Meet our graphic designer extraordinaire, Gemma, and learn more about the creation of our own cross stitch collection.

Find Your Club
Stitch & Story’s first cross stitch collection

To celebrate the arrival of our first in-house cross stitch collection, we chatted to Gemma, the graphic design extraordinaire and talented illustrator behind the designs, here at Stitch & Story HQ. 

Where did you begin when coming up with the designs for this collection? How did the idea of creating clubs come about?

It all started with a brief to create a collection of animals, and a chosen colour palette to make it with. The idea to create clubs with animal designs came to me after seeing a t-shirt that said ‘coffee club’, and the ‘ocean club’ became the first of a long list of animals and potential clubs they could be mascots for! Being part of a club is filled with nostalgia for me: it makes me think of the excitement I felt collecting my badges as a Brownie Guide. 

Tell us a bit more about your design process…

Once I’ve got a load of ideas, I start sketching and experimenting with different compositions and combinations of colours from our curated selection. When creating the concept sketches, I had to keep in mind how well they would translate into a cross stitch grid. This helped with the selection process of the final collection. 

 

Which club in the collection are you a part of?

Ooh it would have to be the Dinosaur Club! Dino-inspired creatures appear in my illustration work quite a lot, so I feel like I have a special bond with my pre-historic pals!

Are you new to cross stitch? Or are you a needle-point pro? Join the conversation with a community of crafters on Instagram and Facebook.