Tutorial: Paper Lace

The tagline for the Etsy shop of the Kosher Seller is “I make silly little cross stitch patterns,” and that’s a pretty good way of putting it.

This small shop has a geeky, snarky and Jewish twist, and their little cross stitch patterns are a lot of fun.

The reason I knew I had to share this shop with you is this collection of The West Wing inspired cross stitch patterns. But they don’t say “What’s next?” or “bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land.” These are inspired by the Daughters of the American Revolution episode, which is such a deep cut I’d forgotten about it until we started rewatching the series recently. So if you need to stitch up a Francis Scott Key Key or a design to honor Marion Cotesworth Haye, this shop can hook you up.

Probably my favorite pattern of theirs, though, is the progressive Pride flag with a Star of David in the center, which the designer says “sends a powerful message of solidarity, acceptance, and celebration of diversity within both the LGBTQ+ and Jewish communities.” This is blackwork, not strictly cross stitch, but it’s such a lovely design and message I couldn’t resist sharing.

The design calls for 11 colors and can be stitched on 14 count fabric, but it might be easier to work on 28 count evenweave over 2 because of where some of the stitches end. It’s considered an intermediate pattern but if you have done blackwork before it shouldn’t be hard. On 14 count Aida or 28 count evenweave it comes out to 9.875 by 7.75 inches (25.08 by 19.69 cm).

In addition to this design there are other fun Judaica cross stitch patterns, a geeky section with a heavy emphasis on Doctor Who and teh video game Portal, and some funny, snarky sayings.

For a shop that only has 24 patterns as of this writing, there’s a fun variety of stuff, so go check them out at The Kosher Stitcher on Etsy.

[Photo: The Kosher Stitcher]