Stitch Up Something Seasonal with Little Stitch Girl

This week’s designer profile takes us to Little Stitch Girl, whose Etsy shop is full of cute designs centered on holidays and seasons.

Her shop includes 64 designs and they all fall into a seasonal category, including:

Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
Valentine’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day
Patriotic
Halloween
Christmas

Since I’m writing this right before spooky season, let’s take a look at those Halloween patterns. It’s actually the largest group of designs, and includes everything from a cross stitched candy corn worked with gingham and plaid designs to a whole series of buildings known as Spooky Hollow (the full set is shown above and linked here, but you can also buy the patterns individually). Dracula’s coffin shop might be my favorite, but they’re all pretty cute. The designs are more sweet than creepy so they’re great to stitch up if you like decorating for Halloween but don’t want to get too grim about it.

In addition the the Etsy shop, Little Stitch Girl has a website that includes a nice collection of embroidery tutorials to help you add finishing touches to your cross stitch projects. There are videos for things like French knots and lazy daisies as well as star stitches, herringbone stitch and more.

You’ll also find a collection of cross stitch freebie patterns on her website. There’s a cross stitch design in support of Ukraine, which should still be on our minds, and designs about winter, spring, the comforts of home and a border you can work on the above-mentioned Spooky Hollow design if you work them all one one piece of fabric arranged in a couple of different ways.

These designs are cute and look like fun to stitch. Definitely check out her Christmas patterns if you like plaid!

If you’re a designer or have a favorite designer you’d like me to feature, let me know by clicking suggest a DIY at the top of the page.

[Photo: Little Stitch Girl]

Next Pattern:

Four Seasons Cross Stitch Patterns

One of the most common supplies for cross stitch, aside from fabric, needles and floss, is an embroidery hoop. A hoop isn’t needed for every project, and indeed there are some stitchers who prefer not to use them at all. I generally don’t use a hoop when I’m working on a small cross stitch project, especially something that’s shape isn’t conducive to using a hoop (like a bookmark).

But embroidery hoops can be really helpful for cross stitch because they hold your fabric at an even tension, which allows you to stitch more evenly without any more work on your part. It’s great for beginners to use hoops because the tension on the fabric can both help make your stitches more even and make the holes in the fabric a little easier to see.

I’ll admit to always just buying whatever hoop is available in the right size when I’m ready to start a project without giving it much more thought than that. But there are things you should consider when choosing among the different kinds of hoops, which Caterpillar Cross Stitch covers in their great guide to embroidery hoops.

The post walks you through wooden, plastic, spring tension and flexi hoops (which I’ll admit to having never heard of; they’re made of vinyl and plastic apparently), as well as Q-Snap frames, which aren’t really hoops because they’re made of plastic tubes that you snap together in the size and shape you need.

It also covers what size hoop you should use for the project you’re working on and how to actually use a hoop in the right way.

Whether you’re new to cross stitch or more seasoned, you’re sure to pick up a tip or a product to try in this post, so go check it out over at Caterpillar Cross Stitch.

Do you have a favorite kind of embroidery hoop to use for cross stitch, or do you go without? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?