Designer Spotlight: Charts and Stuff

Charts and Stuff is a small but fun Etsy shop with a cartoony style to its designs. Let’s take a closer look.

This shop’s designs are mostly silly and full of color. The rainbow colored hair is a common feature of a lot of characters, from a dancing woman to a reindeer, dogs and chickens.

As you scroll back through their designs (there are no categories but they also have fewer than 100 designs as of this writing, so it doesn’t take too long to explore) you’ll also find a series of patchwork designs that use similar bright colors but in a very different way.

For instance, this patchwork teddy bear cross stitch pattern. The pattern notes are low on details but it says the pattern comes out about 7 by 7.5 inches (that’s 17.78 by 19.05 cm) I assume on 14 count fabric. There’s clearly a good bit of back stitch involved as well as regular cross stitching.

These colorful designs would be a great way to use a lot of thread left over from other projects, because they don’t have to be the exact colors called for in the pattern. I could see the teddy bear with a ribbon that is the favorite color of the person you are stitching it for, for instance, and you can use pastels or more saturated colors, or a mix depending on what you have on hand.

In addition to the patterns already mentioned, there are a few blackwork designs, a set of season themed quotes, some word art in the shape of a heart and a cat, and some Christmas themed designs with the rainbow characters wearing Santa hats. There’s also a few of Santa riding a motorcycle if that’s something you’re into.

These cross stitch patterns are a lot of fun and look like they’d be great to stitch, so check out the pattern shop at Charts and Stuff on Etsy to see more.

[Photo: Charts and Stuff]

Stitching Housewives offers a ton of cute, sort of country feeling cross stitch patterns with different themes I don’t quite understand but they’re super cute so let’s get into it.

One section is called Dapper Doodads, which it looks like are all square. Tiered Tray Tidbits are generally more rectangular, and RoundAbouts are circular. There are also Sassy Strippers, and I don’t know what the difference among all the different kinds is. All of them are colorful, graphic, often with text, and mounted on something cute. A lot of them are seasonal designs.

Just as an example, here’s Charlie Chicken, a big black chicken hauling an even bigger pumpkin in a wagon past a house with sunflowers. This one is labelled as a Tiered Tray Tidbit, but again I don’t really know why.

This one uses seven colors and is 56 by 42 stitches. It comes out to 4 by 3 inches or 10 by 7.6 cm when stitched on 28 count linen (equivalent to 14 count Aida). It’s shown mounted on a wooden pumpkin, but you could put it in a frame or make it little pillow or whatever you like.

There are lots of smaller categories with some themed projects, such as “calendar crates,” which are themed for the month but don’t actually have the month on them. There’s a lot of Christmas patterns, and smaller collections of Halloween/fall and spring projects.

Another section is called “What’s in My Cup,” which features a tall coffee cup with text on it and decorations in and around the cup. For example there’s a happy birthday cup with a cake coming out of the top and surrounded by presents and balloons. The Good Old Days collection includes monthly minis with the month on one piece, a house decorated for the season and another little seasonal design.

The seasonal series includes literal seasons as well as Halloween and Christmas designs.

It’s hard to tell you what’s here but if you like the style of this one or combinations of text and fun images, check out all the goodies at Stitching Housewives.

[Photo: Stitching Housewives]

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