Designer Spotlight: Tourmaline Pattern

The Ukrainian Etsy shop Tourmaline Pattern is the place for you if you like animal patterns with a lot of whimsy and a touch of snark.

You know it’s going to be good when the categories include things like ghosts, silly goose, witchy cross stitch, mushrooms, snarky, gunny, cottagcore and goblincore.

Let’s go back to silly goose for a second just in case you’re wondering what that’s about. The goose can be found wearing a flower hat, carrying a Christmas present while wearing a scarf, posing scandalously in a watermelon patch and dressed up like a punk rocker, among other things.

I love a good mushroom pattern, but these are pretty silly, too. They include a racoon and a frog in mushroom hats, mushrooms feeling some different emotions and magic mushrooms being visited by ghosts.

Speaking of ghosts, there are ghosts dressed as cowboys, in flower crowns and taking selfies. There’s not a Halloween section outside of the ghosts, but there are also Easter, Valentine’s Day and Christmas themed cross stitch patterns, if you’re into that.

The snarky section includes some things I wouldn’t share here, but I couldn’t resist pulling out the Nessie cross stitch pattern that says “I don’t believe in humans.” This one looks great on black cross stitch fabric. The pattern is 54 by 43 stitches and uses nine colors. If you stitch it on 14 count fabric it will come out to 3.8 by 3 inches, or 9.7 by 7.8 cm.

In addition to all that, you’ll also find a collection of fun (and again, sometimes snarky) cross stitch bookmark patterns, which are great to stitch up as holiday gifts for the readers in your life. These include cats, the silly goose again, ghosts, snarky sayings, fruits, planets and more.

As of this writing you can buy any three patterns and get 40 percent off, or buy five patterns for 50 percent off, so if you like this style you can stock up.

Check out all their designs at Tourmaline Pattern on Etsy.

[Photo: Tourmaline Pattern]

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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