Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Share Your Love of Cross Stitch with a DMC Kit

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If you’re looking for a gift idea for a fellow cross-stitcher, something to drops hints about wanting for yourself, or a gift that allows you to share your favorite craft with someone else, you’ll want to check out the great cross stitch kits that DMC produces.

Their designer collection includes cross stitch, embroidery, needlepoint and punch needle projects, with everything you need to complete them in a compact package.

They sent me Herbs by Nathalie Weinzaepflen, a French designer and illustrator, to review. The kit is packaged in a pretty, small box that includes the cross stitch fabric, all the thread that’s needed and a single needle. There are general cross stitch instructions as well as a large chart for the particular pattern, with text published in several languages (but there are lots of illustrations for the basics, too).

This particular design is for intermediate stitchers and includes a collection of flowering herbs along with their Latin names worked in back stitching. It would be lovely to stitch up for a kitchen or sunroom.

In addition to this design there are several other French inspired project kits. Another design from Weinzaepflen is inspired by Provence, while designs from Anna Matvieiev, a Ukrainian designer living in Germany, feature the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumphe and a cafe in Montmartre.

These kits are all rated for intermediate to advanced stitchers, though there are a couple I think stitchers with less experience could complete. It’s hard to find good gift ideas for cross stitchers, but this is a fun option to ask for or to get for someone else.

The full designer collection highlights designers from around the world and features classic and contemporary styles using a range of needle arts skills. If you’re interested in embroidery, needlepoint or punch needle you can check out the full collection on their website and buy the kits direct from DMC.

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Designer Spotlight: Happy Cross Stitchers

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]