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]

Most of the cross stitch projects I make are pretty small and not something I would consider heirloom quality (though I am working on a big project for my daughter that I hope to have done for her high school graduation in two years that I hope is something she’ll want to keep forever, but that’s another story).

But it is definitely possible to cross stitch projects that will stay around for generations, and one prime example of that is a cross-stitched linen tablecloth.

Linen tablecloths are classic, while stitching one can be a big project, depending on the size of your table, it doesn’t have to be really complicated.

Koekoek has a good, detailed post about figuring out how much linen you would need to make a tablecloth that you can cross stitch and/or embroider on (they also sell tablecloth linen in their shop if you don’t already have some or a linen tablecloth you already use). Of course for a project like this you’d want the best fabric you can find and afford, because you’ll be stitching it for a long time and hopefully using it for years.

The post walks through how to measure your table and determine how much fabric you’ll need including the drop you’ll want and hems. It includes the math for rectangular and square tables as well as circular tables, which helps take the guesswork out of buying fabric. It also talks about preparing the fabric and making mitered corners if you have a square or rectangular table, which will help the tablecloth sit nicely on your table.

The tutorial doesn’t include specific patterns to use for your tablecloth, but it does advise keeping it simple because this is a really big project. You can start with a motif in the center or doing borders, and this is a project you can add to through the years by, say, stitching a symbol for each family member or adding names, wedding dates, etc. and making it a real record of your family.

Would you ever cross stitch a tablecloth or have you done so? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Koekoek]

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