Cheerful Sun Cross Stitch Patterns

As I write this, we’re on day three of an expected four days full of rain, so it’s no wonder I wanted to share some sunny cross stitch patterns.

This pretty sun from Anchor via Yarnspirations uses five different shades of cheery yellow. It measures 48 by 48 stitches, or 3.5 inches/8.5 cm square on 14 count fabric.

This smiling yellow sun is a great beginner cross stitch project. The design is from Bella Rose Craft and uses three colors. When worked on 14 count fabric it fits perfectly in a 4-inch hoop.

Add another color and you’ve got this sweet sun cross stitch pattern from Mamas Crafty Basket. It’s also a little larger, at 44 by 44 stitches, but it’s still a great choice for a new stitcher. That comes out to just over 3 inches/7.87 cm on 14 count fabric.

I love this cheerful sun from Sacred Thread Design because it looks like a fancied up version of something a child would draw. This one would be great for a nursery or child’s room, or anywhere that needs a ray of sunshine. It measures 99 by 95 stitches and uses 16 colors. On 14 count fabric it will come out to 7.1 by 6.8 inches, or 18 by 17.2 cm if that’s the way you measure.

If you like your sun with a side of moon, and maybe a planet, this set from Ma Galina Lativa may be what you’re looking for. It’s shown as two different hoops but you could stitch them on the same piece of fabric and frame them together if you’d rather. The sun by itself measures 67 by 66 stitches, while the moon is 52 by 40.

And to finish up by taking it in a completely different direction, there’s this colorful folk art sun by Tiny House Studio BC. It got let into the party because the sun is smiling, but this is definitely not as easy a pattern as the others I’ve shared. This one uses a whopping 42 colors and is 140 by 175 stitches. That’s 10 by 12.5 inches, or 25.4 by 31.75 cm on 14 count fabric.

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Shamrock Cross Stitch Patterns

I have not done a lot of big cross stitch projects, but sometimes even with small projects it can be hard to decide exactly where to begin and how to work through the chart if you’re working with multiple colors. The general categories for the possible methods are known as cross country and parking.

Cross country means that you’re working one color at a time, moving around the chart (or the section of the chart you’re working on) until you’re done with that color. Parking means you’re working in a smaller section and doing all the colors in that area, “parking” the threads by leaving them attached to the canvas but out of the way while you finish each section.

Royal Rows is a specific way of parking named by Alison Royal, which is explored in detail on a post on Stitching Daily.

The idea is that you’re working one “tower” of stitches at a time (she uses a section of 10 stitches across by 20 down, but you can do whatever makes sense to you). You work all the stitches of a color at a time, starting at the top left and working your way down. When you’re done with a color you can park it where needed in the section below your current tower (known as the dungeon) or in the “east tower,” which is the section to the right.

There’s also a specific way of dealing with thread ends when you’re done with a color. This is a super simplified version (head to the blog post at Stitching Daily to get all the details) but the basic idea is that you’re working from left to right and top to bottom across the work, parking the threads in the next section when you’re done with them and systematically choosing which color to work with next.

The whole idea of parking is kind of overwhelming to me though I will admit that it makes a lot of sense. I guess I need to try it on a smallish big project and see how it goes. Do you use the parking method of cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Stitching Daily]

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