Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Mardi Gras Cross Stitch Patterns

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Mardi Gras is a holiday that I really love for some reason. I was raised Catholic but we never really celebrated it. I guess I just like the idea of having a party in anticipation of the days of solemnity and deprivation to come, sort of like eating a whole cake the day before you start your diet.

It’s not that easy to find free Mardi Gras cross stitch patterns that aren’t obviously violating someone else’s copyright. My friend Connie had some on her cross stitch page when she was at About, and they are still accessible via the Wayback Machine.

Kate + Ice Cream has a mask design that includes the date 2013, which you could update to the current year or just leave the year off if you like. There’s another cool mask at Free Cross Stitch Designs (as of this writing its in the top row).

And Jessica-Tromp has a chart that was originally for fillet crochet that makes a fleur de lis design that could also be used in cross stitch. Here’s another version from Penelopis’ Cross Stitch Freebies.

Looking for more Mardi Gras Cross stitch patterns? Check these out Etsy.

Have you ever done any stitching for Mardi Gras? I’d love to hear about it.

 

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Cross Stitch Creatures from the Sea

Last fall I came across this cross stitch pattern for a sea turtle and I talked myself out of sharing it right away because tropical animals don’t feel like a “fall” thing, but now that it’s summer again, let’s take a look at some cross stitch patterns for creatures that live in or around the sea. 

This sea turtle design from Witch Wolf Web Creations is literally just a chart with no grid to help you count stitches or suggested colors, but I would print it out and add a grid to make it easier to stitch. You can work it in many colors as shown, or there’s also a black and white version so you could just do it in a single color. 

Stitch up some fish or a seahorse with this bundle of four tropical fish cross stitch patterns from LaSelva Design. It includes a clownfish, seahorse, moorish idol and blue tang, all of which vary in size and colors used, but they’re all really cute. 

Or you can stitch a tank’s worth of tropical fish with this project from SamXstitch. There are 22 fish in all on this project, which measures 153 by 153 stitches. On 14 count fabric that’s 10.93 inches or 27.75 cm. It uses 15 colors. 

I also love the jewel-toned fishies on this project from Velvet Pony Design. This one has seven fish and a seahorse and measures 113 by 140 stitches. That’s just over 8 by 10 inches or 20.5 by 25.4 cm on 14 count fabric, though you can make it smaller with a higher fabric count. It calls for 24 colors. 

This vintage design from Past Pattern Palooza Co has a whole school of little fish. The design is 120 by 260 stitches and uses 30 colors. It measures 8.57 by 18.57 inches (21.7 by 47.2 cm) on 14 count fabric. The pattern notes say there are 69 designs in total, an individual fish range from 1.5 to 3 inches, or 4.5 to 8 cm. 

You can stitch up a whole tropical world complete with coral using this design from Easy Stitching Outlet (though I don’t think this one is particularly easy). At 219 by 95 stitches, on 14 count fabric it will come out to 15.6 by 6.8 inches, or 39.73 by 17.24 cm.