Cross Stitch Patterns with Homespun Elegance

I’ve been choosing cross stitch pattern designers kind of at random to feature here from a list I found online, but it seems like a lot of the ones I’ve been choosing feature a lot of designs with a historic bent.

Homespun Elegance on Etsy has a collection of samplers, historic-inspired designs and projects with an old-fashioned look. Many of the patterns have the option of downloading PDFs of the charts or getting a paper pattern shipped to you, so if you’re shopping make sure you choose the format you prefer (they are separate listings).

One of my favorites is The Stitcher, which is pictured here. It’s a cross stitch sampler with a woman stitching as part of the design. This one is worked on amber cross stitch fabric to give it that aged look, and its shown in a 6 by 9 inch frame with some added embellishments like buttons and a little pair of scissors. You can embellish your project with whatever buttons you have in your stash, or you can leave it plain.

The site includes projects that are framed, pillows and other small designs. There are reproduction samplers, Christmas and Halloween patterns, patriotic and summer designs, Valentine’s Day and love projects and more.

In addition to the cross stitch patterns, the designer also sells punch needle and sewing patterns, frames and other notions such as buttons, charms, trim and other findings you can use to embellish your projects. Items are shipped from Virginia. These little bits and bobs are sure to inspire you to think about how you can add some embellishments to your projects to make them a little more interesting and give another layer of detail to your projects.

So if you’re looking for some old time, homespun inspiration for your projects, or some classic sampler projects to make, be sure to check out Homespun Elegance.

[Photo: Homespun Elegance]

As a knitter, I love a good sheep motif, so let’s take a look at some cute sheep cross stitch patterns.

If you want to stitch a little sheep, this mini square from Good Dog Needleworks is a nice choice. It uses just three colors and measures 32 by 32 stitches. That’s 2.2 inches or about 5.5 cm square if you stitch it on 14 count fabric.

I also love these two little sheep, which you can stitch together or in individual hoops and shown. The designs are form Threadbound Art and use six colors. They are slightly different in size, with one being 21 by 17 stitches and the other 21 by 20. They fit in four inch frames if you work them on 14 count fabric.

You can stitch a sweet sheep bookmark with this design from Kits by SA Stitch. This is not for the person who doesn’t like back stitch, because there’s a lot of that here, but it is really cute. It measures 30 by 91 stitches and uses 10 colors. That will make your bookmark about 2.4 by 6.5 inches, or 6 by 16.5 cm on 14 count fabric.

Stitch a pretty scene of sheep in a meadow with this design from Motok Nytok. It uses 21 colors and the design is 99 by 73 stitches. On 14 count fabric that makes it about 7.07 by 5.21 inches, or 17.96 by 13.24 cm.

This yarn full of cross stitch sheep has a bit of a knitting twist because the sheep all look like they have sweaters on. The design is from Soda Stitch Design and it measures 179 by 216 stitches. The full design uses 27 colors. On 14 count fabric it will work out to 12.78 by 15.42 inches, or 32.48 by 39.19 cm.

Another great one with a knitting theme is this one where the wool is coming off the sheep and straight onto the needles. This one is from Happy Cross Stitchers and uses 12 colors. The pattern is 137 by 137 stitches, which comes out to 9.7 inches or 24.86 cm square on 14 count fabric. This would be a fun one to stitch for the knitter in your life (even if that is you).

Or you can stitch the field of sheep of a knitter’s dreams with the Happy Sheep chart from Charts and Stuff. These per-colored sheep can be stitched as shown or worked in any colors you like. The eyes are French knots but you can just stitch them in white if you’d rather.

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