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]

I was recently approached by Alyssa, the cross stitcher behind the Etsy shop Stitchonomy, to take a look at her cross stitch pattern subscription club, known as The Pattern Club.

I took a look around and there’s a lot of cute stuff and fun options you’ll want to check out, especially if you love themed patterns that are small, easy to stitch and fun to combine.

The Pattern Club combines cross stitching with a social network. When you open the site you’ll see a news feed and have the ability to share updates much like you would on Facebook. You can see who is online, have buddies and post your own updates and photos. The community aspect is a little sparse right now but that should only grow.

The stitch along hub is the place to find the most recent patterns and information on the current stitchalong. As of this writing the Book Lover’s stitchalong was happening, with little designs like Peter Rabbit, a skull for Hamlet and keys for Jane Eyre as well as authors including Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.

Other pattern collections include European designs, Halloween, ocean life, an allotment garden and more. Alyssa tells me there’s a new theme every month that either she picks or members in the community suggest. You can stitch just the patterns you want or put them together to make a larger collage.

The Stitchanomini vault gives you access to all of the previous patterns, and new patterns are released daily through the stitchalong. You can download individual patterns (most of them are 19 by 19 stitches) as PDFs or Pattern Keeper files. The PDFs include a color and black and white chart as well as a floss list.

Another cool thing you can do is build your own pattern collages from all of the squares that have been released. The collage configurator allows you to add patterns of your choosing to a grid ranging from 2×2 patterns up to 4×4. You can scroll through all the current patterns or search by theme and size to make a project that suits your needs. (Above is an example I made kind of at random but you get the idea.)

If you want to check it out, you can grab a three-day free trial and see all the pattern options. Membership is $7.99 a month, or if you pay for a year at a time you’ll get two months free. In addition to the patterns in the club, members receive discounts on patterns and supplies purchased through the shop within the club. Annual members get access to three paid/retired stitchalongs and lifetime members receive all retired patterns.

If you check it out I’d love to hear what you think!

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