Stitch Your Family with Help from Do-It-Yourself Stitch People

Last month I shared a post with different tips for cross-stitching your family from Do Small Things with Love. I’ve seen online that there’s a book all about making cross-stitch portraits, but I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet.

The book is called Do-It-Yourself Stitch People and it’s by Elizabeth Dabczynski-Bean. I came across a great review of it of Spot of Tea Designs, and it looks like a great choice for people who would like more guidance on how to make a perfect stitched portrait of their family.

She shows how she worked out her design on graph paper, transferred the basic lines to her cross-stitch fabric and stitched out the design. This looks like a great approach for a fully customized family portrait in thread.

Have you looked at this book or made a cross-stitched family portrait before? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Spot of Tea Designs.]

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How to Cross Stitch a Family Portrait

There are a lot of cute winter animals that I think don’t get the attention they deserve because they’re not necessarily Christmas related. We’re going to change that a little bit today with a look at some adorable penguin cross stitch patterns.

This first one is a little Christmas related in that the penguin is wearing a red and green hat and scarf, but you could absolutely change up the colors if you wanted to make it less holiday looking. The pattern is from Ecliptica Design and i ruses 16 colors in a design that’s 21 by 30 stitches. It comes out to 1.5 by 2.14 inches, or 3.8 by 5.5 cm, and only uses full stitches so it would be a good one for someone with a couple of projects under their belt who is looking for something a little more detailed than they might have worked before.

A more general winter one is this one from Starry Aloha Designs, which has a blue hat and scarf as well as hearts. You could even make this one all pink for Valentine’s Day if you wanted. The pattern is 58 by 62 stitches and uses six colors as written. If you work it on 14 count fabric it will fit in a 5-inch hoop.

Or try this round penguin in a little scarf surrounded by snowflakes from Geeky Stitches. This one is 53 by 51 stitches, which comes out to 3.79 by 3.64 inches (9.6 by 9.2 cm) on 14 count fabric. It uses five colors.

For a totally different look, try the penguin cross stitch pattern from Daily Cross Stitch. This one is the outline of a penguin filled with snowflake patterns.

Or how about a watercolor baby penguin? This adorable pattern from Laser Arts Designs has 170 by 230 stitches, which comes out to 12.1 by 16.4 inches, or 30.8 by 41.7 cm, on 14 count fabric. Laser Arts Designs projects typically include no more than 20 to 25 colors.

There’s also these mini baby penguin cross stitch patterns from LaSelva Design. Each of the five patterns fits in a 3-inch hoop, and while they are different sizes they’re all around 20 by 30 stitches.

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