Embroidery – Page 2 – Hopefully Creative

Mr. Frog

Victorian vibes with frogs, ghosts, cats and candles.

In the ‘big haul of small cross stitch patterns’, I also found this cute Family Portrait. It’s an almost Victorian looking frog in a top hat with a little cat looking in on the left, a big ghost looking in on the right and a tiny frog in a little frame in the back.

Partially completed Family Portrait embroidery with the beginnings of a frog and a ghost.

It was a lot of fun to see all the little bits appearing while working on it. I also liked the full coverage of this project. The cream from the shirt was the last colour that was working, so I could already envision what the end result would look like.

Completed Family Portrait embroidery with a frog, a cat and a ghost.

I now have seven bits of embroidery on the wall. The vibes of this one are a bit different from the others, but I think it still works together. I hope that another small thing will fit on the right string, so I’m working on that at the moment!

Project	Family Portrait
Author	nathnolu
Type	Pattern only
Search words	frog; ghost; black cat; striped wallpaper; top hat
Location	Drive
#stitches	1575
Purchased	09-01-2026
Date started	19-01-2029
Date finished	21-01-2026

Fishy!

Be what you want, now in embroidery.

It was a co-workers birthday recently, and I wanted to make a thing. So I looked around Etsy and found this cute fish with an attitude. It seemed to fit well so I bought and made it.

Completed embroidery of an orange fish in a fish tank wearing a shark fin with Mindset is everything under it.

Quick project with interesting colours. The oranges seemed extremely different from each other while working with it, but they go well together once completed. I later debated whether I should’ve done the background in a different colour, but I think the blue bowl makes it separate enough from the background. I chose to put it in a gold frame because my co-worker is a sparkly lady.

Project	Mindset is everything
Author	MaxStitchesArt
Type	Pattern only
Search words	goldfish; shark; mindset
Location	Drive
#stitches	1346
Purchased	09-01-2026
Date started	15-01-2026
Date finished	18-01-2026

Bubbles

Black makes this pastel bubble really pop.

I wanted some small approachable embroidery projects, so off to Etsy I went. The designer of this one had a few more creatures in bubbles but this one really caught my eye. The little manta ray is so like what you see when you walk through one of those aquarium tunnels in the zoo.

Embroidered pastel Manta ray in a bubble on black fabric.

Framed embroidered pastel Manta ray in a bubble on black fabric.

Since it was so pastel in its colours, it needed a dark base to pop. However, that also meant that I couldn’t really put a 10×10 grid on it, like I normally do. And with so many ‘free floating’ bits, this meant a lot more counting. I liked the outcome, but I didn’t enjoy working on black all that much because it is so much harder without the grid handhold. Still, lovely addition to the embroidery wall!

Project	Bubble Manta Ray
Author	TizaThreadArt
Type	Pattern only
Search words	bubble; manta ray
Location	Drive
#stitches	675
Purchased	09-01-2026
Date started	18-01-2026
Date finished	19-01-2026

Dinosaur Kisses

Black and white with a pop of love.

I haven’t yet found a ‘Ravelry’ for cross stitch. There’s Pattern Keeper, where you can store your patterns and mark which stitches have been completed, but you can’t mark when you started (or finished). That seemed to be the type of information I also found very useful in Ravelry so I started a spreadsheet.

Partially completed embroidery of two cute dinosaurs kissing.

For this project for example, I’ve got:

Project	Dino Kisses
Author	MegC
Type	Pattern only
Search words	t-rex; dinosaur; kissing; heart; skeleton
Location	Drive
#stitches	5175
Purchased	23-10-2025
Date started	26-12-2025
Date finished	07-01-2026

Completed embroidery of two cute dinosaurs kissing.

Framed completed embroidery of two cute dinosaurs kissing.

It took me two months from purchase to start but only two-ish weeks to finish the project. Pretty decent going with only three colours. I did the heart first, then the skeletons and then completed the bodies of the faT-rexes. I made two changes to the original pattern; I didn’t do one stitch on the bottom of the left foot of the right dinosaur, since it didn’t seem to belong there. On the right foot of the left dinosaur, I made the bottom toe-bean black and didn’t make it stick out below. I really like how they turned out, but endless black did become a little bit of a chore.

Mystery Stitch Along – Tea Party

Cute stitch-along with a tea party theme.

In July, I signed up for a Mystery Stitch Along called Twigs & Tea by Fine Frog Stitching. We only knew the general theme, tea party, that it was going to start August 8 and be completed in 14 installments on December 5. I just bought the pattern and got all the updates along the way.

We started with the frames and then added on different bits each week. Either one of the animals in the frames, the items on the shelves, the landscape, the table cloth and the items on the table. Most of these were fun and exciting little projects. There’s a bit too much pink in it, and this was especially apparent in the awful boring-to-complete-not-to-look-at table cloth. I finished all but the last two clues in the time frame they were intended.

An unironed big cross stitch with 5 characters in picture frames (owl, fox, raccoon, goose and bear), and a table set with a tea pot cups, cake and flowers.

A big cross stitch with 5 characters in picture frames (owl, fox, raccoon, goose and bear), and a table set with a tea pot cups, cake and flowers.

Then I had to give myself a kick up the backside and finally finish the bear and the flower pot on December 24. I was so excited that it was done, that I didn’t even iron it before sending a picture to my friend who was also doing the stitch along. You can clearly see all the creases from my hoop, and it looks so much better when it’s ironed!

Yet more evidence that breaking large projects up into smaller sections and adding an arbitrary timeline increases my completion rate. At some point I’m going to have to sign up for a quilt along, don’t I..

Doggy Bag

Adding some embroidery to a double handle tote bag.

I was browsing Etsy (always a bad idea for the bank account) and found a bunch of super cool cross stitch patterns. This galaxy animal paw from OhMyStitchesShop spoke to me. My brother’s partner is graduating as a vet and they own dogs, so I thought this would be fun for her. There are so many stitches in this, I highly underestimated how much time 5552 stitches would take, even in eight different colours.

Cross stitch of incomplete dog and cat in a dog paw in purple galaxy hues

Cross stitch of dog and cat in a dog paw in purple galaxy hues

I started with the big pad and finished it fully apart from the little stars. I did a part of those in white, before I decided that I wanted to use glow in the dark thread for those, to be extra appropriate. So I took the white out and went on to stitch the small pads and then added the glow in the dark.

Purple bag with cross stitch of dog and cat in a dog paw in purple galaxy hues

To make this a useful(ish) gift, I decided on making the embroidery the front pocket of a tote bag. I stitched some white cotton to the back of the embroidery and attached that to the purple fabric that I used for my Edwardian skirt. Since I am short and I know how annoying it is to have bags drag on the floor, I added a double handle. On the inside are short straps, and there are long ones for over the shoulder too. If I ever make myself a tote, I’m totally doing this again.

Inside of purple bag with double handles

The project was finished and mailed. I hope she gets some use out of it and I had a lot of fun making it. And have thus since learnt that I prefer my projects either smaller, or coming in bite sized pieces, more on that later!

The Misfit

Who is that lurking in the back?

For the last couple of months, I’ve had a zip lock pouch in my bag that held everything I needed to make ‘The Misfit’. A cross stitch pattern kit from Heritage Crafts. I ended up stitching a polar bear hiding in a bunch of penguins. The kit has eight colours of floss, but by occasionally using two different colours in the same stitch they manage to achieve ten different colour combinations. You start with all the cross stitches and then you define the animals by adding the back stitch.

Embroidery of penguins and a polar bear without backstitch

Cross stitched penguins and one polar bear

After I finished all the cross stitches, you could sort of see the critters starting to appear, but by gradually adding the back stitch you can really see them come alive. I didn’t finish this in a few sittings, this thing went all over the country with me since October. It’s small and flat enough to bring anywhere and easy enough to pick back up at any time. I finally finished it on December 20th and have now framed it and it’s hanging on my wall with some of my other cross stitch projects.

Cards for 2026

Embroidered cards for the new year.

This year, I really aimed to finish my best wishes cards before Christmas. The plan had four main parts:
1. Decide on a design
2. Finish the embroidery
3. Make the cards
4. Write and deliver the cards

Step 1 went well. I had found this super cute cross stitch kit from Bothy Threads called Christmas Quackers that I thought would be perfect. Living in the Netherlands, I’m not sure how many people know the English tradition of Christmas crackers, but the duck was too cute to pass up. So once I finished another embroidery, I set out to stitch this one.

Cross stitch of duckling with a red Christmas cracker in a hoop

Cross stitch of duckling with a red Christmas cracker

Step 2 went decently. I messed up a few times (counting is hard!), but managed to fix the mistakes and ended up with the perfect duck. I really love the fly away feathers on the side. I prefer my cards to be not purely Christmas coded, so I replaced the Christmas Quackers text with Quacking 2026. It was stitched with a gold thread that was absolutely awful to work with, not worth it either since it barely shows up when I photographed it.

Card of a cross stitch of duckling with a red Christmas cracker

Step 3 only had minor mishaps. I made three kinds of cards this year. A small version for roller derby (6 per page), a medium version for work (4 per page) and a large version for sending (2 per page). The S was just printed and had a star cut out. The M was printed with two punched stars and a bit of ho ho ho fabric threaded through. The L was printed with two bits of ho ho ho fabric stuck on using a wax seal (in different colours) with stars. The printer was the main mishap machine, with random white lines appearing in the middle of the image sometimes. Luckily I had enough of the linnen paper to print some more.

Step 4 was done in installments but I managed it all before Christmas. I know some have already been delivered but some may still be on the way. So the only bit that was laid by the wayside was writing the blog post. So I hope all the best for you and your loved ones, and a Quacking 2026!

Guinea Love Embroidery

Cross stitching some guinea pigs.

So when I was buying the big cross stitch haul for my holiday, I also purchased Eleanor Teasdale’s “I’m Guinea Love You Forever” by Bothy Threads. It was one of the smaller ones and I wanted to make it for a friend. So I got started and honestly, it looked something had barfed colour before the backstitch was completed. Those little blobs were very unappealing. I also had to change the text at the bottom, since ‘I’m Guinea love you forever’ seemed a bit odd for friends, so I settled on ‘Guinea love friendship forever’. This meant I had to do some font designing, but I think it turned out cute.

Cross stitched guinea pig without backstitch

Embroidery of two guinea pigs with 'Guinea love friendship forever'

The one thing I didn’t like about this kit was that I had to interpret the colour chart myself. They supplied a list with the colours, but hadn’t put the actual threads with their correct symbols. I had to do that myself. Somehow, I found this very scary, because who knows how I might interpret colour names and potentially be wrong. In the end, I think it turned out fine, and a second kit from Bothy didn’t have this drawback.

Sailboats Crossing

Cross stitching some cute little sailboats.

In late August, I signed up for a Mystery Stitch Along, where you get bits of a cross stitch pattern every week and sew along not knowing what the final image will be. The amount of cross stitch in the mystery isn’t enormous, so I decided to buy some extra kits to keep myself occupied. The first one was by Alisa, called Boats at Dawn. It’s some quite pastel looking sailboats that seemed very calm and accessible.

Cross stitched sailboats on a misty morning.

Cross stitched sailboats on a misty morning in a frame

I was not wrong in that assessment. It was very calm and accessible, for which the size (6×9 cm) absolutely helped. In contrast to what I was used to, this pattern also used half stitches and backstitches, so I did some new things. It was finished fairly quickly and I like it a lot. I sourced a little picture frame, wrapped it around some cardboard and put it behind the glass. I’ll be able to look at a little bit of pastel ocean scape whenever I feel like it.

Category: Embroidery