Susan Bates - Designing the “Holiday Season” Patterns for StitchableCards
Artwork above by Susan Bates and background image by Joanna Kosinska.
For me, one of the things I enjoy about Christmas is the giving of gifts to loved ones, but also it’s great to relax and have some fantastic food and drinks together. So for this set of designs I’ve created patterns around this theme of festive gifts and edible treats.
I’ve used a traditional palette of red and green, but I’ve made the greens a pretty teal colour. I’ve also added some tones of pink and blue, to change things up a bit. A couple of the designs also include some metallic gold thread, to add a bit of festive sparkle.
Making gingerbread biscuits is as much a part of Christmas as making Christmas cake or mince pies.
A fun way to enjoy baking is to make a gingerbread house, which you can then decorate with fondant icing and colourful sweets.
My design here features just such a gingerbread house. It’s adorned with candies and icing in shades of pink, white and green.
Cupcakes can be for any occasion - this one is decorated with icing and is topped off by a sprig of holly leaves and berries, to give it a Christmas feel..
The gingham tablecloth adds a sweet element to this design and the pink colours tie in with the pink in the previous gingerbread house design.
Soft teal blues add to the pretty colours and help to create an appealing pattern.
Who doesn’t love receiving presents over the festive season? It’s almost as much fun as wrapping your presents to give to your loved ones!
My design shows a present wrapped in emerald green paper that’s decorated with metallic gold stripes. It’s topped off by a large, flamboyant red bow. Adding a fancy bow to a present can make a gift feel really special and give it a real finishing touch.
Whilst it’s nice to give large presents it’s lovely to give some smaller presents too, in a little Christmas stocking.
Over the years I’ve sewn and knitted some Christmas stockings for my friends and family. It’s fun to make the stocking in patterns and colours that you think the person you’re making it for will really love.
In my opinion it makes gift giving feel even more special.
This design depicts a red and green Christmas stocking full of little presents.
The soft pink background gives it a sweet look and ties it in with the other designs - and the touches of gold thread add a bit of shimmer to the design.
All in all, I hope you enjoy this set of designs and are tempted to stitch a few of them for Christmas. You could put them onto greetings cards, or another way to use them would be to make personalised gift tags to put on your presents.
