Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Stitch Up a Cute Fall Greeting — Hello Pumpkin

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I love the idea of stitching greeting cards, or really making any kinds of greeting cards to send to people. Or maybe sending cards in general. Whatever. 

This “Hello Pumpkin” chart from Gathered would be a perfect one to stitch up as a greeting card, and it’s actually shown in the pattern being used in that way. 

This project was designed by Jenny Van De Wiele for The World of Cross Stitching magazine and is being offered as a free pattern. There’s actually a whole set of these little harvest time greetings, and you can buy a digital copy of the magazine if you want to stitch any of the others. 

This one is 46 by 45 stitches, and it uses 10 colors. You could make the pumpkins any colors you like or make them in two different colors instead of four if you want to use fewer colors. 

On 14 count fabric or 28 count evenweave it measures 3.25 inches square, or about 8.5 cm. So it’s perfect for mounting onto a little card or just putting into a small frame. It would easily fit in a 4-inch hoop or a little frame of your choosing and would be cute in a display of pumpkins (handcrafted, real or otherwise). 

There are a couple of different ways that you can mount a piece of cross stitch onto a greeting card. If your card has a hole (or you can cute out a hole to fit) then you can easily tape the cross stitch to the inside of the card, using the tape to cover up the raw edges of the cross stitch fabric. 

This image shows the cross stitch on the outside of the card, but it doesn’t have instructions for how to do that. I’m inclined to think you’d want to use a spray adhesive to try to hold down every strand of the fabric, but you could also use decorative tape on the outside or finish the edges of your design with a bit of fabric or ribbon to keep it from fraying. 

You can grab this free pattern from Gathered, and check out their digital editions if you want more of the patterns. 

[Photo: Gathered]

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Cross Stitch Sheep Projects

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.