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]

The cross stitcher behind the blog Sirious Stitches is quite into biscornu.

If you’re not, a quick primer: biscornu are three-dimensional cross-stitched objects with eight points, often with an indention in the middle that makes them look a bit like doughnuts without the hole. They can be just about any size and subject you can think of. They’re often used as pincushions but can also be seasonal decor or just decoration for any time of year.

I’ve got a collection of biscornu cross stitch patterns here.

Once you’ve stitched one or several (they are a little addicting) you might wonder what you can add to them to make them even more extra.

It very much depends on the design of your biscornu and the look you are going for, but Sirious Stitches has a great post all about some of the options you might consider.

I don’t want to give you the whole list because you need to go visit and see all of their great biscornu they’ve stitched, but one really easy thing that you can do with a lot of designs is take advantage of that center indent by adding a button, beads, silk flower or another embellishment.

This is great to do just with a basic button from your stash that coordinates with the design and colors of the cross stitching, but it’s extra fun if you have a button that’s on theme, such as a leaf for a fall biscornu or a flower shaped button for a floral design. Add a jingle bell to a Christmas pattern, or a charm if you don’t have a button that coordinates.

Just this one idea is sure to get you thinking about ways to embellish biscornu (not to mention other cross stitch projects) but head over to Sirious Stitches to see all of their ideas for embellishing biscornu to make these already fun projects even more fun.

Have you ever made biscornu? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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