Designer Spotlight: Favorite Gnome

Just by the name of this designer’s Etsy shop, Favorite Gnome, you can probably guess at most of what you will find in this storefront. There are in fact more that 250 gnome cross stitch patterns on this page as of this writing, with themes form holidays to sports, occupations, hobbies and more.

You can stitch up a knitting gnome (you know I had to mention that!). Or a gnome that’s a dentist. How about a mushroom? Or one in the Navy? And that’s just a few just on the first page of listings!

There are of course lots of Christmas and other holiday themed ones, too. I like this classic Santa gnome shown here holding a stocking with candy canes. I like that it’s not all red and white stripes but brings in some green, too. The design is 63 by 117 stitches, which comes out to 5 by 9 inches or 11.4 by 21.3 cm. It uses 20 colors and includes a fair bit of back stitching to outline the gnome and add the snowflake to the stocking. It would be a great gift for a gnome lover or a Santa fan.

You can also buy some sets of gnome cross stitch patterns if you like. As of this writing they include witches, zodiac signs, wine-themed gnomes, autumn and Halloween gnomes, winter gnomes and a set for St. Patrick’s Day.

I did say there was more than gnomes here, though that collection would be plenty. You can also find some animal cross stitch patterns, which are done is a cute cartoony style with most of them having flowers on their heads.

This designer will also make custom cross stitch patterns from a photo for you if that’s something you’re interested in.

Check out all the fun (and gnome-filled!) patterns they have to offer at Favorite Gnome. And maybe let me know which gnome is your favorite.

[Photo: Favorite Gnome]

One of the easiest ways to make a cross stitch project more personal is to add text to it. Whether you’re adding the names of people getting married to a generic floral cross stitch design, birth information to a project on theme with the new baby’s room or just adding a word or phrase that’s meaningful to you, adding words to cross stitch projects make them that much more special.

But if you’re not working with a project that already has text built in, or you want to change the text that’s there, that can feel a little daunting.

Caterpillar Cross Stitch has a great guide to adding names and words (as well as numbers) to projects, which talks you through what to consider and how to actually go about adding text to a cross stitch project successfully.

You’ll need to think about what kind of font you want to use and if you’re using back stitched letters or larger filled letters, how much space you need and how the letters work together in the text you’re planning to make sure it’s readable.

Their post includes common pitfalls such as running out a space or ending up with text that’s off center and how to avoid them (spoiler: chart out your text before you stitch!).

The whole post is really helpful if you’ve never added lettering to a project before and don’t know where to start. I like to use block letters in back stitch when learning how to add text to cross stitch, but of course there are tons of lettering options. Check out this collection of cross stitch fonts if you want to see some different things you can try.

And head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch to get more tips for how to successfully add lettering to your cross stitch projects. They also have their own alphabet and number charts you can buy to add text to your stitching.

Have you ever added text to a cross stitch project? I’d love to hear how it went!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

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