Stitch Up Tiny Landmarks in Stamp Form

I don’t know if stamps are trending as a craft motif or maybe I’m just ahead of the game, but Pinterest has been serving me a lot of content in all sorts of craft genres having to do with stamps lately. We’re talking little stamp shaped paintings and sewing projects and, as you might image based on where you are reading this, stamp cross stitch patterns.

Maybe it’s because we’re feeling a collective loss of attention span lately and we need little, cute, satisfying crafts to get us through these long, hard days.

Or maybe the algorithm knows I’m a sucker for cute little satisfying projects.

Whatever.

One such example is this lovely little collection of 20 world landmarks stitched in stamp form. The design is from Teeny Weeny X Stitch and I’m not sure I can identify all of them off the top of my head (and the pattern listing doesn’t say), a few of them are the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Taj Mahal, the pyramids in Egypt (and a Mayan pyramid, too!), Christ the Redeemer, the Statue of Liberty, the Sydney Opera House, the Colosseum, Stonehenge, the Washington Monument and the Great Wall of China.

If you can identify more of them, let me know!

Each pattern is 40 by 40 stitches and they use between 9 and 23 colors depending on the location. They come out less than 3 inches/7.6 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric.

I kind of love the whole set done as one big piece, but you could also stitch your favorites as individual projects. How cute would a little Eiffel Tower be in your scrapbook about your trip to France (if you are such a person to travel to France and keep scrapbooks)? A little Leaning Tower of Pisa made into a patch to cover a stain on a shirt? The possibilities are endless!

You can grab the pattern from Teeny Weeny X Stitch on Etsy.

[Photo: Teeny Weeny X Stitch]

Review: Cute Kawaii Cross Stitch

Most of the cross stitch projects I make are pretty small and not something I would consider heirloom quality (though I am working on a big project for my daughter that I hope to have done for her high school graduation in two years that I hope is something she’ll want to keep forever, but that’s another story).

But it is definitely possible to cross stitch projects that will stay around for generations, and one prime example of that is a cross-stitched linen tablecloth.

Linen tablecloths are classic, while stitching one can be a big project, depending on the size of your table, it doesn’t have to be really complicated.

Koekoek has a good, detailed post about figuring out how much linen you would need to make a tablecloth that you can cross stitch and/or embroider on (they also sell tablecloth linen in their shop if you don’t already have some or a linen tablecloth you already use). Of course for a project like this you’d want the best fabric you can find and afford, because you’ll be stitching it for a long time and hopefully using it for years.

The post walks through how to measure your table and determine how much fabric you’ll need including the drop you’ll want and hems. It includes the math for rectangular and square tables as well as circular tables, which helps take the guesswork out of buying fabric. It also talks about preparing the fabric and making mitered corners if you have a square or rectangular table, which will help the tablecloth sit nicely on your table.

The tutorial doesn’t include specific patterns to use for your tablecloth, but it does advise keeping it simple because this is a really big project. You can start with a motif in the center or doing borders, and this is a project you can add to through the years by, say, stitching a symbol for each family member or adding names, wedding dates, etc. and making it a real record of your family.

Would you ever cross stitch a tablecloth or have you done so? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Koekoek]

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