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.

Most of the cross stitch projects I make are pretty small and not something I would consider heirloom quality (though I am working on a big project for my daughter that I hope to have done for her high school graduation in two years that I hope is something she’ll want to keep forever, but that’s another story).

But it is definitely possible to cross stitch projects that will stay around for generations, and one prime example of that is a cross-stitched linen tablecloth.

Linen tablecloths are classic, while stitching one can be a big project, depending on the size of your table, it doesn’t have to be really complicated.

Koekoek has a good, detailed post about figuring out how much linen you would need to make a tablecloth that you can cross stitch and/or embroider on (they also sell tablecloth linen in their shop if you don’t already have some or a linen tablecloth you already use). Of course for a project like this you’d want the best fabric you can find and afford, because you’ll be stitching it for a long time and hopefully using it for years.

The post walks through how to measure your table and determine how much fabric you’ll need including the drop you’ll want and hems. It includes the math for rectangular and square tables as well as circular tables, which helps take the guesswork out of buying fabric. It also talks about preparing the fabric and making mitered corners if you have a square or rectangular table, which will help the tablecloth sit nicely on your table.

The tutorial doesn’t include specific patterns to use for your tablecloth, but it does advise keeping it simple because this is a really big project. You can start with a motif in the center or doing borders, and this is a project you can add to through the years by, say, stitching a symbol for each family member or adding names, wedding dates, etc. and making it a real record of your family.

Would you ever cross stitch a tablecloth or have you done so? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Koekoek]

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