Looking through all of the kits in the Stitched Stories shop, you’ll see that buildings–especially charming home structures–are a motif I design around again and again.
There are three primary reasons for this.
First, the story of a home is appealing to me as I stitch.
It’s an image that grounds this home-body, home-loving me. I love the lines of different buildings, the landscape around them, and the stories I imagine happening inside.
Second, the motif of a house is one that I like displaying once the project is finished.
The subject of houses and buildings just appeals to my aesthetics. Plus, they are easy to mix with my other decor.
Third–and this is the most important: buildings offer up a whole lot of engaging stitch combinations.
There are windows and rooflines. There are clapboards, porches, and architectural ornaments galore.
This review of our kits speaks to our priority of getting many stitches into a pattern. Meghan wrote:
“What I like about the Stitched Stories Patterns is the use of a variety of stitches, which is very refreshing. No long hours of doing just one or two kind of stitches to finish a pattern. I couldn’t stop raving about the design to my husband and he surprised me with another Stitched Stories pre-printed fabric pattern just today!”
Have YOU stitched any of our designs that incorporate buildings? Here’s a look at several of them.
“Winter Cabin” has you stitching a pale A-frame against bold and bare winter trees. The roof is topped with two-toned snow, there’s a simple light above the door and skis stuck in the snow and leaning against the house.
You’ll used a variety of outline stitches for the structure and the surrounding trees. Layered satin stitch renders the snowy roof, and bulking French knots are used for the mounded snow.
“Ursa Duet” is a design of symmetry with two bears behind this sweet cottage and two trees in front.
The cottage will have you using both outline and back stitching for the structures. All of the embellishments get you working in a variety of stitch combinations including a chain-stitched archway, lazy-daisy half flowers, and French-knotted flowers filling the window-box.
“No Place Like Home” presents a home and the greater world beyond it: a cityscape, mountains, clouds and far-away forests. It’s a modern take on a classic sampler-styled design.
You’ll use outline, split, and fly stitches for the house lines and then add in 9 more stitches for rendering the clouds, trees, garden, and distant hills.
“Cuckoo Clock” is a mini home for a time-counting bird. Its eaves are embellished with greens and flowers. Sitting in front of it (instead of a typical yard) is a story-book worthy woodland scene. You’ll stitch mushrooms and trees, a rabbit and a fox. Even the pendulums have a bright fresh approach packed with stitches.
“On the Canal” gives you a trio of old-style European buildings on a canal. This is one of our most detailed projects in the shop with a variety of window, rooftop and and decorative details–all perfect for hand-embroidery. This is a design that looks great styled in a home vignette.
“Hen and Fox” gives you multiple structures backing up the folk-art-styled subjects of the piece.
There’s a barn, windmill, and silo. It’s so much fun rendering the barn’s decorative details with scallops and shutters and wagon-wheel window. The windmill is filled with cross-hatching and floral-styled arms. The silo rungs are rendered in chain stitch, and they alternate with French-knot filled diamonds.
“Spooky House” gives you a worn-down and crooked house with gothic scallops, worn stones, a boarded-up door, and glowing windows. All of these provide plenty of engaging stitches–and then you’ve still got a two-tone moon, pale ghosts, and creepy trees to add into the scene
“School Days” is a collage of vintage teaching motifs that include an old-fashioned schoolhouse. It’s outlined in bright red and then filled in with tan clapboards, blue windows, and a shingled roof. A bell tower sits atop the schoolhouse, and bright flowers bloom along its base. All this makes for plenty of stitch combinations.
“Rolling Hills” is a landscape with a glass greenhouse nestled into the hills. The greenhouse is stitched with two tones of bright blue, and there are three flowers blooming in the doorway.
You’ll stitch the inner lines of the greenhouse with a light blue backstitch. The main structural lines, though, are rendered with the whipped back stitch in two tones.
“Lighthouse” gives you a lone tall building ringed with red bands and topped with lookout windows. The landscape surrounding this structure is filled with simple repetitions: back-stitched and nested waves, floating clouds, French-knotted ground cover.
Is there a structure or two here that belong in your project bag?
Each of our embroidery kits are packed with engaging stitch combinations. You’ll get full skeins of DMC floss, the design printed to 10.5” cotton fabric, an 8″ bamboo hoop, 2 needles, a four-page illustrated stitched guide, and a clear-top tin for storing your supplies. See all of our kits here.
If you prefer to pull floss from your own stash, every design is also available as a pattern printed in color to cotton fabric. See all of our patterns here.
Here’s to enjoying the time spent in your home . . . stitching houses, chalets, a-frames, and other structures.
Hop your way into the season with one of our bunny-inspired designs...
We've got hoop art, large format, and stick & stitch bunnies--everything you need to create your very own fluffle of stitched bunnies this Spring.
