Book Review And Giveaway – Bags In Bloom

Counting Puddles is an Etsy shop that doesn’t have a huge selection of cross stitch patterns, but it does have some printables that might be relevant at the time of year that I am writing this.

Most of the patterns you’ll find in the shop are seasonal, with a couple of space-themed ones thrown in. 

I of course love this Books are Magic design, which includes books, flowers, a butterfly, moon and stars worked in back stitch. There are lots of techniques here including cross stitches, back and straight stitches, French knots and star stitches, which give it a lovely, textured look. The design is 114 by 140 stitches, which comes out to 7.1 by 8.8 inches, or 18 by 22 cm, on 32 count linen stitched over 2.

Many of their patterns combine cross stitch with techniques that might be considered more embroidery, which is a fun way both to learn some different techniques and to give your project a different look than straight cross stitching gives you.

As I mentioned, in addition to patterns, the shop offers a couple of good looking printables if doing more cross stitch and being better organized are among your new year’s resolutions. There’s a cross stitch tracker printable to help encourage you to stitch a little every day and a project tracker that’s set up with 12 projects on a progress wheel with another page for notes with more details about what each project is and when you started and finished them. 

The tracker has am x (like a cross stitch, of course!) for each day so you can color it in when you do stitching. It’s important when forming or reinforcing a habit to not break the chain and this gives you a visual reminder of that. 

Check out all their designs at the Counting Puddles Etsy shop. If you try out their printables, or you have another way of keeping your cross stitch goals on track, I’d love to hear about it.

[Photo: Countin Puddles]