I am a man with many hobbies. Watching movies, playing games, writing ToughPigs articles. But last year, I realized that most of my hobbies include looking at screens. I go from my computer to my phone to the TV to a movie theater and back to my phone and usually multiple at the same time. While I often feel productive, it sure doesn’t feel like the healthiest thing ever.
I chose to learn how to cross stitch. It’s something tactile that I can make with my hands, while having something real that I can keep or give to friends. I’ve been creating my own designs (mostly), and of course, the majority of my cross stitches are of Muppets.
Now that I’ve been at it for a while, I wanted to share my work. I’m pretty proud of these, and I’m excited to share them with you all. Admittedly, I’m still learning, but improving fast. Just imagine what sort of Muppets I’ll be cross stitching after another year!
Here’s the fun part: We’re now officially selling custom-made cross stitches on Etsy! Proceeds to be shared with ToughPigs.com to help keep the lights on. You can get any of the designs you’re about to see, or any Muppet you can think of. We’ll design it and get it to you just in time for the holidays!
We hope you enjoy these pieces below, and we hope you enjoy them enough to order one for yourself!
The Kermit Eye was my first original design. I borrowed the Muppet Wiki logo and added the rainbow background for a design that we sold as an enamel pin a while back, and is currently available on various merchandise through our TeePublic page.
I made another version of the Kermit Eye with the trans flag colors, which was give away as a prize to one of the donors of our Pride Month fundraiser earlier this year.
I made this one, based off the Movin’ Right Along podcast logo (originally illustrated by Morgan Davy) as gifts for hosts Ryan Roe and Anthony Strand.
I’d love to do a series of this one someday, with different objects falling onto the Newsman.
Although I didn’t have the idea until several weeks into the Muppets’ 70th anniversary celebration, I plan to try and create cross stitches for as many of the featured Muppets as I can. The first one was this Behemoth, who is delightfully chowing down on Kermit.
For those of you not in the know, “Fozzie Bear is a bear” were the first words added to the first entry on the Muppet Wiki.
This was a gift for ToughPigs writer Shane Keating, who created the fantastic Scooter Fist compilation video. Silly me, I accidentally flipped it, giving Scooter an animated right arm instead of his left.
The great Taminella Grinderfall, though an interesting complex Muppet, was surprisingly easy to boil down to a cross stitch pattern.
A deep cut, this is the Solemn Mark of the Fraggle, seen (subtly) throughout Fraggle Rock. I added some color to the background to give it a little pride.
I wanted to experiment with monochrome, since there are so many classic Muppet moments from Jim Henson’s early years. Like this one, inspired by the Sam & Friends sketch “Visual Thinking.”
And this, inspired by Jim Henson’s character in his short film Time Piece.
I was halfway into creating this piece when I realized that I couldn’t just make an image of Wilkins and Wontkins. It didn’t feel right to just have them staring straight ahead doing nothing. I wanted to show Wilkins somehow tormenting or torturing Wontkins, so I kept with the theme of the cross stitch medium, while also adding a 3-D element, as Wontkins is slowly being unraveled for his taste in beverages.
An odd little Miss Piggy, made as a gift for my friend Gav. The text is a bit of an inside joke, but one that makes us laugh, so now it’s immortalized on fabric.
This one, as well as the following four designs, were inspired by an illustration used on a We Love Fine t-shirt (the company seems to be gone, and I can’t find a sign of the artist’s name). So I can’t take credit for the art, but they sure make for a great set.
This is the largest piece I’ve made, inspired by art found in the “Grover’s Bedtime Story” short story in “The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook,” illustrated by A. Delaney. I wanted to make this as a gift for ToughPigs’ own Becca Petunia for some time as a thank you for her hard work on the Hubba-Wha podcast, our Pride Month celebrations, and moderation of the ToughPigs Discord. Since it’s so large, I enlisted the help of Muppet replica artist Emily Engel to create the pattern.
Thanks for joining me on this needlepointed adventure! And remember, visit our Etsy shop to order a custom-made Muppet cross stitch of your own!
Click here to poke holes in the logic of the ToughPigs Discord!
by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com
