Fun Ideas for Personalized Cross Stitch Gifts

It’s gift giving season, and it can be fun to make gifts for others, whether cross stitched or otherwise. I have a huge cross stitch project I’ve been “working” on for my daughter that is definitely not going to be ready for Christmas. Her birthday is in September, so maybe it will be done by then? One can hope.

Gift cross stitch projects don’t have to be a big undertaking, of course, and even small patterns can be made more special by adding some personalization.

Lord Libidan recently shared a few ideas for personalized cross stitch projects that you can try if you’re wanting to stitch gifts for people (and whether you should/who is worthy of a cross stitch gift is a topic for another post).

With all the cross stitch alphabets available out there — or you could design your own — it’s easy to add a name, date, or other things to other cross stitch projects. And of course a lot of projects already have customization built in such as cross stitch patterns for weddings, births and graduations.

But you can also add personalization to a sampler project that doesn’t typically call for it, or add special words or a name to other projects like stitched Christmas ornaments or bookmarks.

The post also looks at cross stitch projects that are more literally personalized such as cross stitch portraits or stitching the house of someone who might have just moved. You could also do a map cross stitch with hearts where the person is from or places they have lived, or just add text to a project related to a fandom or favorite thing of the person.

Check out the post at Lord Libidan for more inspiration. I’d love to know if you make personalized cross stitch gifts for people and what you have done in the past.

[Image by Anna Prosekova from Pixabay]

As a knitter, I love a good sheep motif, so let’s take a look at some cute sheep cross stitch patterns.

If you want to stitch a little sheep, this mini square from Good Dog Needleworks is a nice choice. It uses just three colors and measures 32 by 32 stitches. That’s 2.2 inches or about 5.5 cm square if you stitch it on 14 count fabric.

I also love these two little sheep, which you can stitch together or in individual hoops and shown. The designs are form Threadbound Art and use six colors. They are slightly different in size, with one being 21 by 17 stitches and the other 21 by 20. They fit in four inch frames if you work them on 14 count fabric.

You can stitch a sweet sheep bookmark with this design from Kits by SA Stitch. This is not for the person who doesn’t like back stitch, because there’s a lot of that here, but it is really cute. It measures 30 by 91 stitches and uses 10 colors. That will make your bookmark about 2.4 by 6.5 inches, or 6 by 16.5 cm on 14 count fabric.

Stitch a pretty scene of sheep in a meadow with this design from Motok Nytok. It uses 21 colors and the design is 99 by 73 stitches. On 14 count fabric that makes it about 7.07 by 5.21 inches, or 17.96 by 13.24 cm.

This yarn full of cross stitch sheep has a bit of a knitting twist because the sheep all look like they have sweaters on. The design is from Soda Stitch Design and it measures 179 by 216 stitches. The full design uses 27 colors. On 14 count fabric it will work out to 12.78 by 15.42 inches, or 32.48 by 39.19 cm.

Another great one with a knitting theme is this one where the wool is coming off the sheep and straight onto the needles. This one is from Happy Cross Stitchers and uses 12 colors. The pattern is 137 by 137 stitches, which comes out to 9.7 inches or 24.86 cm square on 14 count fabric. This would be a fun one to stitch for the knitter in your life (even if that is you).

Or you can stitch the field of sheep of a knitter’s dreams with the Happy Sheep chart from Charts and Stuff. These per-colored sheep can be stitched as shown or worked in any colors you like. The eyes are French knots but you can just stitch them in white if you’d rather.

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