Designer Spotlight: Max Stitches Art

Max Stitches Art is an Etsy shop based in Ukraine that’s full of gothic, dark and witchy designs you’re sure to love if that’s your vibe.

The biggest section in the shop is called new, which isn’t super helpful for knowing what’s in there, but if you give it a browse you’ll get a sense for what the shop’s designs are like. Which, again, is dark (lots of these designs are literally dark because they’re shown stitched on dark fabric).

You’ll find weird things like a turtle with a terrarium on its back, a mushroom that’s really a UFO with a tractor beam for a stem, a jackalope and a cat dressed as Dracula.

One of my favorites, though it is hard to pick, is this reading frog (I’ve been on a bit of a frog and toad kick lately because they’re basically my life coaches). The pattern is 80 by 86 stitches and uses 18 colors. On 14 count fabric it comes out to 5.71 by 6.14 inches, or 14.51 by 15.6 cm.

The biggest more specific category covers animals, and again there’s a big range of projects, including a snake or a frog in a jar, a cat on the toilet reading the newspaper, a snuggly hedgehog in a sleeping bag, a ship in a bottle with an octopus and much more. A separate section is for insects, with lots of moths and ladybugs among others.

You’ll also find a lot of Christmas patterns in a similar style, with aliens, bottles, dinosaurs, cyrptids and ghosts heavily featured. There are also special sections for ghosts and skeletons, but they definitely aren’t exclusive to Halloween.

There are also witchy designs, funny quotes, kitchen themed items and more.

Check out all the designs at Max Stitches Art on Etsy. If you love it there’s also an option to buy the whole store!

[Photo: Max Stitches Art]

As a knitter, I love a good sheep motif, so let’s take a look at some cute sheep cross stitch patterns.

If you want to stitch a little sheep, this mini square from Good Dog Needleworks is a nice choice. It uses just three colors and measures 32 by 32 stitches. That’s 2.2 inches or about 5.5 cm square if you stitch it on 14 count fabric.

I also love these two little sheep, which you can stitch together or in individual hoops and shown. The designs are form Threadbound Art and use six colors. They are slightly different in size, with one being 21 by 17 stitches and the other 21 by 20. They fit in four inch frames if you work them on 14 count fabric.

You can stitch a sweet sheep bookmark with this design from Kits by SA Stitch. This is not for the person who doesn’t like back stitch, because there’s a lot of that here, but it is really cute. It measures 30 by 91 stitches and uses 10 colors. That will make your bookmark about 2.4 by 6.5 inches, or 6 by 16.5 cm on 14 count fabric.

Stitch a pretty scene of sheep in a meadow with this design from Motok Nytok. It uses 21 colors and the design is 99 by 73 stitches. On 14 count fabric that makes it about 7.07 by 5.21 inches, or 17.96 by 13.24 cm.

This yarn full of cross stitch sheep has a bit of a knitting twist because the sheep all look like they have sweaters on. The design is from Soda Stitch Design and it measures 179 by 216 stitches. The full design uses 27 colors. On 14 count fabric it will work out to 12.78 by 15.42 inches, or 32.48 by 39.19 cm.

Another great one with a knitting theme is this one where the wool is coming off the sheep and straight onto the needles. This one is from Happy Cross Stitchers and uses 12 colors. The pattern is 137 by 137 stitches, which comes out to 9.7 inches or 24.86 cm square on 14 count fabric. This would be a fun one to stitch for the knitter in your life (even if that is you).

Or you can stitch the field of sheep of a knitter’s dreams with the Happy Sheep chart from Charts and Stuff. These per-colored sheep can be stitched as shown or worked in any colors you like. The eyes are French knots but you can just stitch them in white if you’d rather.

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