Designer Spotlight: Lola Crow Cross Stitch

If you’re looking for cross stitch patterns with a gothic twist, you can find them at Lola Crow Cross Stitch. This Etsy seller based in Oregon describes their shop as having “adorably unusual cross stitch patterns” and I have to say I agree.

My daughter would love just about everything in this shop, from the creepy Christmas village (done as a stitchalong, it features six designs including a holiday tree decorated with skulls, a ghoulish set of carolers and a headless horse-drawn carriage, each one fitting in a 4-inch hoop so you can use them as ornaments) to the ghastly gnome in a poison garden. That one is 119 by 114 stitches (or 8.5 by 8.1 inches/21.6 by 20.7 centimeters on 14 count fabric) and uses 25 colors.

The pattern that caught my eye, though, which is shown above, is the greenhouse of oddities. This one was also done as a stitchalong but you can purchase the full pattern now. This one has so many cool details, from the wrought-iron greenhouse frames to a ton of different creepy plants, all of which are based on real, naturally occurring plants. There’s a corpse flower, of course, pitcher plants and other oddities that are poisonous, carnivorous, parasites and other weird plants.

You can also stitch in a scientist of your choice, as well as a skeleton, crows and other fun stuff. In all it uses 30 colors and measures 218 by 160 stitches, or 15.6 by 11.4 inches, which is 39.6 by 29.0 cm.

If you’re not into things that are quite that weird, they also have a series of cats in windows, not all of which are creepy (also reaching cats and cats in boxes, and some cats on shelves, too); chickens and goats; holiday patterns for Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Christmas; and some cool (OK, maybe a little creepy, too) crows.

If you are or you stitch for someone who is a little on the darker side, these patterns are a lot of fun. Check them out at Lola Crow Cross Stitch.

[Photo: Lola Crow Cross Stitch]

I don’t usually cross stitch text or add words to my cross stitch projects. Sometimes I will sign things using basic block lettering worked in backstitch (luckily my initials are pretty easy to stitch), but if you give your cross stitch as a gift or otherwise want to personalize it, adding text is a great way to go.

But if a project didn’t already come with text, and you don’t want to draw your own, you’ll need a good cross stitch font that you can use for your project.

I like collecting fonts that are easy to read and to stitch and that would be good for lots of different uses.

For example I really like this bold alphabet font from Cross Stitch with Art, which has both capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers if you need them for dates or other information on your design. The capital letters are an inch/2.5 cm/14 stitches tall, which makes it easy to figure out how much space you need to leave for them. It’s a nice, basic, readable serif font you can use for lots of project.

If you want a script font that’s still really readable, check out Magic Calligraphy from Soft Pattern Designs. This hand drawn font has upper case letters around 28 stitches tall, with lower case letters mostly being around 20 stitches (though the ones that go up or down a lot like f, p and y are bigger). The numbers also vary a bit in size but range from 25 to 29 stitches.

Sometimes you just want a classic font that looks like sports lettering, and in that case you’re going to need Varsity, an all caps font from Stitch Mod. This one has letters that are 21 stitches tall, and it includes capital letters and numbers. But there are definitely times this one would come in handy!

Another sometimes useful and really cute font is this alphabet block letters alphabet from Stitch Junction. These letters are all upper case and look like classic building blocks, and there are also numbers available. This one would be perfect for a birth announcement project or some other cross stitch for the baby’s room.

And if that’s not enough for you, check out this post with 85 free cross stitch fonts for you to try!

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