Designer Spotlight: Needleshaped Ltd

If you like your cross stitch patterns with a gothic twist, you’re going to love the collection of patterns offered by UK-based Etsy shop Needleshaped Ltd. I don’t know if they’re really from a town called Gravesend like their bio (which also calls them “cross stitch conjurers”) says, but I almost wouldn’t care if they made that up to add to their spooky credibility.

Here you’ll find lots of creepy and funny cross stitch patterns, lots of text-based patterns, dark princesses, horror, butterflies and more. There are a few fun tattoo-inspired designs sold as kits (many of their patterns are available both as the pattern alone and as a kit with supplies), as well as designs specific to Halloween and Christmas. There are also pop culture designs, occult inspired patterns and a few that are just funny.

I wanted to share this oujia board cross stitch pattern just because it shows how much fun you can have even just with one color of thread. (It also is a great example of what I was talking about the other day about how fun the projects are that are worked with black cross stitch fabric, even though that increases their skill level a bit.) It calls for using a piece of fabric that’s 26 by 18 inches (66 by 45.7 cm), which leaves some room around the edges as shown in the photo. You can also get this one as a kit that includes the pattern, fabric, needle and thread, which comes in a plastic package should you want to gift it to someone else. (You’ll need your own embroidery hoop if you use one.)

You can find all of the digital patterns together without the kit selections here for easier browsing, or head to their main Etsy storefront page to check out all the goodies.

[Photo: Needleshaped Ltd]

Stitchissimo is an Etsy shop based in Bulgaria that has a heavy focus on bookmarks and cards, often with a religious spin, as well as adorable animal cross stitch patterns. Let’s take a closer look.

The biggest category in the shop (though not by much) is baby animals, and there are lots of cute options, from a horse to butterflies, a capybara to sea creatures, farm animals and more.

Since this is a year when ducks are really popular, here’s their duck cross stitch pattern, which is pretty representative of the style of these projects. This mini cross stitch design is just 27 by 33 stitches and it uses four colors, making it a great option for someone new to cross stitch (which all of the animals would be).

On 14 count fabric the design comes out to almost 2 by 2.4 inches, or 4.9 by 6 cm, so it would fit in a three or four inch hoop.

Coming in a close second is the bookmark section (there’s also a separate kids’ bible bookmark category), which includes a wide variety of projects often featuring flowers, fruit or some other image along with a quote from the bible. The kids’ section is the same, only with cute animals decorating them instead of flowers.

There’s also a large collection of Christmas and winter themed projects. Many have a religious bent such as nativity scenes and angels, but there are also snowmen, Christmas foods and winter scenes with cute animals.

Other categories include sentiments to stitch for greeting cards, spring and Easter themed projects and “boy decor” (mini cross stitch patterns of vehicles). Smaller categories include summer, autumn and the Fourth of July.

These projects are cute and colorful, and a lot of them are small, which makes them great for beginners. It’s an especially great place if you like religious themed projects and bookmarks.

Check out all the designs at Stitchissimo.

[Photo: Stitchissimo]

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