Designer Spotlight: TAM Stitch Designs

If you love pastels (and cross-stitched houses), TAM Stitch Designs has patterns for you. This collection of contemporary cross stitch patterns from the UK is heavy on cool colors, with calming designs involving flowers, beach scenes, little cottages and more.

The site is well organized to help you find just what you’re looking for, whether that’s a cross stitch pattern of a gnome (these are brighter colors than a lot of their designs), mandalas or fairies. In all there are more than 430 patterns as of this writing for you to choose from.

There are lots of variations on the seaside town with stacks of colorful little buildings along the water’s edge. I picked this one to share because it reminds me of a place I spent a summer a long time ago. Seaside Town is 200 by 200 stitches, which comes out to 14.25 by 14.25 inches, or 36.3 by 36.3 cm, if you use 14 count fabric. The pattern recommends working with an 18 inch piece of fabric to have a two-inch border on the sides, which makes framing that much easier. The description doesn’t say hoe many colors are used but it looks like a lot.

There’s also a whole section of cottagecore cross stitch patterns if that’s a style you’re into. Most of them are literally designs of cottages, but you’ll also find flowers, mushrooms, and even a design of a Victorian style bathtub.

As of this writing the designer offers volume discounts, with 30 percent off when you buy two patterns, 40 percent off when you buy three, and 50 percent off when you buy four at the same time. So if this is a vibe you like, visit their shop and stock up on patterns that will keep you busy (and chill with all those cool colors!) for a long time to come.

[Photo: TAM Stitch Designs]

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Cross Stitch Patterns Inspired by the Beach

I recently wrote a post on my blog about using a stitchable journal cover and I mentioned that you can make your own stitched cover for a journal by using perforated paper instead of buying a stitchable notebook.

I have to admit, though, that I’ve never used perforated paper for cross stitch myself. I definitely want to because I think it would be great to use for bookmarks that don’t fray and have a little more stability, for example.

Sirious Stitches has us covered, though, because they did a deep dive into all things perforated cross stitch pattern that is worth the time to read through.

The post mentions that a lot of people use perforated paper for cross stitch because they buy an ornament kit that uses it. I’ve never seen these (or at least never noticed that that is what they were) but it’s a great idea to make small projects like ornaments in this way. It also talks about the pros and cons of using cross stitch paper, where to buy it and how to make your own.

Making it yourself is an awesome idea because if you already have a pattern in mind you can just make holes in your paper where you need stitches to be and leave the rest solid. This would be ideal for making greeting cards, for example.

In addition to kits and sheets you can often find the paper pre-cut into different shapes you can use to make your own designs, no real pattern required.

The post also includes tips and advice for how to stitch on perforated paper that you’ll want to check out before you try your first project.

I’m super intrigued by the idea of using perforated paper for cross stitch and will probably be trying it out soon. Have you used it before? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Check out the post over at Sirious Stitches for more information.

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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