Designer Spotlight: Yellow Birdie Stitches

If you love to cross stitch bookmarks, Yellow Birdie Stitches is the Etsy shop for you. The shop is based in the UK and almost all of its designs are bookmarks (there are also some cute square designs).

You’ll find bookmarks about everything from romance novel tropes to Asian inspired towers, cats and Art Nouveau designs.

This one of a mermaid reading would be fun for summer, whether for you or for a mermaid loving person in your life. It measures 24 by 78 stitches and the patterns offer measurements for three different stitch counts, but it’s about 1.75 by 3.5 inches (or 4.4 by 8.8 cm) when stitched on 14 count fabric.

It’s shown here on white fabric but the pattern also recommends light green or blue if you have that in your stash. It calls for 14 colors (or 15 if you choose to use Light Effects thread for part of the project) and it looks like it’s all whole cross stitches with a fair bit of back stitching.

You’ll also need some felt or card stock to finish the back of your bookmark, though it is shown freshly stitched here.

In addition to the bookmarks you’ll also find some square designs that I think are designed to be coasters or mounted onto greeting cards, but of course you could frame them in a small square frame as well.

The cat section has several of these with a cats and bonsai theme. There’s also a coffee set that includes a bookmark, coaster and keychain fob. You’ll also find some seasonal designs.

In addition to the above mentioned categories, you’ll find bookmarks with birds, bugs and dragons; patterns for spring, summer, autumn, Easter, Halloween and Christmas; fantasy designs and projects for tea lovers.

So grab an audiobook and a project form Yellow Birdie Stitches to make for your next paper book read.

[Photo: Yellow Birdie Stitches]

Inkspire Studio Shops offers cross stitch patterns as well as tons of different stitch minders, scissor charms and thread organization tools.

We’ll get to all that, but since we’re mostly here for the patterns, let’s start there.

All of the patterns are in one category (called Inkspire Originals if you’re following along). There are a lot of book-themed projects and more of the designs are bookmarks than anything else. You’ll find trope bookmarks, a Reading Rainbow themed design, flowers and a super cute watercolor set bookmark, to name a few.

And while the book themed projects are by far the most numerous, I wanted to share this super cute pile of vintage Pyrex style bowls. I love the colors on this one and it should be easy to stitch because so much of it is blocks (or bowls) of a single color. This one is only available as a printed pattern, but most of them are digital.

It calls for six colors and comes out 5.6 by 6.9 inches, or 14.2 by 17.5 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric.

In addition to the bookmarks and book themed projects you’ll find a few kitchen projects and some Halloween and Christmas designs as well.

But what this shop is really about is needle minders, and there are tons of them, with all kinds of themes ranging from introverted and snarky to animal themes, food and beverages, retro designs and religious and inspiring needle minders.

If you don’t know about needle minders, these are acrylic with magnets. You stick a magnet to the back of your work, add the needle minder to the front of the work, and then it holds your sewing needle when you’re not stitching. No need for piercing your fabric or losing your needle between stitching sessions.

She also makes charms you can attach to your scissors (or use as a stitch marker if you’re a knitter or crocheter), inventory and project trackers and bags large and small to hold works in progress and other supplies. She’s also got a great collection of vintage cross stitch patterns and kits, so check out all the fun goodies at Inkspired Studio Shops.

[Photo: Inkspire Studio Shops]

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