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Designer Spotlight: Needle Lot Designs

July 16, 2025 by Sarah White

A reader suggested that I share Needle Lot Designs with you, which isn’t a designer I was familiar with, so let’s check it out together. 

Their designs are colorful, with lots of animals, fantasy and folklore inspired designs. The page’s tagline says it makes “cross stitch patterns for quirky hearts.” 

The largest category on the site is called animal friends, though there are plenty of other categories about animals and nature, too (such as bugs & beetles and aquatic animals). These aren’t the sorts of animals you’d generally expect to find in cross stitch. There’s a poison heart frog, a capybara in a teacup, a racoon and possum teaming up to go through the trash. 

My favorite here is this pretty red panda, sitting on a branch in front of a stand of bamboo. This one uses 19 colors, and it’s all full cross stitches but the designer calls it an intermediate pattern because of the size and number of colors involved. It’s 100 by 105 stitches, and shown worked on 32 count Belfast linen.

Worked on 14 count fabric it measures 7.25 by 7.5 inches, or 18.1 by 19.1 cm. 

There are also art nouveau designs featuring animals, as well as a few animal-themed tarot cards. 

The fantasy and folklore section includes Mothman, Nessie and a baby jackalope, as well as a couple of dragon designs and Cerberus reimagined as a three-headed cat. (Yes, it’s called Cerberpuss.)

You’ll even find a few Halloween/fall and Christmas/winter patterns if you like the seasonal stuff. Check out all their designs at Needle Lot Designs on Etsy. 

And if you want me to feature one of your favorite designers that I haven’t mentioned yet, you can share that by leaving a comment on this post or heading to the top of the page, clicking on “suggest a craft” in the middle of the top navigation bar and filling out the form there. 

[Photo: Needle Lot Designs]

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Have you read?

Everything You Need to Know About Embroidery Hoops

One of the most common supplies for cross stitch, aside from fabric, needles and floss, is an embroidery hoop. A hoop isn’t needed for every project, and indeed there are some stitchers who prefer not to use them at all. I generally don’t use a hoop when I’m working on a small cross stitch project, especially something that’s shape isn’t conducive to using a hoop (like a bookmark). 

But embroidery hoops can be really helpful for cross stitch because they hold your fabric at an even tension, which allows you to stitch more evenly without any more work on your part. It’s great for beginners to use hoops because the tension on the fabric can both help make your stitches more even and make the holes in the fabric a little easier to see. 

I’ll admit to always just buying whatever hoop is available in the right size when I’m ready to start a project without giving it much more thought than that. But there are things you should consider when choosing among the different kinds of hoops, which Caterpillar Cross Stitch covers in their great guide to embroidery hoops. 

The post walks you through wooden, plastic, spring tension and flexi hoops (which I’ll admit to having never heard of; they’re made of vinyl and plastic apparently), as well as Q-Snap frames, which aren’t really hoops because they’re made of plastic tubes that you snap together in the size and shape you need. 

It also covers what size hoop you should use for the project you’re working on and how to actually use a hoop in the right way. 

Whether you’re new to cross stitch or more seasoned, you’re sure to pick up a tip or a product to try in this post, so go check it out over at Caterpillar Cross Stitch. 

Do you have a favorite kind of embroidery hoop to use for cross stitch, or do you go without? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

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