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.

I was recently approached by Alyssa, the cross stitcher behind the Etsy shop Stitchonomy, to take a look at her cross stitch pattern subscription club, known as The Pattern Club.

I took a look around and there’s a lot of cute stuff and fun options you’ll want to check out, especially if you love themed patterns that are small, easy to stitch and fun to combine.

The Pattern Club combines cross stitching with a social network. When you open the site you’ll see a news feed and have the ability to share updates much like you would on Facebook. You can see who is online, have buddies and post your own updates and photos. The community aspect is a little sparse right now but that should only grow.

The stitch along hub is the place to find the most recent patterns and information on the current stitchalong. As of this writing the Book Lover’s stitchalong was happening, with little designs like Peter Rabbit, a skull for Hamlet and keys for Jane Eyre as well as authors including Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.

Other pattern collections include European designs, Halloween, ocean life, an allotment garden and more. Alyssa tells me there’s a new theme every month that either she picks or members in the community suggest. You can stitch just the patterns you want or put them together to make a larger collage.

The Stitchanomini vault gives you access to all of the previous patterns, and new patterns are released daily through the stitchalong. You can download individual patterns (most of them are 19 by 19 stitches) as PDFs or Pattern Keeper files. The PDFs include a color and black and white chart as well as a floss list.

Another cool thing you can do is build your own pattern collages from all of the squares that have been released. The collage configurator allows you to add patterns of your choosing to a grid ranging from 2×2 patterns up to 4×4. You can scroll through all the current patterns or search by theme and size to make a project that suits your needs. (Above is an example I made kind of at random but you get the idea.)

If you want to check it out, you can grab a three-day free trial and see all the pattern options. Membership is $7.99 a month, or if you pay for a year at a time you’ll get two months free. In addition to the patterns in the club, members receive discounts on patterns and supplies purchased through the shop within the club. Annual members get access to three paid/retired stitchalongs and lifetime members receive all retired patterns.

If you check it out I’d love to hear what you think!

Have you read?