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]

Hanukkah is a great reason to pull out your cross stitch fabric and thread and stitch up some fun seasonal cross stitch patterns.

If you have trouble spelling Hanukkah (I know I do!) you’ll want to stitch up the How Do You Spell… project from SKB Cross Stitch Design. This one includes a bunch of different ways to spell the holiday, along with some symbols like a dreidel and menorah. (Technically I think all the ways to spell it are “correct.”) The pattern includes full, fractional and bask titches, and measures 8.5 by 7 inches, or 21.6 by 17.8 cm. It has the date for 2004/5785 but you can easily change the year or leave that part off.

Another project with some fun word play is the Words to Live By chart from Sam Brie Stitches. This one includes Hanukkah related symbols and word presented crossword puzzle style, which is fun to stitch and to display. The design uses 10 colors and measures 74 by 103 stitches. It’s shown worked on 18 count fabric.

I may have shared these before, but the Hanukkah patterns from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery are so cute they’re definitely worth sharing again. Happy Hanukkah features a menorah, dreidels, gelt, stars and candles, and it fits in a 6-inch hoop. At 75 by 75 stitches, it comes out to 5.4 inches/13.4 cm on 14 count Aida or 28 count linen. They also have this cute little dreidel stamp cross stitch pattern, which is 39 by 49 stitches, or 2.8 by 3.5 inches (about 7 by 9 cm) on 14 count Aida or 28 count linen.

Works By ABC has a lot of great patterns for Hanukkah, but here are just a couple to get you started. The Rules for Dreidel design is fun for kids and adults and shows the different sides of the dreidel and what it means when you land on them. The stitch count is 62 by 94 and its shown worked on 32 count linen. It calls for three colors. I also like this menorah one, which measures 44 by 49 stitches and uses two colors along with coordinating seed beads. On 32 count linen as shown (equivalent to 16 count Aida) it measures 2.75 by 3.1 inches, or almost 7 by 7.8 cm.

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