Bugs and Butterflies to Cross Stitch for Spring

‘Tis the season for bugs in the Northern Hemisphere, and while they can be kind of annoying sometimes, it’s important to remember that they are an important part of our ecosystem and a lot of them are both weird and beautiful. To celebrate bugs and butterflies, let’s do some cross stitching!

First let’s check out this cute set of ladybugs from Mariana Gonclaves ART. I’m not sure all of these are found in nature, but they’re still pretty fun. The design is 53 by 49 stitches, which comes out to 3.8 by 3.5 inches, or 9.6 by 8.9 cm on 14 count fabric.

The project that got me thinking about bugs was this Wings of Spring pattern from Velvet Pony Design. I love the jewel tones even though they aren’t totally accurate to what the real bugs would look like. It calls for 14 colors and is 115 by 135 stitches. On 14 count fabric that comes out to 8.2 by 9.6 ichnes, or 20.9 by 24.5 cm.

Stitch up insects for every season or just your favorites with this sampler from ONESEO. There are 16 unique insects spread over the seasons, and the full design used 63 colors. The full design is 200 by 200 stitches, or just work a season at a time if you’d rather. If you make the whole thing as one piece it will be 14.3 inches/36.3 cm on 14 count fabric.

Another fun collection you can do all together or separately is this collection of six rainbow insect cross stitch patterns. Each design from Enchanted Mimosa has different bugs included (I love the purple walking stick!) but each design is 120 by 120 stitches and uses three colors.

NARAxStitch Patterns has a colorful collection of specimens to stitch, including beetles and butterflies. The pattern is 193 stitches square, which comes out to 13.79 inches/35 cm using 14 count fabric. It uses 20 colors.

Stitch a bunch of minis as one design or pull our your favorites to use on their own with this design from Stitchin Madness. The design has more than 40 creatures including butterflies, bees, ladybugs, dragonflies and moths. The full piece is 165 by 155 stitches, which comes out to about 11.7 by 11 inches (about 30 by 28 cm) on 14 count fabric. It calls for 31 colors.

Hanukkah is a great reason to pull out your cross stitch fabric and thread and stitch up some fun seasonal cross stitch patterns.

If you have trouble spelling Hanukkah (I know I do!) you’ll want to stitch up the How Do You Spell… project from SKB Cross Stitch Design. This one includes a bunch of different ways to spell the holiday, along with some symbols like a dreidel and menorah. (Technically I think all the ways to spell it are “correct.”) The pattern includes full, fractional and bask titches, and measures 8.5 by 7 inches, or 21.6 by 17.8 cm. It has the date for 2004/5785 but you can easily change the year or leave that part off.

Another project with some fun word play is the Words to Live By chart from Sam Brie Stitches. This one includes Hanukkah related symbols and word presented crossword puzzle style, which is fun to stitch and to display. The design uses 10 colors and measures 74 by 103 stitches. It’s shown worked on 18 count fabric.

I may have shared these before, but the Hanukkah patterns from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery are so cute they’re definitely worth sharing again. Happy Hanukkah features a menorah, dreidels, gelt, stars and candles, and it fits in a 6-inch hoop. At 75 by 75 stitches, it comes out to 5.4 inches/13.4 cm on 14 count Aida or 28 count linen. They also have this cute little dreidel stamp cross stitch pattern, which is 39 by 49 stitches, or 2.8 by 3.5 inches (about 7 by 9 cm) on 14 count Aida or 28 count linen.

Works By ABC has a lot of great patterns for Hanukkah, but here are just a couple to get you started. The Rules for Dreidel design is fun for kids and adults and shows the different sides of the dreidel and what it means when you land on them. The stitch count is 62 by 94 and its shown worked on 32 count linen. It calls for three colors. I also like this menorah one, which measures 44 by 49 stitches and uses two colors along with coordinating seed beads. On 32 count linen as shown (equivalent to 16 count Aida) it measures 2.75 by 3.1 inches, or almost 7 by 7.8 cm.

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