Cross Stitch Granny Squares

I, like a lot of crafters I know, am into a lot of different crafts. I knit, crochet, sew, do cross stitch, even paint from time to time.

I love all these crafts by themselves, but I also love it when different crafts combine in the same project, whether that’s literally doing, say, knit and crochet in the same project, or taking a motif or design idea from one craft and translating it into another.

That second case is what’s happening here, with these granny square cross stitch patterns.

Originally designed by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet to be a stitchalong project, this collection of granny squares comes in large and small sizes you can use for different purposes. I love the idea of using the small ones as a border on a project, or stitching the big ones to make the front of a pillow. You could even combine them in a project wit a band of the smaller squares between the larger ones.

Each small pattern is 19 by 19 stitches, which comes out to 1.65 inches or about 4 cm square, while the larger ones are 39 by 39 stitches, or 3.25 inches/8.2 cm square.

As designed the pattern uses 16 colors, as each square uses four different colors and there are four variation. You can use as many or as few colors as you like when you make your design.

You can grab this free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop.

And if you’re interested in crocheting real granny squares, check out this crochet granny square baby blanket, which is the perfect project to practice the basic technique. Or look at this granny square dish towel, which has a motif and color choices that coordinate beautifully with the cross stitch version.

Do you like to combine crafts or do one kind of craft that’s inspired by a different craft? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Fat Quarter Shop]

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Bee Cross Stitch Patterns

Lately I have been feeling like all of my clothes are looking a little worn or feeling a little tired. I don’t want to buy new clothes, though, so there’s been a lot of mending, altering and adding special touches to things that otherwise might get overlooked or not worn at all.

As an example, not too long ago I added a little bit of embroidery to a T-shirt, which was a lot of fun to do and made me start eyeing all my solid-colored garments and wondering how they might look with some stitching added.

Of course you can cross stitch on garments, too, whether T-shirts or woven tops, skirts, pants and more. But it can be tricky to transfer cross stitch designs to your garment to make stitching easier.

Much like with embroidery, it’s great to use a water soluble stabilizer to keep your fabric in place while you stitch and to transfer your design (or your cross stitch grid at least) while you’re stitching. Then you just wash away the stabilizer when you’re done and it will look like the stitching has always been there.

Ashley General Handmade uses Sulky Stick ‘n Stitch, which is a product I use, too. It’s easy to use and washes away cleanly.

To make it even easier, she designed some printable cross stitch grids at different counts that you can print out to draw your own cross stitch designs, but you can also print the grid right on the Sulky, so you can stitch on top of squares and then remove them when you’re done.

Brilliant, right?

She has pages as big as 8 count and all the way down to 20 (remember: the bigger the number the smaller the stitches will be) that you can download and print to make your own designs and also use to make stitching on clothing easier. I’m definitely going to try this the next time I want to cross stitch on fabric!

You can grab her printables over at Ashley General Handmade.

[Photo: Ashley General Handmade]

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