Designer Spotlight: Needle Minder Lair

As you might guess from the name of this Etsy shop, Needle Minder Lair sells a lot of different kinds of needle minders. We’ll get to that, but they also have a nice collection of cross stitch patterns, too, so let’s take a look!

Needle Minder Lair has a heavy emphasis on pop culture and video game designs, including Final Fantasy, Kirby, Resident Evil and Zelda. There are D&D themed designs and a section called gaming, which is more video game characters and controllers. You’ll also find an anime section and Pokemon game boy patterns, too.

There are a lot of pastels here, including in projects you might not expect to be pastel, like landscapes of Japan or witchy projects. For example, this pretty pastel rainbow plague doctor mask. The pattern measures 83 by 98 stitches, which comes out to 5.93 by 7 inches or 15.06 by 17.78 cm on 14 count fabric. It uses 11 colors and is all full stitches.

I like it on this pink background but it would look really cool on a black background, too.

In other cross stitch patterns in the shop you’ll find cats, nature and city landscapes, alphabets and kawaii patterns, which include lots of food, koi and other cute animals.

In addition to cross stitch patterns you will also find a great variety of needle minders in this shop (to review, a needle minder is a magnet and a magnetic thing that you stick to your cross stitch fabric that can then hold your needle when you aren’t stitching so it won’t fall off or make a hole in your fabric). There are single minders and sets with a bunch of themes, including animals, mermaids and tarot.

They also have some keychains, stickers and magnets, a lot of which are related to Resident Evil, but there are some other themes thrown in as well.

Check out all their goodies at Needle Minder Lair on Etsy.

[Photo: Needle Minder Lair]

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Review: Pokemon Cross Stitch

Unique Stitch Crafts is a Turkish designer that has a couple of main interests in their cross stitch designs: travel and Christmas stockings.

By far the biggest category in their storefront is Christmas stockings, with more than 100 options to choose from. There are fully stitched fronts with designs classic and whimsical (like an alicorn and a pastel rainbow, or a bunny in Harlequin costume playing violin to a mushroom) and designs that just go across the cuff of the stocking. There are ornaments with a Nutcracker or Frozen theme, New York City stockings and stockings for your dinosaur.

As an example, here’s a stocking covered with mini holiday designs, which you could also use as ornaments if you wanted. The full design is 165 by 255 stitches, which comes out to 10.3 by 16 inches, or 26 by 40.6 cm on 16 count fabric. The pattern just makes the front of the stocking so you need to grab some fabric for the back of the stocking and sew it together yourself.

There’s also a large collection of travel cross stitch patterns, including national parks designs both large and mini, and travel poster style designs for many US states and cities. (There’s not an Arkansas, which is my standard test since I live there, but there is a pattern of the Mississippi River bridge in Memphis, which is technically half in Arkansas.)

If you’re more of a world traveler you’ll find more of the travel poster style designs for cities and countries, including Thailand and China, Berlin, Sydney and Marrakech.

In addition to all of that, you’ll find patterns called retro, which includes a wide range of designs, but many seem to be food and coffee related; folk art designs (lots of flowers and birds); and famous paintings translated to cross stitch. Smaller categories include Christmas, Halloween, animals, kids and castles.

Check out all the fun designs at Unique Stitch Crafts on Etsy.

[Photo: Unique Stitch Crafts]

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