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]

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?