Designer Spotlight: Ecliptica Design

If your taste in cross stitch patterns tends toward tiny Christmas cross stitch projects, then you need to know about Ecliptica Design on Etsy. This cross stitch shop based in Hungary specializes in patterns that fit in 3-inch hoops, with 22 of their 64 designs as of this writing being Christmas themed.

Neither small nor Christmas is all that they do, but they do a lot of that, so let’s get into it.

The 3-inch Christmas section includes lots of charming little designs for everything from Christmas trees to elf feet, hot chocolate to bells, winter scenes and gingerbread men.

One of my favorites is this little snow globe with a Christmas tree inside. At 24 by 29 stitches, it uses 11 colors and comes out to 2 by 2.4 inches or 5 by 6 cm on 14 count fabric. It’s perfect to put in a little hoop and make into a ornament or use as a greeting card.

In addition to the Christmas patterns, there are 3-inch designs on topics such as animals and nature, dogs and butterflies, as well as patterns for Easter and Halloween. There are 2-inch minis of birds and butterflies, as well as 7-inch hoops of butterflies (as well as one Easter design).

There is one Christmas pattern meant to go in an 8-inch hoop, and a few patterns labeled medium size that I think would work in an 8-inch hoop, too (I love these rain boots with sunflowers!).

In addition to purchasing patterns one at a time, there are a handful of Christmas themed bundles you can buy. Or you can make your own bundle and get 30 percent off when you buy three or more patterns at the same time.

Check out all of the goodies at Ecliptica Design on Etsy.

Do you have a favorite cross stitch designer you’d like me to feature? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Ecliptica Design]

I’m going to go ahead and admit that I totally missed Toy Story 4, so it took my by surprise when Toy Story 5 came out, but let’s celebrate with some Toy Story cross stitch patterns.

This sweet design including Woody, Buzz and Jessie is from The Xstitch Shop, and they actually have a few different Toy Story options. This one says it is for intermediate stitches, probably because of the size and number of colors, but the sales page doesn’t say how big it is or how many colors it uses. It’s still cute, though!

If you’ve got a fan of Jessie in your household, this collection of Jessie themed icons is super cute to stitch. The design is from Mercury Stitches and it measures 97 by 144 stitches. that comes out to 6.9 by 10.3 inches, or 17.6 by 26.1 cm, and uses 11 colors. It has full and half cross stitches, as well as back stitching and French knots.

Share the love of friendship with this sweet Woody and Buzz heart hands cross stitch pattern from Pixell Patterns. This design uses eight colors and is shown worked on 14 count fabric, but the notes don’t indicate how bit is is (based on a finished project photo, though, it looks pretty big).

And for the Buzz Lightyear fans, of course we have to have a “To infinity and beyond” pattern, so here’s one from Silver Lake Stitches. This design is super cute on blue fabric, but use whatever you have. It measures 78 by 92 stitches, which comes out to 5.6 by 6.6 inches, or 14.2 by 16.7 cm, on 14 count fabric. It calls for 14 colors.

Or if you want to go beyond the core three main character toys, check out this project from ThreeOOne Patterns, which includes our main toys as well as Bo Peep and her sheep, Bullseye the horse, the Slinky dog, Rex, Ham, the Potato Heads and an alien. The design is 310 by 80 stitches, which comes out to 21.14 by 3.5 inches, or 53.7 by 8.9 cm, when worked on 14 count fabric. It uses 65 colors. Or pick out your favorite characters to make a smaller project.

All those characters and a few more are found on the mini Toy Story character sampler from Knotalot UK (only part of which is shown above). This one uses 31 colors and measures 134 by 108 stitches. It includes whole and fractional stitches, as well as back stitching. On 14 count fabric stitching the whole thing would make a project that’s 9.57 by 7.71 inches, or 24.31 by 19.59 cm.

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