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.

I don’t usually cross stitch text or add words to my cross stitch projects. Sometimes I will sign things using basic block lettering worked in backstitch (luckily my initials are pretty easy to stitch), but if you give your cross stitch as a gift or otherwise want to personalize it, adding text is a great way to go.

But if a project didn’t already come with text, and you don’t want to draw your own, you’ll need a good cross stitch font that you can use for your project.

I like collecting fonts that are easy to read and to stitch and that would be good for lots of different uses.

For example I really like this bold alphabet font from Cross Stitch with Art, which has both capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers if you need them for dates or other information on your design. The capital letters are an inch/2.5 cm/14 stitches tall, which makes it easy to figure out how much space you need to leave for them. It’s a nice, basic, readable serif font you can use for lots of project.

If you want a script font that’s still really readable, check out Magic Calligraphy from Soft Pattern Designs. This hand drawn font has upper case letters around 28 stitches tall, with lower case letters mostly being around 20 stitches (though the ones that go up or down a lot like f, p and y are bigger). The numbers also vary a bit in size but range from 25 to 29 stitches.

Sometimes you just want a classic font that looks like sports lettering, and in that case you’re going to need Varsity, an all caps font from Stitch Mod. This one has letters that are 21 stitches tall, and it includes capital letters and numbers. But there are definitely times this one would come in handy!

Another sometimes useful and really cute font is this alphabet block letters alphabet from Stitch Junction. These letters are all upper case and look like classic building blocks, and there are also numbers available. This one would be perfect for a birth announcement project or some other cross stitch for the baby’s room.

And if that’s not enough for you, check out this post with 85 free cross stitch fonts for you to try!

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