaking of D.W., I also found a cross stitch pattern memorializing when D.W. ate a green potato chip. The pattern is from Dot Dot Dot Stitches, and comes to 5.4 by 5.6 inches on 14 count fabric. I think it’s about eight colors but the pattern information on Etsy doesn’t actually say.

Are you a fan of Arthur? If so, what scene or quote would you like to see made into a cross stitch pattern? Or if you know of other Arthur-inspired cross stitch patterns, I’d love to see them!

Next Pattern:

30 Bookmarks To Cross Stitch For Kids

I love the look of variegated cross stitch floss and how it makes it possible to stitch with a variety of colors without changing thread, giving your project more depth and a more complex look without you having to do anything different.

Or at least not much different. I recently came across this blog post from The Copper Fox all about how to use variegated floss and it noted that many people would say it’s a good idea to complete a whole stitch (when you’re stitching whole cross stitches) with the floss before going on to the next stitch. Most of us stitch row by row, but of course if you do that with variegated yarn, it could change color along the way and you’ll end up with stitches that are half one color and half another color or a different shade.

Of course that makes total sense but I’d never thought about it.

The post includes swatches with different kinds of variegated threads to show the different between working stitch by stitch or row by row, and it doesn’t make a huge different over the small area shown but I can see how it might make a difference if you had really long rows or if you just want to make sure your stitches are a single color whenever possible.

In addition to this experiment, the post talks about other ways to work with multicolored floss, including deliberately mixing the colors among the strands of floss you are stitching with and stitching in a different order instead of right to left and top to bottom (or whatever direction you typically work) to get different effects from the thread.

It’s fun to geek out on this stuff because it can make a difference if you want to play with it, or you can just stitch on without giving it much thought, and both will give you good results.

Check out all the experiments at The Copper Fox.

Do you do anything different when you stitch with variegated floss? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: The Copper Fox]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?