Designer Spotlight: Ulysses Blue Stitching

I have been holding onto this Etsy shop to share with you when we got a little closer to Christmas, because as of this writing 17 of the designer’s 39 cross stitch charts have a Christmas theme. I think we’re close enough, so here’s Ulysses Blue Stitching!

This Australia-based shop has a focus on sampler-style projects and, as I mentioned, there’s a lot of Christmas going on. There are several different advent calendar themed stitching projects, and I think my favorite is the one shown here. I love all these little holiday houses, and they’d be a great way to use some thread out of your stash to make all the houses different colors if you like.

As it was designed it uses 10 colors and has a stitch area of 209 by 209 stitches. That makes a finished project of 14.6 inches square, or 37.9 cm, when stitched on 14 count fabric, but the pattern includes options for higher count fabric if you want to make it a little smaller.

These advent projects would be a lot of fun to do as an advent project, so you have it finished for Christmas and to use as decor through the season in years to come.

In addition there are more projects involving houses, as well as a snowman and fox, Santa and a cardinal, and a super cute cake stand sampler that looks like a tree covered with ornaments.

If Christmas isn’t your thing, there are more traditional sampler patterns, several of which have an American/patriotic feel, as well as some Halloween patterns to work on for next year (there’s a Halloween advent calendar, too, which I love). There are also a handful of patterns with a bee theme if you’re into that.

Check out all the stitchy goodies at the Ulysses Blue Stitching Etsy shop!

[Photo: Ulysses Blue Stitching]

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Cross Stitch Samplers with a Historic Twist

If your cross stitch tastes run to anime, fantasy, Disney, gnomes and the like, you’ll want to check out TesLime Cross Stitch on Etsy. This Dublin-based Etsy shop boasts more than 1,000 cross stitch patterns, with a strong pop culture bent.

The largest category in the shop is Disney, and there’s a separate Disney princess category, so there’s nearly 300 Disney themed cross stitch patterns in all. Some of these are chibis but a lot of them are pretty direct copies of Disney characters. Do with that what you will.

There’s also a large fantasy section that’s heavy on Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, dragons, aliens and trolls. In the hero section you’ll find Star Wars, Harley Quinn and the Joker, the Avatar, and Marvel characters. And in anime, there’s lots of Pokemon, Attack on Titan and Ghibli-inspired designs, to name a few.

The thing that caught my eye in this shop wasn’t any of that, though. It was sardines.

There are actually several different patterns in this shop of cans of sardines. I don’t really know why, but they’re just so weird and silly that’s what I had to share. In particular this one, where the little fish are wearing little shirts. Why? Again, I don’t know, but it’s kind of cute, right?

This design is 100 by 130 stitches and uses 21 colors. It comes out to 7.14 by 9.29 inches, or 18.14 by 23.59 cm, when stitched on 14 count fabric (the pattern includes measurements for some other counts, too, if you want to make it smaller).

And all of that barely scratches the surface. There are more than 100 Christmas cross stitch patterns (these are heavy on Disney, too). A steampunk raven. A large collection of gnomes.

I think you’re just going to have to go check it out for yourself and see what strikes you. If you end up buying one of their patterns, I’d love to hear what you chose! Check them out at www.etsy.com/shop/TesLimeArt on Etsy.

[Photo: TesLime Cross Stitch]

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