Designer Spotlight: October House Fiber Arts

October House Fiber Arts began with spinning fiber and knitwear designs, but has expanded over the years to include a large line of cross stitch patterns. (Unrelated: they’re based in Arkansas, same as me!)

A lot of their designs are shown as small pillows, which could be used for decor or as pincushions, but of course you could frame them as well.

It could be winter coming on where I live but I’m especially drawn to the Strawberry Faire pattern, shown above. It’s so cute with the strawberry and a bird that’s probably about to eat the strawberry at any moment, even though it is bigger than they are. The texture on the strawberry is a lot of fun.

The pattern measures 91 by 62 stitches, and is shown worked on 30 count linen. It calls for Classic Coloworks and Weeks Dyeworks threads, but conversion to DMC is included. It uses 10 colors. As stitched the project is about 6 by 4 1/8 inches.

As you might guess, there are lots of sampler-style patterns, too, even an Arkansas themed one, though of course you could change the wording and the year to make it your state and whatever year you’re stitching it, or whatever year you moved there, or use your last name and the year of your wedding, or your child’s name and their year of birth, whatever you like!

And because of the knitting connection, there are patterns related to knitting and spinning as well as cross stitch. The Knitter’s Alphabet may be my favorite. It features all the letters of the alphabet, the words knit and purl, and plenty of knitting related motifs like an alpaca and a sweater.

The website includes a blog and a few tutorials to help you with specific projects. And there are a few cute freebie cross stitch patterns (and knitting patterns!) too.

[Photo: October House Fiber Arts]

Next Pattern:

Stitch Detailed Designs from Nature with Fiber on a Whim

Last fall I came across this cross stitch pattern for a sea turtle and I talked myself out of sharing it right away because tropical animals don’t feel like a “fall” thing, but now that it’s summer again, let’s take a look at some cross stitch patterns for creatures that live in or around the sea.

This sea turtle design from Witch Wolf Web Creations is literally just a chart with no grid to help you count stitches or suggested colors, but I would print it out and add a grid to make it easier to stitch. You can work it in many colors as shown, or there’s also a black and white version so you could just do it in a single color.

Stitch up some fish or a seahorse with this bundle of four tropical fish cross stitch patterns from LaSelva Design. It includes a clownfish, seahorse, moorish idol and blue tang, all of which vary in size and colors used, but they’re all really cute.

Or you can stitch a tank’s worth of tropical fish with this project from SamXstitch. There are 22 fish in all on this project, which measures 153 by 153 stitches. On 14 count fabric that’s 10.93 inches or 27.75 cm. It uses 15 colors.

I also love the jewel-toned fishies on this project from Velvet Pony Design. This one has seven fish and a seahorse and measures 113 by 140 stitches. That’s just over 8 by 10 inches or 20.5 by 25.4 cm on 14 count fabric, though you can make it smaller with a higher fabric count. It calls for 24 colors.

This vintage design from Past Pattern Palooza Co has a whole school of little fish. The design is 120 by 260 stitches and uses 30 colors. It measures 8.57 by 18.57 inches (21.7 by 47.2 cm) on 14 count fabric. The pattern notes say there are 69 designs in total, an individual fish range from 1.5 to 3 inches, or 4.5 to 8 cm.

You can stitch up a whole tropical world complete with coral using this design from Easy Stitching Outlet (though I don’t think this one is particularly easy). At 219 by 95 stitches, on 14 count fabric it will come out to 15.6 by 6.8 inches, or 39.73 by 17.24 cm.

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