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]

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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