Designer Spotlight: Maple Squirrel Stitch

Cute animals, lots of Christmas projects and nature scenes are among the fun things you will find from Maple Squirrel Stitch.

This Canada-based Etsy shop has been sharing cross stitch projects for three years, and has nearly 500 patterns as of this writing. Let’s check them out!

The biggest section on the site is animals, which covers everything from cute, kind of cartoony dogs, cats and horses to more realistic renderings of deer, polar bears and squirrels. There’s a fox reading a book, a mouse decked out in winter gear and several animals getting coffee.

Or how about this cross-stitching hedgehog who is stitching a hedgehog in a cross stitch pattern? This little cutie is 85 by 111 stitches, which comes out to 5.9 by 7.9 inches, or 15.4 by 20.1 cm, when stitched on 14 count fabric. The listing includes sizing for other fabric counts, too, if you want to make it smaller.

The design includes full stitches, half stitches, three-quarter stitches, backstitch and French knots, so it’s not a beginner project, but it is super cute. It uses 32 colors and 11 blends.

Coming in close behind the animal category is Christmas, which includes a lot of Christmas sweater cross stitch designs and bell-shaped patterns will all sorts of holiday themes. Also check out the section called souvenirs if you’re looking for holiday projects; there you will find a collection of Christmas ornaments cut to shape.

Landscapes is another popular category that includes a hodgepodge of designs, from forest landscapes and cabins in the woods to pumpkins in a jar, the solar system and a jet wing from an airplane window, to name a few.

Other categories you’ll find include plants, birds, people and food, as well as Halloween projects.

The shop also has a few cross stitch kits for patterns if you prefer buying all your supplies together.

Check them out at Maple Squirrel Stitch and let me know what you think or if you find a must-stitch pattern for yourself.

[Photo: Maple Squirrel Stitch]

Inkspire Studio Shops offers cross stitch patterns as well as tons of different stitch minders, scissor charms and thread organization tools.

We’ll get to all that, but since we’re mostly here for the patterns, let’s start there.

All of the patterns are in one category (called Inkspire Originals if you’re following along). There are a lot of book-themed projects and more of the designs are bookmarks than anything else. You’ll find trope bookmarks, a Reading Rainbow themed design, flowers and a super cute watercolor set bookmark, to name a few.

And while the book themed projects are by far the most numerous, I wanted to share this super cute pile of vintage Pyrex style bowls. I love the colors on this one and it should be easy to stitch because so much of it is blocks (or bowls) of a single color. This one is only available as a printed pattern, but most of them are digital.

It calls for six colors and comes out 5.6 by 6.9 inches, or 14.2 by 17.5 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric.

In addition to the bookmarks and book themed projects you’ll find a few kitchen projects and some Halloween and Christmas designs as well.

But what this shop is really about is needle minders, and there are tons of them, with all kinds of themes ranging from introverted and snarky to animal themes, food and beverages, retro designs and religious and inspiring needle minders.

If you don’t know about needle minders, these are acrylic with magnets. You stick a magnet to the back of your work, add the needle minder to the front of the work, and then it holds your sewing needle when you’re not stitching. No need for piercing your fabric or losing your needle between stitching sessions.

She also makes charms you can attach to your scissors (or use as a stitch marker if you’re a knitter or crocheter), inventory and project trackers and bags large and small to hold works in progress and other supplies. She’s also got a great collection of vintage cross stitch patterns and kits, so check out all the fun goodies at Inkspired Studio Shops.

[Photo: Inkspire Studio Shops]

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