Designer Spotlight: Counting Puddles

Counting Puddles is an Etsy shop that doesn’t have a huge selection of cross stitch patterns, but it does have some printables that might be relevant at the time of year that I am writing this.

Most of the patterns you’ll find in the shop are seasonal, with a couple of space-themed ones thrown in.

I of course love this Books are Magic design, which includes books, flowers, a butterfly, moon and stars worked in back stitch. There are lots of techniques here including cross stitches, back and straight stitches, French knots and star stitches, which give it a lovely, textured look. The design is 114 by 140 stitches, which comes out to 7.1 by 8.8 inches, or 18 by 22 cm, on 32 count linen stitched over 2.

Many of their patterns combine cross stitch with techniques that might be considered more embroidery, which is a fun way both to learn some different techniques and to give your project a different look than straight cross stitching gives you.

As I mentioned, in addition to patterns, the shop offers a couple of good looking printables if doing more cross stitch and being better organized are among your new year’s resolutions. There’s a cross stitch tracker printable to help encourage you to stitch a little every day and a project tracker that’s set up with 12 projects on a progress wheel with another page for notes with more details about what each project is and when you started and finished them.

The tracker has am x (like a cross stitch, of course!) for each day so you can color it in when you do stitching. It’s important when forming or reinforcing a habit to not break the chain and this gives you a visual reminder of that.

Check out all their designs at the Counting Puddles Etsy shop. If you try out their printables, or you have another way of keeping your cross stitch goals on track, I’d love to hear about it.

[Photo: Countin Puddles]

I was recently approached by Alyssa, the cross stitcher behind the Etsy shop Stitchonomy, to take a look at her cross stitch pattern subscription club, known as The Pattern Club.

I took a look around and there’s a lot of cute stuff and fun options you’ll want to check out, especially if you love themed patterns that are small, easy to stitch and fun to combine.

The Pattern Club combines cross stitching with a social network. When you open the site you’ll see a news feed and have the ability to share updates much like you would on Facebook. You can see who is online, have buddies and post your own updates and photos. The community aspect is a little sparse right now but that should only grow.

The stitch along hub is the place to find the most recent patterns and information on the current stitchalong. As of this writing the Book Lover’s stitchalong was happening, with little designs like Peter Rabbit, a skull for Hamlet and keys for Jane Eyre as well as authors including Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.

Other pattern collections include European designs, Halloween, ocean life, an allotment garden and more. Alyssa tells me there’s a new theme every month that either she picks or members in the community suggest. You can stitch just the patterns you want or put them together to make a larger collage.

The Stitchanomini vault gives you access to all of the previous patterns, and new patterns are released daily through the stitchalong. You can download individual patterns (most of them are 19 by 19 stitches) as PDFs or Pattern Keeper files. The PDFs include a color and black and white chart as well as a floss list.

Another cool thing you can do is build your own pattern collages from all of the squares that have been released. The collage configurator allows you to add patterns of your choosing to a grid ranging from 2×2 patterns up to 4×4. You can scroll through all the current patterns or search by theme and size to make a project that suits your needs. (Above is an example I made kind of at random but you get the idea.)

If you want to check it out, you can grab a three-day free trial and see all the pattern options. Membership is $7.99 a month, or if you pay for a year at a time you’ll get two months free. In addition to the patterns in the club, members receive discounts on patterns and supplies purchased through the shop within the club. Annual members get access to three paid/retired stitchalongs and lifetime members receive all retired patterns.

If you check it out I’d love to hear what you think!

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