How to Cross Stitch a QR Code

I came across this Bored Panda post the other day that shows different cool and unusual things people have done with cross stitch. You’re welcome to scroll through the whole thing if you like — there’s definitely a lot of cool stuff in there — but the one I wanted to point out was number 11, which is from a Reddit post, in which user _The_Blonde_One_ made a QR code for their WiFi password, which is actually pretty genius.

So I dug around a little bit and found a post on Instructables by r-lavelle that explains how to go about converting a QR code into cross stitch. It’s actually not that hard to do.

They used an already produced code, but if you want to generate your own for something like your WiFi password, directions to your house or whatever you might want to keep in a handy, scanable format, you can use a free QR code generator online to develop the code you want to stitch up.

Once you have that, you can draw out a chart (or a QR code is a grid, so you can stitch directly from that if you’re super fancy). The way the Instructables tutorial does it, it makes a grid that’s 29 by 29 stitches square.

And when you have your grid transferred to graph paper, you can just stitch it up in black thread on white fabric and you’re all set. You’ll of course want to test it before you hang it to make sure it sends people where you want it to go.

I love _The_Blonde_One_’s addition of the house shape and a label so people know what it is for. If you’re chaotic you can make several QR codes to hang around your house and send people random places. I love the idea of having one hanging in the bathroom. Where would you direct people to go with your cross stitched QR code?

[Photo: _The_Blonde_One_, via Reddit]

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Shamrock Cross Stitch Patterns

If you love patterns for frogs and sardines, animals, food, flowers and more, Happy Cross Stitchers has got you covered. With more than 1,600 patterns as of this writing, you’re almost guaranteed to find something you like.

I don’t know if I’ve missed something that cross stitch patterns featuring sardines are showing up everywhere (this is the second designer I’ve seen with them in the past month or so) but Happy Cross Stitchers has 60 sardine cross stitch patterns. They also have 200 patterns with flowers, and even more than that in their biggest category, which is animals.

Many of the animal cross stitch patterns have a modern nursery feel to them, like this set of four modern boho animal patterns featuring what I’m interpreting as owls, a moose (or it coulr be a deer), a donkey and a cow. Each individual pattern is 100 by 100 stitches and they use six or seven colors. The designs will come out to 7.1 inches or 18.14 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric.

There’s also a large number of Christmas cross stitch patterns, with lots of trees, little houses, Santas and word art. There are lots of bunnies, eggs and chicks in the Easter section.

The modern designs include lots of colorful, graphic florals. There are also well over 100 butterflies, many of which at least look like they could be inspired by real butterflies (though none of them are labeled as to what kind of butterfly they are).

You’ll also find plenty of cute and often funny cat and dog cross stitch patterns, though there are a lot more cats than dogs represented. And then there’s the food section, with patterns for fruits, different kinds of toast, a jar of pickles, doughnuts and more.

And that’s not even all there is in this store! I guess all this is a long way of saying there’s a lot of fun patterns at www.etsy.com/shop/HappyCrossStitchers on Etsy and you should go browse because you’ll probably find something you like. And if you do, I’d like to hear about it!

[Photo: Happy Cross Stitchers]

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