Cute Animal Valentine’s Day Cross Stitch

This post needs to start with me asking you to help settle an argument going on in my mind: are gnomes animals? They’re not people, I guess mythical creatures? Maybe? I don’t know who to classify them.

It matters because I’m writing this post that I called “cute animal Valentine’s Day cross stitch” but I want to include this collection of Valentine’s gnomes.

Maybe it would more accurately be animals + gnomes. But either way, they are here (or actually here, on Etsy, in a design from 4StitchPattern) and we’re just going to go with it. This set of 12 Valentine’s Day gnomes definitely fulfills the cute part of the headline, anyway. These little guys all vary in size and details, but would be really cute in little frames around the house.

With that out of the way we’ll move on to things I’m definitely sure are animals. Like elephants. This cute little elephant would be darling in a kid’s room even when it’s not Valentine’s Day. It’s from Etsy designer Little Apple Stitchery and is 87 by 87 stitches, or 6.25 inches on 14 count fabric.

Or what about some sweet cats? You could change up the colors on these to better match real cats in your life if you want, or just leave them as they are. Laser Art Designs sells this one, which is 200 by 200 stitches. That comes out to 36.3 centimeters or 14.3 inches square on 14-count fabric. I’m not sure how many colors total it is, but their description says their patterns have no more than 20-25 colors and I’d say this one has no fewer than that.

On the other end of the skill spectrum are these simple and sweet hedgehogs from U-Create Crafts. This one uses five colors and should be pretty quick and easy even for a newer stitcher (it does involve some back stitching but that’s not too hard).

Speaking of sweet, these little blushing penguins in love are so cute and you can change the colors on the bow and balloons if you like. This pattern by Kits by SAstitch is 55 by 61 stitches and uses 19 colors and three blends, and uses whole, half and back stitches. This one’s probably not for a beginner but it would be a fun way to build your skills!

Next Pattern:

Easter Gnome Cross Stitch Patterns

Last fall I came across this cross stitch pattern for a sea turtle and I talked myself out of sharing it right away because tropical animals don’t feel like a “fall” thing, but now that it’s summer again, let’s take a look at some cross stitch patterns for creatures that live in or around the sea.

This sea turtle design from Witch Wolf Web Creations is literally just a chart with no grid to help you count stitches or suggested colors, but I would print it out and add a grid to make it easier to stitch. You can work it in many colors as shown, or there’s also a black and white version so you could just do it in a single color.

Stitch up some fish or a seahorse with this bundle of four tropical fish cross stitch patterns from LaSelva Design. It includes a clownfish, seahorse, moorish idol and blue tang, all of which vary in size and colors used, but they’re all really cute.

Or you can stitch a tank’s worth of tropical fish with this project from SamXstitch. There are 22 fish in all on this project, which measures 153 by 153 stitches. On 14 count fabric that’s 10.93 inches or 27.75 cm. It uses 15 colors.

I also love the jewel-toned fishies on this project from Velvet Pony Design. This one has seven fish and a seahorse and measures 113 by 140 stitches. That’s just over 8 by 10 inches or 20.5 by 25.4 cm on 14 count fabric, though you can make it smaller with a higher fabric count. It calls for 24 colors.

This vintage design from Past Pattern Palooza Co has a whole school of little fish. The design is 120 by 260 stitches and uses 30 colors. It measures 8.57 by 18.57 inches (21.7 by 47.2 cm) on 14 count fabric. The pattern notes say there are 69 designs in total, an individual fish range from 1.5 to 3 inches, or 4.5 to 8 cm.

You can stitch up a whole tropical world complete with coral using this design from Easy Stitching Outlet (though I don’t think this one is particularly easy). At 219 by 95 stitches, on 14 count fabric it will come out to 15.6 by 6.8 inches, or 39.73 by 17.24 cm.

Next Pattern:

Have you read?