Colorful Cross Stitch Designs for All Seasons

When I first opened the website for Caterpillar Cross Stitch, my featured designer this week, the first thing I noticed was all the color.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been looking at lots of Christmas and winter-themed patterns, all green and red and white. Or because lots of these designers do samplers that are often monchrome.

Whatever the reason it feels like I haven’t seen this much color in a set of cross stitch designs in a while and I am here. for. it.

Caterpillar Cross Stitch is a UK-based designer who sells patterns, project kits, accessories and merchandise. They have lots of different seasonal designs, with an emphasis on Christmas, as well as florals, cross stitch quilt designs and more.

Since it’s almost Christmas as I write this, I wanted to share the 12 days of Stitchmas design, which features the elements of the song arrayed in a Christmas tree shape made out of balls. With their designs you have the option of buying a full kit of supplies with your choice of fabric (you can also add on a needle minder and project bag if you like) or just the PDF of the pattern.

And of course the Christmas jumper pattern caught my eye since I’m a knitter. So cute!

For a non-holiday option I love this Bloom and Grow pattern, featuring an array of wildflowers in colorful pots.

These designs look like just the thing to get those of us heading into the cold and gray part of the year through it with some fun crafting.

Caterpillar Cross Stitch also does an every other month subscription box, which is a full kit for a project with additional goodies. The first one for 2024 is Easter themed, though the others have not yet been revealed. They can be shipped worldwide and shipping is free for UK residents.

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

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I’ll admit to not taking as much care as I should when finishing cross stitch projects. Just like blocking in knitting or crochet, taking the time to finish a cross stitch project right means it will look its best, whether you’re making it as a gift or to keep.

And when it comes to cross stitch, the best method for finishing is washing and pressing.

Kat and Catkin and Lillie makes the argument that you should always press your finished pieces, and wash them the vast majority of the time as well.

Washing of course will help if there is any visible dirt that got on the project while stitching, but it also helps remove oils and skin cells you can’t see but that can speed up damage to your project in the long run.

Washing and pressing also help remove creases from the hoop or from storing the project, and if you use heat-erasable marking pens to grid your fabric, this will remove any visible marks.

So we’ve got the why down, but what about the how?

Kat has a great step by step tutorial on how to wash your cross stitch projects and how to iron them safely. You probably have everything you need to do this, it just takes a bit of time to go through the process. It’s certainly worth it, though, if you’ve spent a lot of time on a project and are gifting it or framing it and want to show it off to its best.

Click over to the post at Catkin and Lillie for all the details, plus some really good thoughts on times when you might not want to wash a project and how to test the colorfastness of your threads so you’ll know if a project is safe to wash.

Do you wash and press your finished cross stitch projects? I’d love to hear all about your process!

[Photo: Catkin and Lillie]

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