Patterns to Use as Filler in Cross Stitch Projects

The other day I came across this post from Koekoek that has to do with a world map pattern of theirs (they also have individual countries if you’d rather). The idea is that you can fill in countries as you visit them, or just fill in different patterns to make a colorful map.

To help people wanting to fill in their maps in different ways, they posted a collection of 10 filler cross stitch patterns. These designs include things like diagonal lines, evenly spaced single stitches, checkerboards and rectangles that can help you fill a lot of space without just making a solid color or stripes.

It struck me that these design ideas would be fun to incorporate into other cross stitch projects, too.

For example you could use any of them to make a background around a cross stitch motif to make the pattern a little more dramatic or just to draw in more color.

You could use them to fill large letters, say if you were doing a monogram or an initial letter pattern for a baby’s room or a wedding.

If you stitch people in your projects you could add these designs to clothing to make them more interesting.

You could just practice these filler stitches to get used to reading and following cross stitch patterns and turn them into bookmarks, coasters or other little projects.

I’m sure there are other ways you could use them as well, and if you have some in mind I’d love to hear them.

I think this just goes to show that if you’re creative you can pull elements from different patterns and projects and use them in different ways than originally intended but still to great effect.

You can check out all of the patterns at the post on Koekoek, and maybe they’ll inspire you to try adding filler to a project you’re working on!

[Photo: Koekoek]

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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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