Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Get Primitive Style Cross Stitch Patterns from Scattered Seeds Samplers

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I don’t know if I know what the real definition of primitive cross stitch is, but to me it means patterns that look old-fashioned, like colonial American-era samplers stitched on muslin or Bible quotes stitched alongside flowers and animals.

So pretty much exactly the designs from Scattered Seed Samplers. This Etsy shop has more than 80 cross stitch patterns available for shipping, from historical samplers to birds, bunnies, flowers, patterns with words and those without. 

Since it’s fall as I write this I wanted to highlight the Hannah’s Thankful Heart pattern, which features a turkey, flowers and the phrase “Give Thanks with a Joyful Heart.” The turkey’s wing has the year 1621 stitched on it, which is the year of the first “Thanksgiving,” but you could leave that off if you don’t think that particular date is worth remembering.

It is 133 by 72 stitches and shown worked on 35ct. Weeks Dye Works fabric. It uses 10 colors and the design comes out to 8.31 by 4.5 inches when stitched. The designer recommends a 9 by 5 inch piece of fabric to have space around the design when you display it or turn it into a pillow as shown.

A lot of the designs here are billed as pinkeepers, and you can see that this one is, too, because it has some pins in it in the photo, but you could just use it as a display pillow rather than a pincushion if you’d rather. Some of the designs make strawberry shaped pin cushions, which is a cute spin on the classic mass produced tomato pin cushion.

I also love the Miss Isabelle Black pattern, which is a black cat wearing a dress and cardigan, holding a candy pumpkin, and visiting with some of her crow and mouse friends. It’s a fun one for Halloween that doesn’t scream spooky season but still has a touch of Halloween spirit.

Scattered Seed Samplers patterns ship from Wisconsin.

[Photo: Scattered Seed Samplers.]

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Have you read?

Do You Park Your Cross Stitch Thread? Try The Royal Roads Method

I have not done a lot of big cross stitch projects, but sometimes even with small projects it can be hard to decide exactly where to begin and how to work through the chart if you’re working with multiple colors. The general categories for the possible methods are known as cross country and parking. 

Cross country means that you’re working one color at a time, moving around the chart (or the section of the chart you’re working on) until you’re done with that color. Parking means you’re working in a smaller section and doing all the colors in that area, “parking” the threads by leaving them attached to the canvas but out of the way while you finish each section. 

Royal Rows is a specific way of parking named by Alison Royal, which is explored in detail on a post on Stitching Daily. 

The idea is that you’re working one “tower” of stitches at a time (she uses a section of 10 stitches across by 20 down, but you can do whatever makes sense to you). You work all the stitches of a color at a time, starting at the top left and working your way down. When you’re done with a color you can park it where needed in the section below your current tower (known as the dungeon) or in the “east tower,” which is the section to the right. 

There’s also a specific way of dealing with thread ends when you’re done with a color. This is a super simplified version (head to the blog post at Stitching Daily to get all the details) but the basic idea is that you’re working from left to right and top to bottom across the work, parking the threads in the next section when you’re done with them and systematically choosing which color to work with next. 

The whole idea of parking is kind of overwhelming to me though I will admit that it makes a lot of sense. I guess I need to try it on a smallish big project and see how it goes. Do you use the parking method of cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Stitching Daily]