Designer Spotlight: Embrovia

Embrovia is a cross stitch designer with a lot of funny designs, plenty of ghosts and cats and other fun things for you to stitch. Let’s take a closer look.

I love the story of this shop, which I hope is true and not made up by AI, that it’s run by a husband who made cross stitch designs for his wife and then opened a shop. We’re just going to believe it’s true, OK?

The biggest category on their storefont is called “funny,” and that makes sense because there are a lot of funny designs here. From a duck with a knife to a dog on a toilet, there are lots of options here to stitch for that person on your list with a slightly off sense of humor.

When I saw this caution: floor is lava design I knew that was the one I needed to share with you all. It uses six colors and measures 130 by 135 stitches. On 14 count fabric that comes out to 9.3 by 9.6 inches, or 23.7 by 24.6 cm. It only uses full cross stitches.

Another big section is the one devoted to cats. This includes some more realistic looking cats, cat ghosts and superheroes, cats in coffee cups (or with coffee cups) and cats at computers. Other animals also feature in their designs, including bunnies, dogs, birds, capybaras, butterflies and more.

There’s a pretty collection of floral patterns, and a nice set of patterns designed to be stitched on dark canvas (mostly black or red). Rounding out the offerings are designs focused on gaming, mountains, abstract/modern designs, patterns and mandalas and designs for the nursery.

Check out all their fun designs at Embrovia on Etsy.

Have a favorite shop you’d like to see in the designer spotlight? Let me know in the comments or click on “suggest a craft” at the top of the page and tell me about it!

[Photo: Embrovia]

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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