Designer Spotlight: Snail Fishes Stitches

I usually try to come up with some kind of overarching statement about a cross stitch pattern shop to open these posts, but all I’ve got here is that Snail Fishes Stitches is just fun. If you don’t like fun, and color, and funny little frogs, this is probably not the place for you.

Snail Fishes Stitches has as of this writing nearly 300 patterns, and the biggest category on the site is “miscellaneous.” And it really is that, with animals, word art, pattern bundles of things like holiday trucks and ocean animals, different animal faces, teapots, rainbows and this weird space milkshake.

See? Fun.

This one is 46 by 80 stitches, which comes out to 3.3 by 5.7 inches (or 8.4 by 14.5 cm) on 14 count fabric. It uses 15 colors and looks like it would be great fun to stitch.

Another high-volume category is frogs. You’ll find them on mushrooms and in teacups, dressed up for holidays and seasons, and sitting on a log.

There are also a lot of Christmas (heavy on snow globes) and Halloween patterns, and smaller numbers of projects for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter and the seasons.

In addition there are bookish patterns to show off your favorite genre in stitches, and patterns involving dragons, cats, snakes disguised as sweet treats (pumpkin python pie, anyone?) and gnomes. There are patterns as devoted to coffee as you are, as well as a series of vehicles (perfect for a construction equipment obsessed kiddo’s room) and a salad’s worth of fruit.

Sound good? Check out all the designs over at Snail Fishes Stitches on Etsy.

And let me know if you have a favorite designer I haven’t featured; I’d love to put them in the spotlight! Just leave a comment telling me all about them and I’ll check it out.

[Photo: Snail Fishes Stitches]

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]

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