Stitch Up a World of Rainbows

This time of year rainbows are often associated with Pride, but they can have lots of different meanings or just be a color combination that you like.

In honor of loving rainbows all year long, check out this cute set of rainbow cross stitch patterns from Faby Reilly.

The Rainbow World patterns were originally made during covid as a fun way to spread love while staying at home, but of course we still need that community, connection and bright light even though the time for staying at home has long passed.

The set is a collection of hoops with a heart design that shows part of the globe in a darker color, surrounded by a heart of leaves and a border with more hearts and squares.

The idea was to work one in each color of the rainbow and display them together, but of course you can just stitch up one in your favorite color if you don’t want the whole set. I think these would be really cute stitched up on display in a baby’s room with other rainbow accessories, especially if the baby is a rainbow baby.

Each pattern is 40 by 40 stitches, which comes out to 3 inches or 7.5 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric. They’re shown in 3-inch hoops but you could also use 4-inch hoops and have a little white space around the edge or even add in some text if you want.

If you’re working all of the colors you’ll need 21 colors, but each chart uses three colors. In addition to regular cross stitches they use a lazy daisy stitch and a Rhodes heart (the pattern has a little photo tutorial for each). Each hoop also uses 4 seed beads, so you’ll need 28 total if you’re making all of them.

The pattern is available in English and French as a free download from Faby Reilly.

[Photo: Faby Reilly]

I was recently approached by Alyssa, the cross stitcher behind the Etsy shop Stitchonomy, to take a look at her cross stitch pattern subscription club, known as The Pattern Club.

I took a look around and there’s a lot of cute stuff and fun options you’ll want to check out, especially if you love themed patterns that are small, easy to stitch and fun to combine.

The Pattern Club combines cross stitching with a social network. When you open the site you’ll see a news feed and have the ability to share updates much like you would on Facebook. You can see who is online, have buddies and post your own updates and photos. The community aspect is a little sparse right now but that should only grow.

The stitch along hub is the place to find the most recent patterns and information on the current stitchalong. As of this writing the Book Lover’s stitchalong was happening, with little designs like Peter Rabbit, a skull for Hamlet and keys for Jane Eyre as well as authors including Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.

Other pattern collections include European designs, Halloween, ocean life, an allotment garden and more. Alyssa tells me there’s a new theme every month that either she picks or members in the community suggest. You can stitch just the patterns you want or put them together to make a larger collage.

The Stitchanomini vault gives you access to all of the previous patterns, and new patterns are released daily through the stitchalong. You can download individual patterns (most of them are 19 by 19 stitches) as PDFs or Pattern Keeper files. The PDFs include a color and black and white chart as well as a floss list.

Another cool thing you can do is build your own pattern collages from all of the squares that have been released. The collage configurator allows you to add patterns of your choosing to a grid ranging from 2×2 patterns up to 4×4. You can scroll through all the current patterns or search by theme and size to make a project that suits your needs. (Above is an example I made kind of at random but you get the idea.)

If you want to check it out, you can grab a three-day free trial and see all the pattern options. Membership is $7.99 a month, or if you pay for a year at a time you’ll get two months free. In addition to the patterns in the club, members receive discounts on patterns and supplies purchased through the shop within the club. Annual members get access to three paid/retired stitchalongs and lifetime members receive all retired patterns.

If you check it out I’d love to hear what you think!

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