Designer Spotlight: Stitch with Coffee

Stitch with Coffee is an Etsy shop that is almost completely devoted to holiday designs, with the exception of a series of designs that feature the exploits of a tuxedo cat named Tuxey. It’s also almost completely devoted to cat designs, as we’ll see.

Because I happen to own a tuxedo cat (her name is Haru) we definitely have to spend some time talking about those patterns Haru means spring, so it seems appropriate to share this one of the cat in a field of daisies. The pattern measures 91 by 52 stitches and is all full cross stitches with a little bit of backstitching. It doesn’t say how many colors are used but I think it’s six or seven.

I love the look of it on this sage colored 28 count linen but you can use whatever you like.

The largest category in the shop is for Halloween, and here, too, you’ll find a lot of cats (I also have a black cat so you know I love that, too). There are cats doing potions, a skeleton cat, Frankencat, Dracula cat, cats in pumpkins, a cat witch flying a broom and more. There are also some ghosts and other patterns that don’t involve cats, but I can’t stress enough that there are a lot of cats in this shop (maybe it should have been called Stitch with Cats instead of Stitch with Coffee!).

In the Christmas section there are still more cats: in sweaters, with antlers decorated with holiday lights, in stockings and a cat snowman. There are not Christmas patterns that don’t feature cats.

There are a couple of Valentine’s Day patterns that don’t feature cats, but they still predominate here. You get the idea.

If you like cats every day of the year you’re sure to enjoy this shop. And if you like cats every month of the year, make sure you check out their calendar series, which features cats doing seasonal things like watching a snow globe, being a leprechaun and waving a flag surrounded by fireworks.

Check out all their designs at Stitch with Coffee, and let me know if you see something that catches your eye!

[Photo: Stitch with Coffee]

I don’t usually cross stitch text or add words to my cross stitch projects. Sometimes I will sign things using basic block lettering worked in backstitch (luckily my initials are pretty easy to stitch), but if you give your cross stitch as a gift or otherwise want to personalize it, adding text is a great way to go.

But if a project didn’t already come with text, and you don’t want to draw your own, you’ll need a good cross stitch font that you can use for your project.

I like collecting fonts that are easy to read and to stitch and that would be good for lots of different uses.

For example I really like this bold alphabet font from Cross Stitch with Art, which has both capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers if you need them for dates or other information on your design. The capital letters are an inch/2.5 cm/14 stitches tall, which makes it easy to figure out how much space you need to leave for them. It’s a nice, basic, readable serif font you can use for lots of project.

If you want a script font that’s still really readable, check out Magic Calligraphy from Soft Pattern Designs. This hand drawn font has upper case letters around 28 stitches tall, with lower case letters mostly being around 20 stitches (though the ones that go up or down a lot like f, p and y are bigger). The numbers also vary a bit in size but range from 25 to 29 stitches.

Sometimes you just want a classic font that looks like sports lettering, and in that case you’re going to need Varsity, an all caps font from Stitch Mod. This one has letters that are 21 stitches tall, and it includes capital letters and numbers. But there are definitely times this one would come in handy!

Another sometimes useful and really cute font is this alphabet block letters alphabet from Stitch Junction. These letters are all upper case and look like classic building blocks, and there are also numbers available. This one would be perfect for a birth announcement project or some other cross stitch for the baby’s room.

And if that’s not enough for you, check out this post with 85 free cross stitch fonts for you to try!

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