Wicked Cross Stitch Patterns

Now that the whole world seems to have fallen for the movie version of the musical Wicked, it’s time to stitch up some Wicked cross stitch patterns.

My favorite that I found is probably this Elphaba Defy cross stitch from khallion, which has a fully stitched background but it’s worked in solid colors so it isn’t too difficult. The pattern is 63 by 82 stitches and is meant to fit in a 5×7 frame when stitched on 14 count fabric.

Speaking of defying gravity that’s a popular theme for Wicked cross stitch patterns, and there’s also this great one from Circus Stitches that uses song lyrics and an image of the future Wicked Witch. This design is 100 by 150 stitches and comes out to 7.1 by 10.7 inches/18 by 27.2 cm on 14 count fabric.

There’s also this word art from Just Stitch Me featuring lyrics from “Defying Gravity” shaped into a witch hat and face. It uses just three color and measures 149 by 179 stitches, or 8.3 by 9.9 inches/21 by 25.3 cm on 18 count fabric.

Another common quote featured in Wicked cross stitch projects is “everyone deserves the chance to fly.” You can stitch it up in bold letters with Wicked inspired colors in the background with this design from Kalandra Design, or go a little more subtle with this floral hoop with back stitching from Hannie Bee Designs.

You can also celebrate the bond between witches with this design from Smart Assy Stitches, featuring Elphaba’s hat and Glinda’s wand and the words “so much of me is made of what I learned from you.”

Or you can stitch up the famous image of Glinda whispering in Elphaba’s ear featured on the Playbill for the show. This one is made to fit in a 4-inch hoop and is completely covered with stitching. You can get the pattern form NerdaliciousCE.

Can’t decide? Grab this 10 pack of designs inspired by the costumes and songs from Wicked, designed by Taylor and Cromwell. The one for the song “Popular” is shown above, but each one has a character with lyrics stitched in the background. This one is 96 by 133 stitches and uses 21 colors. Click through to see all the great designs!

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35+ Sunflower Cross Stitch Patterns

I love the look of variegated cross stitch floss and how it makes it possible to stitch with a variety of colors without changing thread, giving your project more depth and a more complex look without you having to do anything different.

Or at least not much different. I recently came across this blog post from The Copper Fox all about how to use variegated floss and it noted that many people would say it’s a good idea to complete a whole stitch (when you’re stitching whole cross stitches) with the floss before going on to the next stitch. Most of us stitch row by row, but of course if you do that with variegated yarn, it could change color along the way and you’ll end up with stitches that are half one color and half another color or a different shade.

Of course that makes total sense but I’d never thought about it.

The post includes swatches with different kinds of variegated threads to show the different between working stitch by stitch or row by row, and it doesn’t make a huge different over the small area shown but I can see how it might make a difference if you had really long rows or if you just want to make sure your stitches are a single color whenever possible.

In addition to this experiment, the post talks about other ways to work with multicolored floss, including deliberately mixing the colors among the strands of floss you are stitching with and stitching in a different order instead of right to left and top to bottom (or whatever direction you typically work) to get different effects from the thread.

It’s fun to geek out on this stuff because it can make a difference if you want to play with it, or you can just stitch on without giving it much thought, and both will give you good results.

Check out all the experiments at The Copper Fox.

Do you do anything different when you stitch with variegated floss? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: The Copper Fox]

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