While I’m definitely drawn to big, dramatic cross stitch patterns with lots of details, my attention span is such that smaller projects are a lot more likely to get done. Lots of cross stitch designers appeal to this small project impulse by designing minis, which can still pack a lot of details into a small space but take less time to stitch.
A great example of this is the 50 state postage stamp collection from Threading Our Journey. As the name implies, this set of 50 little cross stitch patterns has a design for every state, though some are more obviously connected to their state than others.
For example you’ll find Devil’s Tower on the design for Wyoming and Mount Rushmore with a buffalo for South Dakota. Virginia could maybe be Mount Vernon but it just looks like a house. Alabama has mountains and a rose for some reason, while Illinois is farmland and a field of wildflowers. Missouri and Mississippi both have river boats, and Iowa and Nebraska could be scenes from the same farm.
But even with some weirdness it’s a pretty good set, and you can just stitch the states that are meaningful to you or do the whole bundle. Each stamp is 33 by 42 stitches and uses between 12 and 20 colors. The pattern includes three different border options for the stamps.
If you want to stitch the whole thing, assuming 4 stitches between each stamp, the full stitch count is 366 by 226 stitches (which certainly eliminates it from the small cross stitch project category, but if you work one stamp at a time the are still individually small projects). That comes out to 30.1 by 20.1 inches, or 76.6 by 51.2 cm, on 14 count fabric if you include 2 inches/5 cm around the outside to make it easier to frame.
And if you don’t think you’ll ever want to stitch the whole nation, you can also buy just the states you want individually. These would be cute to make for people who have moved far from home or for a couple who are from different states and maybe live in a third.
[Photo: Threading Our Journey]
