Back to School Cross Stitch Patterns

Back to school time is right around the corner where I live as I write this, and school-themed cross stitch patterns are super cute to make as a teacher gift or to personalize something like a pencil bag or backpack tag.

This school supply cross stitch design from 7StitchesTN is meant to be horizontal, but I think you could turn the letters the other direction (or not) and make this into a bookmark. It can also be repeated to make a border around a project. As shown it is 64 by 30 stitches, which is 6.7 by 2.1 inches/17.1 by 5.4 cm on 14 count fabric. It uses 15 colors.

Italia Print has a little set of school themed cross stitch patterns you can make as a single design as shown, or use individual patterns on different projects. The full design is 76 by 66 stitches, which is about 5.4 by 4.7 inches, or 13.8 by 12 cm, and it uses 18 colors.

Speaking of designs that can be worked separately, there’s also this pattern from Bella Rose Craft, which could easily be divided into its different parts or you could use some of the pieces as a border on another project. The full design is shown in a 4-inch hoop and measures 2.71 by 2.64 inches/6.8 by 6.7 cm on 14 count fabric.

This lovely set of teacher themed cross stitch patterns would be lovely to make as a teacher gift at the beginning or end of the year or for the holidays. From The Stitch Patterns, it is a set of five designs that includes books, flowers blooming from a book, a tulip, pencil cup and pencil drawing a heart. Each one is about 7 inches/17.78 cm square.

This cute class in session design from Plaid Online would be another cute one to make for a teacher. It uses seven colors (including black for the back stitching on the ruler) and is about 2 inches/5.08 cm square.

And Craft with Cartwright has this funny and cute worm and apples design that would be cute for back to school. It uses seven colors and is 78 by 52 stitches, or 5.5 by 3.7 inches/14.15 by 9.43 cm on 14 count fabric. The apples by themselves would be cute on a project, too.

Siren Stitchworks has cross stitch patterns that feel like old samplers (and some of them are in fact historical reproductions) even when they are modern designs. They have patriotic patterns, biscornus, pop culture patterns and more so let’s take a look.

One of the projects that caught my eye was the Mexican menagerie, a set of five Mexican folk art inspired creatures. There’s a bird, horses, dragons, alligators and cats on these designs, which you can make into tiny pillow or ornaments.

The pattern notes don’t say how many colors are used but it doesn’t look like any of them have more than five colors. It does note the smallest pattern is 59 by 59 stitches, and the largest is 82 by 68 stitches. They also only use full cross stitches.

The category with the largest number of entries (which is still only 12 as of this writing; this is a small shop) is called ornaments and smalls. It includes this menagerie and another Mexican animal collection, as well as traditional looking patterns with a twist, such as a little pattern with Yule goats, a needlebook cover that looks like a tombstone and alphabet samplers that include Greek, Latin and Hebrew.

There are also a bunch of samplers, divided into monochrome, traditional and reproduction samplers. There are some fun ones in the monochrome department, including a Titanic sampler and an aloha design with a pineapple motif. Traditional samplers include some patriotic designs (and a gorgeous folk art resist fist), as well as a really fat cat.

And the reproduction samplers include fun fonts, florals and birds like you’d expect from old sampler designs.

In addition you’ll find a few pop culture designs (mostly Game of Thrones inspired samplers for different houses), biscornus include a couple Chinese zodiac designs, and a few needle minders for sale.

Check out all the fun designs at Siren Stitchworks on Etsy.

[Photo: Siren Stitchworks]

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