Martin Luther King, Jr. Cross Stitch Patterns

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is an important holiday in the United States acknowledging the civil rights movement and King’s legacy of both nonviolent resistance and pushing against the system in the hope of changing things for the better for everyone.

Working a cross stitch pattern inspired by Martin Luther King would give you a lot of time to think about his legacy and a tangible reminder of all the work there still is to do in America and elsewhere to achieve true equality. Maybe you can stitch while listening to some of his speeches or watching a documentary about his life and legacy.

I love this MLK portrait from Eccentric Avenue on Etsy. It comes out to 10 by 8 inches on 14 count fabric and can be worked as a cross stitch, needlepoint or petit point pattern.

Twin Stitch Studios adds a famous quote to their portrait of King, which comes out to 110 by 107 stitches or 6.9 by 6.7 inches on 16 count fabric.

The same quote is worked onto a classic sampler style design in this project from Stone Street Stitch. I like the juxtaposition of old-fashioned stitching with a timeless quote. This design is 93 by 131 stitches, which comes out to 6.5 by 9.4 inches on 14 count fabric.

And lest we forget King the radical, we’ve also got a cross stitch reminder that a riot is the language of the unheard. This one is from Bitchin Stitchin and fits in a 6-inch hoop when stitched on 14 count fabric. And this one from preseverate, with a reminder that America is still a racist country. This one is really big, so the designer recommends stitching it on 20 or 22 count fabric (and even on 22 count its still 13.7 by 5.3 inches at 301 by 116 stitches). The good news is it only uses one color of thread, but you’re going to need a lot of it!

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Celebrate International Women's Day with Cross Stitch

It’s back to school time where I live, which I always feel like is a great time to learn a new skill or take a deeper dive into something that you might not have learned a lot about before.

Usually when we are learning new hobbies we only know what we know. We learn the terms that we encounter, the skills that come up in the projects that we want to make. It’s not that we don’t care about other basics or different approaches, we just learn what we need to know to make what we want to make.

And that’s totally fine, but sometimes it’s a good idea to go back and review the basics or learn the things you might have missed the first time.

In that spirit I share this post from Caterpillar Cross Stitch all about basic cross stitch terms that every stitcher ought to know.

Did you know that the little bundle of thread you use for cross stitch is called a skein, for example? Or the difference between grid size and design area in a pattern? Or that working complete stitches one at a time is known as the English method? (I didn’t know that one! Apparently doing half of the stitch across the row and then coming back and finishing it is the Danish method. Who knew?)

There’s also a little bit about getting started with confidence that might be helpful at any skill level.

So what I’m saying is, even if you feel like you know a lot about cross stitch already, head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch and check out their list of terms and make sure you know them all. If nothing else you’ll feel a little smarter, either because you already knew them all or you learned something new!

And if you do learn something new, I’d love to hear about it.

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