Stitch Some Iconic Women for Women’s History Month

Women’s History Month is celebrated every March, but of course it’s always a good time to learn about amazing women from history and maybe make little versions of them in cross stitch. Because why not?

I shared a bunch of iconic ladies in cross stitch for Women’s History Month last year, and I wanted to try to find some more projects to share this year.

I love this little set of sort of chibi historical ladies from ThreeOOne Patterns on Etsy.

It includes 20 little figures, some of whom you definitely know and others might be less familiar to you. In fact the pattern listing doesn’t say who they all are so I’m not totally sure, but there’s definitely Mother Teresa, Amelia Earhart, Cleopatra, Sacajawea, Rosie the Riveter (OK, she’s not real, but still), Joan of Arc, Rosa Parks, Frida Kahlo, Wu Zeitan and one of the Brontes, I think, to name a few. There’s one that might be Josephine Baker? Maybe Ruth Bader Ginsburg? Hopefully each person is labelled in the pattern so you can know who you are stitching.

The full pattern is 196 by 308 stitches, which comes out to 14 by 22 inches or 35.5 by 55.8 cm if you use 14 count fabric. It uses 85 colors to stitch all of the ladies.

Of course you could just stitch a few of them or add one to a greeting card or another smaller project. I kind of like the idea of lining some of them up almost like a border on a project with a feminist quote or slogan. But having this whole set of amazing ladies on your wall would be sure to inspire you to greatness.

(And if you take a peek at the pattern and feel like you can identify more of the people, let me know. I think I know more of them than listed but I’m not totally sure.)

Grab the pattern from ThreeOOne Patterns.

[Photo: ThreeOOne Patterns]

As a knitter, I love a good sheep motif, so let’s take a look at some cute sheep cross stitch patterns.

If you want to stitch a little sheep, this mini square from Good Dog Needleworks is a nice choice. It uses just three colors and measures 32 by 32 stitches. That’s 2.2 inches or about 5.5 cm square if you stitch it on 14 count fabric.

I also love these two little sheep, which you can stitch together or in individual hoops and shown. The designs are form Threadbound Art and use six colors. They are slightly different in size, with one being 21 by 17 stitches and the other 21 by 20. They fit in four inch frames if you work them on 14 count fabric.

You can stitch a sweet sheep bookmark with this design from Kits by SA Stitch. This is not for the person who doesn’t like back stitch, because there’s a lot of that here, but it is really cute. It measures 30 by 91 stitches and uses 10 colors. That will make your bookmark about 2.4 by 6.5 inches, or 6 by 16.5 cm on 14 count fabric.

Stitch a pretty scene of sheep in a meadow with this design from Motok Nytok. It uses 21 colors and the design is 99 by 73 stitches. On 14 count fabric that makes it about 7.07 by 5.21 inches, or 17.96 by 13.24 cm.

This yarn full of cross stitch sheep has a bit of a knitting twist because the sheep all look like they have sweaters on. The design is from Soda Stitch Design and it measures 179 by 216 stitches. The full design uses 27 colors. On 14 count fabric it will work out to 12.78 by 15.42 inches, or 32.48 by 39.19 cm.

Another great one with a knitting theme is this one where the wool is coming off the sheep and straight onto the needles. This one is from Happy Cross Stitchers and uses 12 colors. The pattern is 137 by 137 stitches, which comes out to 9.7 inches or 24.86 cm square on 14 count fabric. This would be a fun one to stitch for the knitter in your life (even if that is you).

Or you can stitch the field of sheep of a knitter’s dreams with the Happy Sheep chart from Charts and Stuff. These per-colored sheep can be stitched as shown or worked in any colors you like. The eyes are French knots but you can just stitch them in white if you’d rather.

Have you read?