Designer Spotlight: Whoopicat

If you’re a fan of art nouveau, art deco or the arts and crafts period in design, have I got a treat for you today. Etsy seller Whoopicat is based in Michigan and makes glorious stitched reproductions of classic designs, as well as projects inspired by vintage illustrations.

Sometimes I don’t even know where to begin or what one photo to share with you when I’m writing these posts, and that’s definitely the case this time around. Historic botanical prints? Golden age illustrations? Reproductions of William Morris wallpaper designs? Early 1900s French fashion illustrations? There’s so much to like and make me wish my cross stitch skills were a little more than what they are so I would feel up to stitching any of these.

OK. How about this mandala cross stitch design based on a circular design of Christopher Dresser’s? He was an English designer in the late 1800s who was quite influential in the Aesthetic movement.

The design looks complex, but because it’s symmetrical it’s not as difficult as some of the others, and it only uses 10 colors. You can keep it in the tones of yellow, red and blue shown, or adjust it to suit your space better. (The whole idea of aestheticism is to make something beautiful, after all!) It measures 173 by 173 stitches, or 12.36 inches/31.4 cm square. It’s a great size for a pillow or a wall hanging.

If this sort of style appeals to you at all, you should definitely spend some time browsing around to find your favorites. (They have more than 700 designs as of this writing.)

And lest you think it’s all high art, there’s a fun collection of vintage and vintage-inspired holiday designs, too. I’m partial to this one developed from a postcard showing a bunch of black cats in front of a jack o’lantern.

Check out all their designs at Whoopicat on Etsy.

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Stitch Samplers and Other Historic Inspired Designs

There’s not much to say about Etsy seller Knotty yites other than if you like pop culture cross stitch patterns this is the place for you. It’s pretty much all they do, and there’s a wide range of fandoms and characters represented.

I first learned about this shop when I was doing Only Murders in the Building cross stitch patterns, and if you like that one the rest of their patterns are similar in vibe. They feature little characters in a lineup, sometimes labeled with the name of the show/movie they are from or with other text.

There’s everything from She-Ra to Ghostbusters, Lost to Xena, Game of Thrones to the MCU. While lots of the designs only cover a few characters, there are some larger ones as well.

Like this “space superhero” alphabet full of characters (and one spaceship!) from the Star Wars universe. The full design is 196 by 272 stitches and uses 81-86 colors (the range being because there are actually two alphabets with some different characters to choose from, or mix and match your favorites).

If you’ve ever wanted to stitch up Katniss and the mockingjay pin, an homage to Cersei Lannister or Jem and the Holograms, this shop has got you covered. Or you can try the X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy or characters from the video game Mass Effect.

Like I said, there’s a wide variety.

If this sounds like the kind of shop you would like, check out all the options at Knotty Bytes. I’d love to hear if you make something from this shop (or if you have already!).

Know a designer who should be in the spotlight? Or are you a designer who wants to share your store? Leave a comment or fill out the form you get when you click on “suggest a craft” at the top of the page.

[Photo: Knotty Bytes]

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