Cross stitch – Hopefully Creative

Protect Local Wildlife

Travel projects to think of Scotland

This cross-stitch Nessie has been my travel project for the past couple of months. The hoop and associated threads were nice and small and fit perfectly in my bag. And with Pattern Keeper, I didn’t even need to bring a paper pattern. I did, however, make some changes to the original design. It’s supposed to have black back spikes, a white sail and no tail. I didn’t like the spikes so I omitted them. I stitched the sail in white, but it was invisible, so I chose a random red from the hoard. My brain also couldn’t deal with a potential plesiosaur without a tail, so I created one. I really like how it worked out and I’m quite proud of it.

Embroidered Nessie in water with a castle, a boat and a fish with Protect Local Wildlife quote

I do have one regret though, and that is that I should have chosen a different colour fabric. There is a white border around the project that is only visible under certain angles. And I don’t think anyone can see the white ‘shadow’ of Wildlife. I’ll still find a place to hang it on my embroidery wall, once I’ve put up another string of hooks.

Project	Protect Local Wildlife
Author	NeedleLotDesigns
Type	Pattern only
Search words	Nessie; sea; boat
Location	Drive
#stitches	3440
Purchased	23-10-2025
Date started	02-03-2026
Date finished	18-07-2026

Highland Fox

Blue and orange in the mountains.

Ages ago, after I had found the adorable hedgehog that I gave as a gift in April, I looked at the other cross stitch patterns of the same designer and stumbled upon this one. I really loved the colour combinations of the bright orange and the blues. And I thought the fox was adorable. So after finishing all kinds of other projects, I got around to this one.

Embroidery of an orange fox with snow capped mountains in the background.

It’s tiny in real life, but the colours are really quite striking. While I did follow the instructions, I don’t think my blues were all as intended. There are bits that probably should have been darker, and one a little less bright. Really though, it doesn’t matter because this end result is still very pretty. You could also see the idea of what it was supposed to be, but the backstitch did help a lot. I really like how much detail there is.

The only downside is that it doesn’t work with pattern keeper, and keeping track from paper is harder then when stitches just light up in bright green on an app. That is what it is. I do notice that it holds me back from purchasing some more adorable patterns from this shop (this racoon and this tree owl for example). But who knows, I might just be swayed.

Project	Fox and Mountain
Author	OwlAndThread
Type	Pattern only
Search words	fox; mountain; orange; blue
Location	Drive
#stitches	max. 2600
Purchased	11-02-2026
Date started	13-06-2026
Date finished	24-06-2026
Fabric	16 ct. aida

Hedgehog

Cute little hedgehog for a hedgehog keeper

When someone who has built a hedgehog house in the garden has a birthday, the only appropriate gift is hedgehog embroidery, right? At least, that was what I thought back in February. So I set out to find a cute hedgehog and managed to do so in the patterns of OwlAndThread. There is a lot of backstitch in this thing, but it ends up being so cute!

Cross stitch embroidery of a hedgehog in clover - in a blue hoop.

Cross stitch embroidery of a hedgehog in clover - in a green frame.

After completing the stitching, it needed to be ‘kept’ somehow. First, I found some dark green paper in the hoard and made a little frame. Realistically, it was too much fabric in too small a frame. So in the end, I went out to get some different paper and made a bigger frame. I used my embossing machine to cut out some balloons and wrote a message on the back. I really enjoyed working on this, even if it was not able to be uploaded into Pattern Keeper. Old-School counting all the way.

Project	Hedgehog
Author	OwlAndThread
Type	Pattern only
Search words	hedgehog; clover
Location	Drive
#stitches	max.1960
Purchased	11-02-2026
Date started	16-02-2026
Date finished	28-02-0206

Go Get It!

Motivational bear reaching for the stars!

Another colleague of mine decided to pursue her dreams and is leaving my work soon. For the goodbye party, I wanted to stitch a cute little something so that she can feel motivated. I chose this adorable bear that originally said ‘Yes I can’ in the bottom. I changed it to ‘Go get it’ because she should reach for the stars and she’ll grasp them. It was a fun quick stitch with a lot of backstitching.

Embroidered bear on a ladder with Go get it underneath

I really love how this one turned out and I can absolutely see myself making it again for a different occasion. She said that she really liked it and that it had sentimental value for her too, so my goal was achieved. She’ll go get it too!

Project	Yes I can Bear
Author	StitchDI
Type	Pattern only
Search words	bear; ladder; yes I can; stars
Location	Drive
#stitches	873
Purchased	28-05-2026
Date started	30-05-2026
Date finished	31-05-2026

Manatee!

Cutie Manatee

As part of my Kingfisher purchase, I also got a free manatee embroidery pattern that used colours that were also used in the Kingfisher. There were very few stitches so who was I to ignore this cute face. He’s tiny and quick and it was lovely to just sit down and sew some brown.

Project	Manatee
Author	LaSelvaDesign
Type	Pattern only
Search words	manatee
Location	Drive
#stitches	534
Purchased	09-01-2026
Date started	14-06-2026
Date finished	14-06-2026

Not My Monkeys

Oh no! This is a circus and those are monkeys!

A colleague of mine is leaving to pursue another job and I wanted to make her a little gift. So I figured that I would embroider the saying that we use in the office a lot: ‘Not my circus, not my monkeys’, which in essence means ‘not my problem’. However, it needed some adaptation since it will be her circus. So I found a pattern of a set of monkeys with tails in a heart shape, and found a 5-stitch high font here that I adapted a little. The final result is a ‘This is my circus and these are my monkeys’ embroidery with the name of her new company in the middle.

Two embroidered monkeys with the saying 'this is my circus and these are my monkeys' above it.

Two embroidered monkeys with the saying 'this is my circus and these are my monkeys' above it. Framed

I personally think this is hilarious. I hope she likes it.

Project	Monkey Love – adapted
Author	PixAndPrintCo
Type	Pattern only
Search words	monkeys; heart
Location	Drive
#stitches	1751
Purchased	01-05-2026
Date started	25-05-2026
Date finished	27-05-2026

Chicken!

Cute embroidery of a chicken carrying some lovely plants.

On of the first kits I purchased when I restarted my cross stitch craze was one called Kip met de planten or ‘Flower Bustle’ from Andriana. It depicts a white chicken with an apron, running around with two plant pots with the leaves trailing behind. I thought it was very cute and since Monsteras are one of my favourite plants, I didn’t think I could go wrong with it.

Embroidery of a chicken in an apron carrying two plants in a frame.

I started it a while ago, in February, and have been working on it intermittently. There are a lot of different colours and it also requires stitches made with one strand each of two different colours. Which means that the colour gradients are even prettier and more subtle. The size of it did mean that I had to reposition my rectangular embroidery frame a few times, since it was not big enough for the whole picture in one go.

Embroidery of a chicken in an apron carrying two plants

This was a really fun one to since you could see the leaves grow bit by bit. I did make an adjustment in the apron because didn’t like the red detailing at the bottom. So I replaced it with green and left out the triangles. All of those details were made with backstitch and this means that the reverse of this is an absolute disaster. Luckily you don’t have too see the backside to enjoy the front!

Project	Chicken with Plants
Author	Andriana
Type	Kit
Search words	chicken; apron; plant; monstera
Location	Embroidery box
#stitches	unknown
Purchased	06-09-2025
Date started	15-02-2026
Date finished	25-05-2026

Kingfisher!

A little embroidered kingfisher in different shades of blue.

I have been engaged in mystery knit alongs (tip, don’t try to do two at the same time that both require lots of knitting) and have had little time to do anything else. However, before I got distracted by those, I finished some more cross stitch patterns!

The first was a really small but super cute bird by LaSelvaDesign. It used more colours than most of the other projects I’ve done, but sometimes only three or five stitches. I love how it came out. The different shades of blue really complement each other and bring some sort of depth?

It’s framed in something that looks woodish but is actually plastic and flexible. Since I left so much fabric around it, it’s been a bit hard to get into this frame, but it does look really nice on my wall. Adorable, if I say so myself.

Project	Kingfisher
Author	LaSelvaDesign
Type	Pattern only
Search words	kingfisher; bird
Location	Drive
#stitches	353
Purchased	09-01-2026
Date started	17-02-2026
Date finished	20-02-2026

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!

Tag: Cross stitch