Summery Coastal Cross Stitch Patterns

Serena Shores gave me the opportunity to work with a more nautical, coastal theme and I thought it would also be nice for summery stitching on smaller needlework projects. In my mind, I envision a modern beach house with beautiful views of the water and a collage of stitchery up on the wall from vacation relaxation. These were originally shared at h+h in Chicago last May and I'm getting them put up for summer now! 

Shoreline Sampler has a lot of motifs all in one. Shells, compass points, sandpipers, seagull, starfish, anchor, rope and shells are snippets of summer snapshots. I love that the samplers can be stitched as a single large image or broken out into little projects.

I did my first samplers with Fall Frolic and Winterly and also made little mini pillows or dough bowl fillers. Susan Strumpf helped me out with finishing ideas and utilized my Serena Shores fabric for pillow backs and accents along with twine and roping and tiny shells. 

Instead of a dough bowl, I think these look charming in a more open-weave basket with a more rustic feel.

I love how Susan used the tine shells to accent the pillow with coral!

Anchored Life is another cross stitch that shows the anchor with compass points. It fits beautifully in a hoop and also finishes well in a square shape framed or in a pillow. The pillow here uses Serena Shores paisley fabric and Susan used 20 count linen, over 2, from Zweigart in Off White with 3 strands of floss for that larger scale of stitch. I love the texture this creates and the 20 count cork linen is such a pleasure to stitch on. 

The blue mini pillow below is one of the motifs from the corners, stitched on 20 blue linen from Week's Dye Works with 3 strands over 2 threads. 

Modern Beach House 1 and 2 are a set that look nice together or could be a minimalist expression on their own. With each I have used a more graphic element of linked rings that suggest life preservers or chunky chain links. I've mounted these on sticky board and floated them on fabrics from Serena Shores in the same linked ring motif. I like the extra fabric space to offset these in their frames with more color to the bottom.

I'm using Monaco 28 count evenweave on a lot of these with Cosmo flosses. I always cross reference to DMC on the backs of my patterns. I like Cosmo floss a lot since I feel it has a nice feel, tangles less and has some really rich colors, all within a reasonable price point. Cosmo is from Lecien in Japan and they also make a lovely Tsu Mu Gi 40 wt. cotton thread that I like to use with my sewing machines. The Monaco material I have stitched on feels a little stiff to stitch on at the beginning but softens up and I like how even the weave is and feel I can get even tension when stitching on it.

The last summery beach cross stitch I designed is Beach Day with Emerson. I love this quote and wanted to use it as a framework around my mix of shells. Don't you enjoy collecting an assortment of these beauties as you walk along the sand? A pop of color in the coral offsets the soft type and warm shells. 

Let your local needlework shop know if you want them to carry these charts or you can get them through robinpickensinc.com. Take a break this summer, relax, and visit the beach daily in a little summery stitch!