Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Designer Spotlight: Stitches Sew Beautiful

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Super detailed, full coverage cross stitch designs are what you’ll find at the Etsy shop Stitches Sew Beautiful. Many of the designs are created from digital art (with permission from the original artist, of course) making the designs incredibly detailed and using lots of different colors.

These are definitely projects for experienced stitches who are up for a challenge. Not all of the patterns say how many colors would be needed but as an example that did, the pretty dragon pattern shown above calls for 100 colors. The design is 300 by 400 stitches. If my math works, on 14 count fabric it would be 21.4 by 28.5 inches, or 54.3 by 72.4 cm. But it’s gorgeous and definitely worth the work for a dragon lover. (By the way this is designed by ArtMariska/Maria Szollosi.)

A lot of the patterns tend toward fantasy. There are lots of dragons, fairies and angels, but also plenty of holiday themed projects (both Krampus and Santa, and a few other holidays, too).

Other than the holiday patterns, the designs are organized by the original artist, which means browsing is in order to see what all is available and what you might like to stitch. Bill Bell offers incredibly detailed, cartoonish city scenes that become a bit of a where’s Waldo scene looking at all the details that are included. Karla Gerard’s designs have more of a folk art feel, while Sphinx Design Studio brings a steampunk flair and a bit of pop culture, with designs inspired by “Wednesday,” “Good Omens” and the like.

I guess all of that is a long way of saying sharing one photo from this shop doesn’t do it justice or allow you to explore the variety of artists and styles represented. So go check out the shop on Etsy and find something you’ll love to stitch!

[Photo: Stitches Sew Beautiful]

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Toy Story Cross Stitch Patterns

I’m going to go ahead and admit that I totally missed Toy Story 4, so it took my by surprise when Toy Story 5 came out, but let’s celebrate with some Toy Story cross stitch patterns. 

This sweet design including Woody, Buzz and Jessie is from The Xstitch Shop, and they actually have a few different Toy Story options. This one says it is for intermediate stitches, probably because of the size and number of colors, but the sales page doesn’t say how big it is or how many colors it uses. It’s still cute, though!

If you’ve got a fan of Jessie in your household, this collection of Jessie themed icons is super cute to stitch. The design is from Mercury Stitches and it measures 97 by 144 stitches. that comes out to 6.9 by 10.3 inches, or 17.6 by 26.1 cm, and uses 11 colors. It has full and half cross stitches, as well as back stitching and French knots. 

Share the love of friendship with this sweet Woody and Buzz heart hands cross stitch pattern from Pixell Patterns. This design uses eight colors and is shown worked on 14 count fabric, but the notes don’t indicate how bit is is (based on a finished project photo, though, it looks pretty big). 

And for the Buzz Lightyear fans, of course we have to have a “To infinity and beyond” pattern, so here’s one from Silver Lake Stitches. This design is super cute on blue fabric, but use whatever you have. It measures 78 by 92 stitches, which comes out to 5.6 by 6.6 inches, or 14.2 by 16.7 cm, on 14 count fabric. It calls for 14 colors. 

Or if you want to go beyond the core three main character toys, check out this project from ThreeOOne Patterns, which includes our main toys as well as Bo Peep and her sheep, Bullseye the horse, the Slinky dog, Rex, Ham, the Potato Heads and an alien. The design is 310 by 80 stitches, which comes out to 21.14 by 3.5 inches, or 53.7 by 8.9 cm, when worked on 14 count fabric. It uses 65 colors. Or pick out your favorite characters to make a smaller project. 

All those characters and a few more are found on the mini Toy Story character sampler from Knotalot UK (only part of which is shown above). This one uses 31 colors and measures 134 by 108 stitches. It includes whole and fractional stitches, as well as back stitching. On 14 count fabric stitching the whole thing would make a project that’s 9.57 by 7.71 inches, or 24.31 by 19.59 cm.