Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Get Inspired by This Gorgeous Butterfly Cross Stitch Pattern

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I love sharing really detailed, beautiful and painterly cross stitch designs, but they always make me a little jealous. I feel like I don’t have the patience for such a big project, especially considering the biggest project I’ve ever attempted has barely been started for probably almost two years now. (I will finish it before my daughter graduates high school, which gives me two and a half more years!)

A good example of the gorgeous cross stitching I wish I could do is this peacock butterfly and forget me nots design from XFree. 

The colors on this one are just so pretty and the range of colors in the flowers and the butterfly both make them look that much more real. 

It’s no surprise that this one uses a whopping 57 colors as well as 7 blends to make that magic. 

And then there’s the size.  At 160 by 149 stitches, the product description helpfully(?) notes there are 22,830 stitches “in the marathon,” a phrase that made me laugh but is also probably pretty realistic for how it feels like to stitch such a thing. 

When finished on 14 count fabric this design would measure 11.4 by 10.62 inches, or 28.96 by 26.97 cm. The pattern includes measurements for other stitch counts if you want to make it a little smaller. 

But honestly I think when you’re making a project this big you might as well make it big, right? Such that everyone who walks into the room where it’s hanging after you finish it will notice it. 

If you want to take this one on, you can find the pattern from XFree on Etsy. 

In the meantime I want to know, what’s the biggest cross stitch project you’ve successfully finished? Do you like big projects or smaller ones? I would love to share more of what you like to stitch, so let me know in the comments!

[Photo: XFree]

Blue Butterfly Cross Stitch Pattern [Cross-Stitch]

33 Free Butterfly Machine Embroidery Designs [Needle Work]

Have you read?

Toy Story Cross Stitch Patterns

I’m going to go ahead and admit that I totally missed Toy Story 4, so it took my by surprise when Toy Story 5 came out, but let’s celebrate with some Toy Story cross stitch patterns. 

This sweet design including Woody, Buzz and Jessie is from The Xstitch Shop, and they actually have a few different Toy Story options. This one says it is for intermediate stitches, probably because of the size and number of colors, but the sales page doesn’t say how big it is or how many colors it uses. It’s still cute, though!

If you’ve got a fan of Jessie in your household, this collection of Jessie themed icons is super cute to stitch. The design is from Mercury Stitches and it measures 97 by 144 stitches. that comes out to 6.9 by 10.3 inches, or 17.6 by 26.1 cm, and uses 11 colors. It has full and half cross stitches, as well as back stitching and French knots. 

Share the love of friendship with this sweet Woody and Buzz heart hands cross stitch pattern from Pixell Patterns. This design uses eight colors and is shown worked on 14 count fabric, but the notes don’t indicate how bit is is (based on a finished project photo, though, it looks pretty big). 

And for the Buzz Lightyear fans, of course we have to have a “To infinity and beyond” pattern, so here’s one from Silver Lake Stitches. This design is super cute on blue fabric, but use whatever you have. It measures 78 by 92 stitches, which comes out to 5.6 by 6.6 inches, or 14.2 by 16.7 cm, on 14 count fabric. It calls for 14 colors. 

Or if you want to go beyond the core three main character toys, check out this project from ThreeOOne Patterns, which includes our main toys as well as Bo Peep and her sheep, Bullseye the horse, the Slinky dog, Rex, Ham, the Potato Heads and an alien. The design is 310 by 80 stitches, which comes out to 21.14 by 3.5 inches, or 53.7 by 8.9 cm, when worked on 14 count fabric. It uses 65 colors. Or pick out your favorite characters to make a smaller project. 

All those characters and a few more are found on the mini Toy Story character sampler from Knotalot UK (only part of which is shown above). This one uses 31 colors and measures 134 by 108 stitches. It includes whole and fractional stitches, as well as back stitching. On 14 count fabric stitching the whole thing would make a project that’s 9.57 by 7.71 inches, or 24.31 by 19.59 cm.