Pencil Bookmark Cross Stitch Pattern

To celebrate back to school season, I wanted to make a fun and useful cross stitch pattern, so I decided on this cross stitch pencil bookmark.

It’s a really easy pattern even though it calls for six colors. You definitely don’t have to use all the colors if you don’t want to, and you can use different colors to make a colored pencil instead of the traditional yellow one.

These sorts of projects always end up taking longer than I imagined they would in my head, because I just don’t stop to do the math of exactly how many stitches are in a piece that’s 23 stitches by 74 rows (1,702, though not every single one of them is covered, most of them are).

But because the coloring of the chart is so straightforward, I’d say it also doesn’t take as long as 1,700 stitches sounds, if that makes sense. Because you barely have to count anything and could make most of it without consulting the chart, you can get into a groove pretty easily and stitch whole sections in a single sitting. I had a lot of fun stitching this one and I think you will, too.

Once the stitching is done, take a piece of felt and sew it to the back to hide the mess you’ve made and make it a nice smooth bookmark that’s easy to use in whatever book you might be reading.

This is a fun one to make for yourself or a kid in your life who is going back to school. But it would also be a fun teacher appreciation gift or holiday gift, especially for an English teacher but really anyone would like this one I think.

You can grab the free chart and get all the instructions for assembling your own cross stitch pencil bookmark over at Our Daily Craft.

Charts and Stuff is a small but fun Etsy shop with a cartoony style to its designs. Let’s take a closer look.

This shop’s designs are mostly silly and full of color. The rainbow colored hair is a common feature of a lot of characters, from a dancing woman to a reindeer, dogs and chickens.

As you scroll back through their designs (there are no categories but they also have fewer than 100 designs as of this writing, so it doesn’t take too long to explore) you’ll also find a series of patchwork designs that use similar bright colors but in a very different way.

For instance, this patchwork teddy bear cross stitch pattern. The pattern notes are low on details but it says the pattern comes out about 7 by 7.5 inches (that’s 17.78 by 19.05 cm) I assume on 14 count fabric. There’s clearly a good bit of back stitch involved as well as regular cross stitching.

These colorful designs would be a great way to use a lot of thread left over from other projects, because they don’t have to be the exact colors called for in the pattern. I could see the teddy bear with a ribbon that is the favorite color of the person you are stitching it for, for instance, and you can use pastels or more saturated colors, or a mix depending on what you have on hand.

In addition to the patterns already mentioned, there are a few blackwork designs, a set of season themed quotes, some word art in the shape of a heart and a cat, and some Christmas themed designs with the rainbow characters wearing Santa hats. There’s also a few of Santa riding a motorcycle if that’s something you’re into.

These cross stitch patterns are a lot of fun and look like they’d be great to stitch, so check out the pattern shop at Charts and Stuff on Etsy to see more.

[Photo: Charts and Stuff]

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