Designer Spotlight: Stitch Riot Designs

For cross stitch projects with a ton of pop culture references, check out Stitch Riot Designs on Etsy. This Oklahoma-based designer sells charts that are heavy on TV show and movie references, music-themed projects and snarky quotes.

You can get a whole bundle of Taylor Swift patterns, a set of patterns of the card decks from the original Microsoft Windows solitaire game, or find quite a lot of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” patterns.

There’s such a wide variety of fun stuff that hits so many fandoms I don’t even know what to highlight, so if you like a particular TV show or movie and would like to see your favorite quote or character in cross stitch, this is a good place to look.

I see patterns ranging from “Bluey” to “Firefly,” “Supernatural” to “Beavis and Butthead.” For movies you’ll find Monty Python, Barbie, Star Wars and The Crow, among others.

But it’s not all pop culture on this storefront, either. There are holiday patterns, pet memorials, projects for nurses and moms, too.

Because I’m a child of the ’80s and I love The Princess Bride, I decided to highlight this As You Wish cross stitch pattern because I love it so much. There are color options that use either three or four colors, and of course you can pick your own colors to suit your decor if you don’t like the red and gold look.

The pattern is 122 by 77 stitches, which comes out to 8.71 by 5.5 inches (22.1 by almost 14 cm) on 14 count fabric. This would be a fun one to do for a wedding or anniversary gift.

With all this I’ve only scratched the surface of the fun stuff you’ll find at Stitch Riot Designs, so head over to their Etsy shop to check it all out. As of this writing they offer 10 percent off when you buy three patterns, 15 percent off of four and 20 percent off of five pattern purchased at the same time.

[Photo: Stitch Riot Designs]

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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