Designer Spotlight: Trellis & Thyme

Trellis & Thyme is a US-based designer that makes cute and easy-to-make cross stitch, felt softie patterns and sewing patterns sold on Etsy.

Many of the designs are little samplers with four different items with a seasonal twist, so you can stitch them all together as shown or make individual projects, or just stitch one of them if its your favorite.

For a seasonally appropriate example as I write this, here’s the frosty treats sampler, which features a striped ice pop, a sundae in a waffle cone, a Neapolitan ice cream treat and another treat with a straw sticking out.

The full design is 5.5 by 2 inches, or 13.5 by 4.5 cm, so it’s easy to pull one out and stitch it as a gift tag, for a card, onto a napkin or anywhere else you might want a bit of kawaii cuteness.

Many of their designs have the same kind of feel, whether it’s a collection of seasonal vegetables, sushi, holiday themed snacks or even adorable items for back to school.

In addition to these sampler style patterns there are plenty of cute seasonal designs with little characters, text and icons of the season. For example the Be Thankful pattern, which has a pilgrim, corn, squash, a bee and a crow. You’ll also find some adorable animals, single-image kawaii food designs and a few other options.

You can check out all of their cross stitch patterns here.

If you like other needle crafts in addition to cross stitch you’ll find some fun things to check out, too. There are a couple of crochet patterns, embroidery patterns, adorable quilt blocks and even more adorable feltcraft projects (I know it’s not what we’re here for, but check out this cute little penguin!).

You can also learn more about their projects and publications on their blog, and visit their Etsy site to shop all the goodies.

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Cute Food Cross Stitch Patterns

If you like repeating cross stitch designs, borders you can use on other projects or as bookmarks, florals and Japanese-inspired designs, you’ll want to check out 200 Japanese Cross Stitch Designs by Saeko Endo. This collection of 200 cross stitch charts is low on instruction but big on inspiration for those who are comfortable taking a chart and running with it.

The book includes a brief introduction to the needed supplies and basics of stitching, but mostly is just photographs of finished designs and the charts that go with them. The charts vary widely in size and there can be anywhere from one to six charts printed on a single page.

Many of the designs are repeating patterns, but the chart shows a larger version so you can see how the repeats go together. Each chart has marked what portion is repeating and how many stitches and rows it includes. Other than that the charts are not numbered, but there are darker lines every five rows to help you count.

The patterns all range from one to three colors, and some include half cross stitches or back stitching, but most are full stitches.

The book is arranged into categories of motifs: geometric patterns, retro patterns, traditional Japanese patterns, floral and fauna and borders and pictorial motifs.

My favorites are the Japanese designs, many of which are recognizable from woodcuts, kimono designs and traditional shashiko embroidery. You’ll find cherry blossoms, suns, knots, and simple line designs that would be lots of fun to stitch.

There are a few pages devoted to different ways to modify charts such as changing colors, changing the way to design is repeated, flipping and rotating designs.

Other than that you’re on your own for how you actually want to use these designs. Of course they can just be stitched and framed but it might have been nice to see some of the projects stitched and staged in a way you might use them in everyday life (repeating motifs as coasters, or a bigger design turned into a pillow, for example).

Sometimes it helps to see designs used in different ways to get you thinking about how you might use them yourself. If you don’t need that creative push, this is a fine book full of patterns you’ll have fun playing with in different ways.

About the book: 112 pages, paperback, 200 patterns. Published 2025 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.

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