Challenge Yourself with a Cross-Stitch Kit

I have to be honest; I tend to stick with really easy cross-stitch patterns when I am stitching myself. I know that I can do bigger and more complex projects but I just don’t push myself to do them often.

When Rachel from Leila Patterns asked me if I wanted to review one of her kits I was super excited.

And that was months ago (sorry Rachel!) and I’ve barely started the gorgeous butterfly cross stitch kit that she sent me.

Mostly because I messed it up and haven’t had the strength to rip it out and start over.

I will definitely work on it and for-real review it soon, but in the meantime I wanted to suggest that if you need a push to do a bigger cross-stitch project, there are a lot of great kits out there where you can get all the supplies you need in one shot. That takes out some of the intimidation factor because you don’t have to go buy 20 skeins of thread just to get started.

I love her designs (see all her kits on her etsy page) and I’ll bet some more of these will end up in my house once I finish this one. As you can see from the picture her kits come with everything you need and a full-color pattern chart.

Do you have a favorite designer or kit maker? I’d love to know about them!

Looking for more Butterfly themed cross stitch patterns and charts? Check out these butterflies we found on Etsy.

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Cross-Stich For Stress Relief - Unwinding And…

The designs from Bella Rose Craft look like they would be good for beginner cross stitchers and others who like relatively simple and small designs that are quick to finish for gifts or decor.

I’ll mention up front that this Etsy shop based in Indiana has no organization whatsoever. There are two categories: kits and patterns. So it’s a bit of a treasure hunt to find what you might be interested in.

As mentioned there are lots of minis and small looking projects with simple lines and minimal colors. There are holiday projects, animals, summer motifs like palm trees and beach umbrellas, a bathtub with a rubber duck, some text based designs (like hoppy spring and merry and bright), some biblical and religious designs, flowers, bunting and more.

On a site like this its difficult to pick something representative of the whole page, but I liked this bees and beehive design, so it’s the one I picked to share. This one illustrates a lot of my general points about the patterns from this shop. It’s small (2.79 by 2.57 inches, or about 7 by 6.5 cm on 14 count fabric), it looks like it’s all whole cross stitches and probably uses only six colors, and a couple of colors are only used for a handful of stitches.

Of the 300 plus cross stitch patterns available as of this writing, 140 are also available as cross stitch kits. These would be great to give as gifts if you’re trying to get someone interested in cross stitching. The kits include the pattern, fabric and floss, and you can choose to have it include a needle or not. The hoop is not included but the patterns explain what kind of hoop is shown if you want to get one to match.

So if you’re looking for cute, beginner friendly patterns for yourself or you’re trying to be a crafty enabler for someone else, check out Bella Rose Craft on Etsy.

[Photo: Bella Rose Craft]

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