Designer Spotlight: StudioHMP

Classic old world cross stitch designs and finished pieces are what you will find at Ukraine-based Etsy shop StudioHMP.

This designer has about 60 cross stitch designs as I write this, with an emphasis on classic samplers, florals, birds and geometric designs.

The colors are often muted pastels, which gives the projects even more of a peaceful, classic look.

They’re not all totally traditional, however. Take this Quaker style sampler that might look rather traditional at first, but the more you look the more you see: from the text “first I drink the coffee” to the coffee grinders and post to the border made out of coffee-bean shaped motifs.

The pattern calls for five colors and you can stick with the muted palette of the original or go bolder as you like for your kitchen. It uses 194 by 196 stitches, which comes out to 13.9 by 14 inches or 35.2 by 35.6 cm on 14 count fabric. (It’s just a little bigger than 12 by 12 on 16 count if you want it to be a little smaller.)

There are a few Easter and St. Patrick’s Day designs, as well as Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving and fall. You’ll also find a collection of designs of small animals stitches into little geometric frames. These designs include animals such as a panda, turtle, racoon and hippo.

If you don’t want to stitch the projects yourself or you’re looking for a special gift for a fellow stitcher, there’s also a collection of finished cross stitch projects available for purchase. These are boxes, needle cushions, ornaments or framed designs.

The shop isn’t arranged into categories other than cross stitch patterns and finished cross stitch, so you’ll have to browse around a bit to find what you’re looking for, or do a keyword search if you’re looking for an animal, a holiday design, a sampler, etc.

Check out all this shop has to offer at the StudioHMP storefront on Etsy.

[Photo: StudioHMP]

Next Pattern:

35+ Sunflower Cross Stitch Patterns

A while back I made a little rainbow cross stitch pattern and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it, so I turned it into a patch. My idea was that it could be used on a jacket or backpack, or you could add a pin to the back and wear it temporarily on a shirt or elsewhere.

But what if you want to make your design more permanent? Is it possible to turn a piece of cross stitch into an iron-on design?

It turns out yes, it is, and Sirious Stitches has done it so I didn’t have to try to figure it out on my own.

The way they did it was by using HeatnBond, an iron-on adhesive that attaches fabrics without sewing. There was still sewing involved to finish the edges of the cross stitch fabric and make it look like a purchased patch. The post shows how to do this by hand or with your sewing machine. (I just did blanket stitch edging on mine, which doesn’t look like a “real” patch but is also a lot faster.)

Once you have the patch prepared it’s a pretty easy matter of using the fusible adhesive to the back of the patch so you can then iron it onto whatever jacket, pair of jeans, bag or whatever else you might want to add it to.

I guess I’m a little paranoid about the washability of cross stitch projects, though you could hand wash anything with an iron-on cross stitch patch as you might need to with a purchased iron-on patch, anyway. But this does look really cool and is a great option if you know you want to permanently add a cross stitch patch to a garment of bag.

Get the full tutorial over at Sirious Stitches. Would you add an iron-on cross stitch patch to something? I’d love to hear what you would use this technique for!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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