Haunted House Cross Stitch Patterns

I came across a super cool Stephen King-themed haunted house cross stitch pattern the other day and knew I just had to share it, along with some other fun options for haunted house cross stitch patterns.

This one, from Witchy Stitcher on Etsy, is a very detailed design based on a few Stephen King novels. You’ll find Jack’s room from The Shining, Pennywise from It, Carrie in her blood-soaked dress and more. When stitched on 14-count fabric it comes out to 11.38 inches wide and 13.5 inches tall, or 159 by 189 stitches.

Teeny Weeny XStitch on Etsy has another cute (if it’s OK to call something this creepy cute?) haunted house filled with horror characters like Jason, a vampire, a ghost, mummy, scary clown and more. Each room of the house is 54 by 48 stitches and it was originally done as a stitchalong with 12 steps. In total it is 240 by 192 stitches and uses 90 colors. Really.

Falling in the more sweet than spook category for sure is the haunted house cross stitch pattern from Tiny Modernist, which includes people, skeletons, a witch, a vampire and ghosts. This one was also a stitchalong but it’s only six rooms instead of 12, so you might have time to finish it before Halloween. The design is 156 by 224 stitches, or 12 by 16 inches on 14 count fabric. It uses 20 colors.

If you’re proud of your haunted house, then you’ll want to stitch up this haunted house with rainbow flag windows from Shantay Stitches on Etsy. It uses 15 colors and fits in a 9-inch hoop when completed.

Or if you’re looking for a traditional sampler style pattern with spooky twist, try this one from Cara and Christi Brown. It features a haunted house and a funky alphabet, snakes and skulls and bats, as well as a super cute border made of pumpkins, leaves and spiders. It measures 111 by 157 stitches and is rated for intermediate stitchers.

Most of the cross stitch projects I make are pretty small and not something I would consider heirloom quality (though I am working on a big project for my daughter that I hope to have done for her high school graduation in two years that I hope is something she’ll want to keep forever, but that’s another story).

But it is definitely possible to cross stitch projects that will stay around for generations, and one prime example of that is a cross-stitched linen tablecloth.

Linen tablecloths are classic, while stitching one can be a big project, depending on the size of your table, it doesn’t have to be really complicated.

Koekoek has a good, detailed post about figuring out how much linen you would need to make a tablecloth that you can cross stitch and/or embroider on (they also sell tablecloth linen in their shop if you don’t already have some or a linen tablecloth you already use). Of course for a project like this you’d want the best fabric you can find and afford, because you’ll be stitching it for a long time and hopefully using it for years.

The post walks through how to measure your table and determine how much fabric you’ll need including the drop you’ll want and hems. It includes the math for rectangular and square tables as well as circular tables, which helps take the guesswork out of buying fabric. It also talks about preparing the fabric and making mitered corners if you have a square or rectangular table, which will help the tablecloth sit nicely on your table.

The tutorial doesn’t include specific patterns to use for your tablecloth, but it does advise keeping it simple because this is a really big project. You can start with a motif in the center or doing borders, and this is a project you can add to through the years by, say, stitching a symbol for each family member or adding names, wedding dates, etc. and making it a real record of your family.

Would you ever cross stitch a tablecloth or have you done so? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Koekoek]

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