Celtic Inspired Cross Stitch Patterns

If you want a cross stitch pattern to honor your Irish heritage, or something to decorate for St. Patrick’s Day that isn’t all shamrocks and leprechauns (though those things are totally fine, too!) check out this little collection of Celtic inspired cross stitch patterns.

This Celtic blessing cross stitch pattern does have shamrocks, but it reminds my of my Irish grandma so I’m allowing it. The design is by Down Under Patterns and uses 25 count linen fabric. It measures 91 by 98 stitches and isn’t all that difficult but it does use several colors and a lot of backstitch for the words.

Celtic style crosses are a popular cross stitch motif, and this small one from Celtic Craft Shop US is also decorated with little shamrocks. Designed by David Jackson of Claddagh Cross Stitch, it measures 39 by 39 stitches, so it’s a pretty quick project you can frame, make into a card or even turn into a little pillow or pin cushion.

A larger version comes from Love from Rhi, which uses three colors and comes out to 6.93 inches by 11 inches/17.6 by 27.9 centimeters) on 14 count fabric.

Craft by Kai has a Celtic knot cross stitch pattern that would be pretty as is or added to the border of another project. The full design is 110 by 110 stitches (about 20 centimeters/8 inches) but you could pull out just the center part of the design to make a border, or use as a bookmark pattern. It uses seven colors.

Another popular motif is the tree of life. This collection of five Celtic tree cross stitch patterns is pretty simple but effective. Each uses one to three colors and they are designed by Cross Stitch with Art.

If you want to amp up the drama and skill level on your Celtic cross stitch patterns, these designs from Pandora Xstitch are for you. These stunning designs have such depth and detail they are decidedly for experienced stitchers, but what a fun challenge they would be. The set of patterns is linked but you can also buy individual patterns if you don’t want the whole set.

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Unique St. Patrick's Day Cross Stitch Patterns

A while back I made a little rainbow cross stitch pattern and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it, so I turned it into a patch. My idea was that it could be used on a jacket or backpack, or you could add a pin to the back and wear it temporarily on a shirt or elsewhere.

But what if you want to make your design more permanent? Is it possible to turn a piece of cross stitch into an iron-on design?

It turns out yes, it is, and Sirious Stitches has done it so I didn’t have to try to figure it out on my own.

The way they did it was by using HeatnBond, an iron-on adhesive that attaches fabrics without sewing. There was still sewing involved to finish the edges of the cross stitch fabric and make it look like a purchased patch. The post shows how to do this by hand or with your sewing machine. (I just did blanket stitch edging on mine, which doesn’t look like a “real” patch but is also a lot faster.)

Once you have the patch prepared it’s a pretty easy matter of using the fusible adhesive to the back of the patch so you can then iron it onto whatever jacket, pair of jeans, bag or whatever else you might want to add it to.

I guess I’m a little paranoid about the washability of cross stitch projects, though you could hand wash anything with an iron-on cross stitch patch as you might need to with a purchased iron-on patch, anyway. But this does look really cool and is a great option if you know you want to permanently add a cross stitch patch to a garment of bag.

Get the full tutorial over at Sirious Stitches. Would you add an iron-on cross stitch patch to something? I’d love to hear what you would use this technique for!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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