cross-stitching x cardmaking

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Susan Bates - Designing the “Bookworm” Patterns for StitchableCards

Posted on April 11 2024, By: Waffle Flower Team

Susan Bates - Designing the “Bookworm” Patterns for StitchableCards
I’ve always loved reading and so I wanted to illustrate this in my latest set of designs. As a child I would often spend hours reading. I’d even read at night by torchlight, under the bedclothes, after my parents had told me to go to sleep! I enjoy reading digital books, but I still prefer the tactile quality of reading a printed book. There’s something about a paperback or hardback book that is so nice to read and hold, as opposed to a book on your phone or tablet. Anyway, whatever format you like to use, my designs are intended to show how enjoyable reading can be.


The patterns in this set show a mixture of book-themed motifs. There’s a cute bookworm, and books in various settings. The palette I’ve used for this design set is mainly soft and muted, with the odd pop of red and lime green, to
liven things up a bit.

The first design I sketched for this set was this fun looking bookworm, wearing large glasses and perched on top of a pile of books. I placed the bookworm inside the heart-shaped template, to symbolise a love of reading. I’m not too sure where the term ‘bookworm’ comes from, but looking it up, it seems to have first been used around about the 16th century and was used to describe someone who always seemed to have their head buried in a book and was, dare I say, a bit dull. But now I think we use the term in a more sympathetic way and being called a bookworm now, thankfully, has more positive connotations!

For my next design I liked the idea of a stack of books but instead of putting the book titles on the spine I decorated them with the slogan ‘I love reading’. On top of the books sits a pair of reading glasses. I love to be surrounded by books, so this image sums up this feeling of having a large stack of books to look forward to reading in the future. At the moment I’m reading lots of fiction, but I also love anything to do with history too.

For my next pattern I created a shelf design. The tall thin shape of the rectangular template seems to lend itself to a row of three shelves, each containing books and other objects. There’s a vase of flowers, a bright green pot plant and some storage containers. Cats seem to be able to sleep almost anywhere, so I included a ginger cat snoozing on top some books on the uppermost shelf. I think this is my favourite design in the set, as I like all of the little details and the cat is a fun part of it, although I think the bookworm design is quite cute too.

For the fourth and final design in this set I wanted to create a sweet little reading scene. I love taking a bit of time out from the stresses of life by settling down to read a good book along with a nice warming cup of tea or coffee. In this design an open book sits beside a cup decorated with a pretty Rose. Flowers are also echoed in the wallpaper and also in the book itself. The colours I’ve used are soft pinks, creams and pale blues, to suggest a nice relaxing scene.

If you love reading, or you know someone who does, these would be really fun designs to stitch – so why not make them for yourself or to include on a greetings card to give to a loved one?