Designer Spotlight: SchilHaus

Normally when I decide to write about a cross stitch designer I like them to have a good number of patterns that I can talk about. It helps you to see a range of options if you’re looking for a new designer to follow, and it gives me more to write about, which is a win.

But I wanted to share SchilHaus with you even though they only have 11 patterns because they’re just so darn cheerful and I think we all need that.

All of their patterns are similar in color and tone. Some are lines or squares, there are a few quilt-block-style stars, a red and green snowflake that also looks like a star and is the only project of theirs to only use two colors.

There are abstract rainbow polka dots and a colorful set of Christmas bobbles.

The design of theirs that originally caught my eye was one full of multicolored lines, but the one I decided to write about when I was looking at their storefront most recently is the Rainbow Breeze Block.

The pattern has these fun petal-shaped cells surrounded by black to make them really pop. There are two color options in the pattern, but what struck me about this one is that you could do it as a temperature project if you just kept repeating it until the end of the year.

Decide on what colors you want to use for whatever it is you’re tracking and then do a petal a day. You’d need to do rows of 5 instead of 8 to make the rows even or you can leave it as 8 and have some blanks.

(Check out more temperature cross stitch projects.)

Despite the small number of patterns I think SchilHaus is definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of color, abstract design or Christmas projects. Let me know what you think!

[Photo: SchilHaus]

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How Do You Decide What to Make Next?

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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