Designer Spotlight: Autumn Andrea

Autumn Andrea sounds like a shop that’s perfectly poised for the season we’re in, and it really is, with lots of patterns for spooky season and the cozy seasons that come after.

But there’s more to it than that, so let’s get into it.

The biggest category on the shop is called country floral wildlife, which is heavy on pastels, cute animals, florals and more. This rainbow dragonfly and lilies cross stitch pattern caught my eye as a good example of their projects. This one measures 112 by 336 stitches, with is about 8 by 24 inches on 14 count fabric (or 20.3 by 61 cm).

The list of colors on the pattern listing just about gave me a panic attack (if I counted correctly there are 120!) but goodness wouldn’t this be an amazing thing to be able to say you had done? (I am certain I don’t have that kind of patience. Or thread stash.)

The next biggest space, as you might expect, is for Halloween, which has a mix of cutesy and gothic projects, plenty of cats (and dogs, too) and skeletons. While we’re on the subject we can also peek at the autumn/fall section, which is more geared toward general fall feelings and Thanksgiving patterns. You’ll also find a good number of Christmas patterns, here too focusing on cute animals, as well as red trucks, nutcrackers and more.

Another big category is nautical/light houses/beach, which includes all of those things. If you’re looking to decorate a beach house or want to give a beachy vibe to your space wherever you live, there’s some great stuff here.

All of that feels like it barely scratches the surface of the nearly 400 cross stitch patterns available in this shop as of this writing. You’ll also find gnomes, northern lights, more cats (including big cats), dogs, dragons, patriotic designs, fairies and more.

If any of this sounds good to you, take a closer look over at Autumn Andrea on Etsy.

[Photo: Autumn Andrea]

The cross stitcher behind the blog Sirious Stitches is quite into biscornu.

If you’re not, a quick primer: biscornu are three-dimensional cross-stitched objects with eight points, often with an indention in the middle that makes them look a bit like doughnuts without the hole. They can be just about any size and subject you can think of. They’re often used as pincushions but can also be seasonal decor or just decoration for any time of year.

I’ve got a collection of biscornu cross stitch patterns here.

Once you’ve stitched one or several (they are a little addicting) you might wonder what you can add to them to make them even more extra.

It very much depends on the design of your biscornu and the look you are going for, but Sirious Stitches has a great post all about some of the options you might consider.

I don’t want to give you the whole list because you need to go visit and see all of their great biscornu they’ve stitched, but one really easy thing that you can do with a lot of designs is take advantage of that center indent by adding a button, beads, silk flower or another embellishment.

This is great to do just with a basic button from your stash that coordinates with the design and colors of the cross stitching, but it’s extra fun if you have a button that’s on theme, such as a leaf for a fall biscornu or a flower shaped button for a floral design. Add a jingle bell to a Christmas pattern, or a charm if you don’t have a button that coordinates.

Just this one idea is sure to get you thinking about ways to embellish biscornu (not to mention other cross stitch projects) but head over to Sirious Stitches to see all of their ideas for embellishing biscornu to make these already fun projects even more fun.

Have you ever made biscornu? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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