Featured Patterns

Q. When did you begin cross stitching?
A. I first began stitching in kindergarten when our teacher gave us small stiff cards with a printed pattern and punched holes, a very blunt needle and colorful yarns. She showed us how to thread the needle and work the designs so it would look pretty. I was very proud and took mine home to show my parents!

Q. Have you always loved needlework?
A. My mother loved all handcrafts and was very skilled at embroidery, sewing and knitting, and was eager to share that love with me. Her favorite was crewel embroidery, so she started with that, then she taught me to knit and to sew my own clothes.

Read the entire Q&A in our December 2019 issue!

Q. When did you begin cross stitching?
A. It's been a family pastime for generations. Both my mom and grandmother were stitchers, and my sister and I took it up at a young age. But as a kid, I never had enough patience to finish big projects. Once, I started stitching a huge piece, St. George and the Dragon, with an elaborate border and many colors. I worked on it for ages, and got it about 80 percent done, but then it got packed away somewhere, and I think it will stay as my "forever unfinished" WIP! It still got me hooked on stitching, though, and I've kept it up other than a few years during college and university when I didn't have much free time.

Read the entire Q&A in our October 2019 issue!

Q. When did you begin cross stitching?

A. I honestly don't remember. My mom taught me basic embroidery as a child, but she doesn't know how to cross stitch. I must have learned via a kit from our town's tiny craft store, and I picked it back up again four years ago.

Q. When did you begin designing cross stitch?

A. I've always been artistic, and went to art school in New Zealand and honed my art and craft skills. I'm half Kiwi and half Canadian; I've lived in both countries. I'd joined the Canadian Armed Forces as an air force intelligence officer in 2008 after living many years away from Canada in New Zealand and Japan. But, in 2012, I was hurt in training, and it soon became clear that I wasn't going to recover (neck injury).

I started thinking about what I could do to help support myself after my medical discharge, and I returned to my artistic roots. I'd picked up stitching again as a way to stay calm and quiet in a time of intense turmoil and pain, and I found it to be so therapeutic that I wanted to help others get the same benefits. In late 2014 I started offering cross-stitch tutorials on my blog and YouTube channel, and a year later, I started designing my own patterns and Peacock & Fig was born.

Read the entire Q&A in our June 2019 issue!

Q. What was the first thing you stitched?

A. The first things I stitched were pillowcases. Growing up I didn't know they came any other way until I spent the night at a friend's home.

Q. When did you begin cross stitching?

A. I was about 28 when I started to cross stitch. My stepdaughter brought a project home from her home economics class and needed help with it. I was hooked.

Read the entire Q&A in our April 2019 issue!

Q. When did you begin cross stitching?

A. I began cross stitching about 25 years ago. After I finished my first purchased cross-stitch piece, I decided to give designing a try.

Read the entire Q&A in our February 2019 issue!

Q. When did you begin cross stitching?

A. I remember learning at junior school, so it was a long time ago. It was probably a bookmark or tea-tray cloth, in a sampler style, on colored Binca fabric. I did no more stitching for years, so when I was an adult and returned to cross stitching, it was a steep learning curve.

Even though it was a familiar hobby, I more or less had to learn from scratch I had been stitching and designing tapestries for myself before I moved to cross stitch. Although they appear similar, there were a lot of different things to learn.

Read the entiere Q&A in our December 2018 issue!

Q. When did you begin cross stitching?

A. Like many needleworkers, I was introduced to a needle and thread at a very early age. I would watch my grandmother do crewel embroidery and crochet. My family always encouraged my creativity, and I remember doing many craft and needlework projects as a child. I have vivid memories of working my first crewel embroidery and stamped cross stitch at the age of 6.

Q. When did you begin designing cross stitch?

A. I started creating my own designs in the late 1990s and Blue Ribbon Designs was born in early 2004. I was working full-time at a mortgage company and designing in the evenings and on weekends.

Read the entiere Q&A in our October 2018 issue!

Q. What do you do when you're not designing or stitching?

A. Read -- I like to do that a lot. I visit with friends and family. I watch the birds and squirrels at the feeders. I daydream. Daydreaming is an especially important activity for me as it is where sometimes designs begin, problems are solved and decisions are made.

Q. When did you begin stitching?

A. I first learned how to stitch when I was very young. My family did needlework. At that time, we only had stamped embroidery designs on pillowcases and dresser scarves. We mostly did the stem stitch. Cross stitches were stamped on cloth and you followed that. You couldn't get a nice even look that way. Years later, counted cross stitch came along. It was neat looking. You knew where to put your needle -- it was great!

Read the entiere Q&A in our August 2018 issue!

Q: When did you begin cross stitching?

When I was 12, my grandmother taught me how to embroider using various stitches, and of course, cross stitch was one of them. I had no idea then that it would lead to a lifetime of needlework.

Q: When did you begin designing cross stitch?

In the 1990s, when my children were in school, I began to have a little more time to pursue what I loved. Back then, you use a pencil and graph paper to lay out a design. The first one I did was an 8" x 10" sampler done in a pale palette of pinks, greens and cream. It came out so well that it encouraged me to keep going.

Read the entire Q&A in our April 2018 issue!

Q: When did you begin designing cross stitch?

A: I started to design cross stitch in 2003. My first designs were called Snow One and Witch Hat?.

Q: How did you learn to design?

A: I bought a designing software program and spent some time playing around with it until I learned how to use it properly. I have even taught my 9-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter how to use it to design cross-stitch patterns. They love being able to sit at the computer and then print out their own little design creation. I have alos taught both of them how to acutally stitch too.

Read the entire Q&A in our December 2017 issue!

Q. When and how did you learn to stitch?
A: Pam: I learned to embroider as a little girl. My mother taught me when I was learning how to sew doll clothes for by Barbie® dolls. I was about 12 years old at the time.

I learned to do counted cross stitch from my oldest sister, Betsy. On a shopping excursion, I bought my first graph, fabric and floss for an extremely complicated Chinese geometric design that was 10 x 15 inches. I didn't know any better and thought it was a normal beginner piece. It took three years to complete.

Read the entire Q&A in our October 2017 issue!

Q: How did you become a needleart designer?
A: I combined my love for stitching with my teaching background, and began offering needlepoint classes to friends. I quickly realized that in order to be a good teacher, I would have to design a number of projects to use in my classes.

Read the entire Q&A in the June 2017 issue!

Celebrate Saint Patrick's Day by giving this cute gift-card holder to a friend. Instead of a gift card, perhaps add some gold-covered chocolate coins and say they are from the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!