Designer Spotlight: Nathnolu

Nathnolu is an Etsy shop based in Cyprus that features a smallish but fun collection of what it calls modern cross stitch patterns. There’s a colorful, mystical side to these designs that is a lot of fun, so let’s take a closer look.

The largest category of patterns is insects, which leans heavily on butterflies and beetles. This geometric (and what did I say about colorful?) bug cross stitch pattern caught my eye when I was scrolling through. This design is 124 by 90 stitches, which works out to 8.86 by 6.43 inches, or 22.5 by 16.33 cm, on 14 count fabric. It uses 19 colors and includes only full cross stitches, so it would be a good one for an advanced beginner ready to take on a little more complex of a project.

The next most populous category is called mystical cross stitch, and if you’ve been here for long you can probably guess that these are some of my favorites. There’s an owl doing cross stitch in a comfy chair, for crying out loud! These definitely run to the cozy side of magic and cryptids.

Like many cross stitch designers, Nathnolu also has a nice selection of Christmas cross stitch patterns, including classics like snowflakes, Christmas trees and a heart-shaped sampler full of designs that look pulled from a Fair Isle sweater. But there’s also a gingerbread bunny skeleton, a black cat in a stocking decorated with skulls and cross bones, and a bat in a cozy scarf. You know, variety.

In addition to those bigger categories, you’ll find florals, ocean/nautical designs, Halloween projects, a cute pineapple, some Valentine’s projects (including a lovable ghost), and a gorgeous set of animals mostly made out of flowers. There’s a pig, chicken, toad, cow, rabbit and a few birds, and these look like they’d be lots of fun to stitch.

Check out all the cute designs over at Nathnolu on Etsy.

[Photo: Nathnolu]

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]

Have you read?