Designer Spotlight: LilyMae Stitching

If you are looking for adorable cross stitch patterns for a baby or little one’s room, LilyMae Stitching on Etsy is a great place to start. From adorable animal alphabets (in regular and mini sizes!) to sweet little animals and a whole section just called “happy little patterns” (they are!), there is just so much cuteness in store.

Since I do love the happy little patterns, let’s take a closer look at this happy little blue balloon pattern. The design includes only full cross stitches and measures 61 by 95 stitches. On 14 count fabric that comes out to 4.375 by 6.75 inches, or 11.1 by 17.2 cm. It uses six colors, and despite being labelled a blue balloon it could absolutely be a pink, purple, green or any other color balloon that you would like it to be.

In addition to all the baby and little-kid-centric designs, there are a handful of Christmas cross stitch patterns (some religious, some not) and some sort of abstract, boho landscape designs.

There are also a few motivational quotes if that’s your thing.

But really a lot of the patterns are animals made into letter shapes, so if that’s a thing you’d like for a baby’s or kid’s room, definitely check those out. My kiddo’s name would be alligators and narwhals, which are pretty cute. You could also do initials if you don’t want to do a full name, or stitch the whole alphabet if you want to get really into it. You can buy the whole set as one bundle, or just buy the letters you need individually.

Check out all the cuteness at LilyMae Stitching.

Are you a cross stitch designer or do you have a favorite I haven’t featured yet? Let me know in the comments or fill out the form at the link at the top of the page that says “submit a DIY.”

[Photo: LilyMae Stitching]

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Baby Animal Cross Stitch Patterns

I have not done a lot of big cross stitch projects, but sometimes even with small projects it can be hard to decide exactly where to begin and how to work through the chart if you’re working with multiple colors. The general categories for the possible methods are known as cross country and parking.

Cross country means that you’re working one color at a time, moving around the chart (or the section of the chart you’re working on) until you’re done with that color. Parking means you’re working in a smaller section and doing all the colors in that area, “parking” the threads by leaving them attached to the canvas but out of the way while you finish each section.

Royal Rows is a specific way of parking named by Alison Royal, which is explored in detail on a post on Stitching Daily.

The idea is that you’re working one “tower” of stitches at a time (she uses a section of 10 stitches across by 20 down, but you can do whatever makes sense to you). You work all the stitches of a color at a time, starting at the top left and working your way down. When you’re done with a color you can park it where needed in the section below your current tower (known as the dungeon) or in the “east tower,” which is the section to the right.

There’s also a specific way of dealing with thread ends when you’re done with a color. This is a super simplified version (head to the blog post at Stitching Daily to get all the details) but the basic idea is that you’re working from left to right and top to bottom across the work, parking the threads in the next section when you’re done with them and systematically choosing which color to work with next.

The whole idea of parking is kind of overwhelming to me though I will admit that it makes a lot of sense. I guess I need to try it on a smallish big project and see how it goes. Do you use the parking method of cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Stitching Daily]

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