Celebrate the Year of the Dog in Cross Stitch

2018 is the year of the dog in Chinese astrology, so why not stitch up a dog symbol or another fun project involving a dog?

Both Holly’s Hobbies and Stitching Stitches have cross-stitch patterns showing the Chinese zodiac symbol for the dog. The first is 50 x 50 stitches or 3.6″/9cm square and the second 47 wide x 49 high, which comes out to
3.36″ x 3.50″ or 8.54 x 8.8 cm. Holly’s costs $2.79, which the Stitching Stitches chart is $2.48. Both are PDF downloads from Etsy.

Also on Etsy, I found this cute Year of the Dog cross stitch pattern from The Art of Cross Stitch. Featuring a dog that sort of reminds me of Day of the Dead designs, this one runs $4.50 and measures 95 x 109 stitches, which comes out to 7 by 8 inches on 14 count.

There’s also the magnificent Chinese New Year Dog cross stitch design from Scarlet Pyjamas, which is $4.51. Inspired by papercuts, the finished project is about 8.5 by 12 inches.

Are you stitching anything special for the Year of the Dog? I’d love to hear about it!

The cross stitcher behind the blog Sirious Stitches is quite into biscornu.

If you’re not, a quick primer: biscornu are three-dimensional cross-stitched objects with eight points, often with an indention in the middle that makes them look a bit like doughnuts without the hole. They can be just about any size and subject you can think of. They’re often used as pincushions but can also be seasonal decor or just decoration for any time of year.

I’ve got a collection of biscornu cross stitch patterns here.

Once you’ve stitched one or several (they are a little addicting) you might wonder what you can add to them to make them even more extra.

It very much depends on the design of your biscornu and the look you are going for, but Sirious Stitches has a great post all about some of the options you might consider.

I don’t want to give you the whole list because you need to go visit and see all of their great biscornu they’ve stitched, but one really easy thing that you can do with a lot of designs is take advantage of that center indent by adding a button, beads, silk flower or another embellishment.

This is great to do just with a basic button from your stash that coordinates with the design and colors of the cross stitching, but it’s extra fun if you have a button that’s on theme, such as a leaf for a fall biscornu or a flower shaped button for a floral design. Add a jingle bell to a Christmas pattern, or a charm if you don’t have a button that coordinates.

Just this one idea is sure to get you thinking about ways to embellish biscornu (not to mention other cross stitch projects) but head over to Sirious Stitches to see all of their ideas for embellishing biscornu to make these already fun projects even more fun.

Have you ever made biscornu? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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