Kelly Morgan

When a friend suggested to me cross stitching switch plate covers to match my beautiful newly decorated living room I thought she had gone mad. Who'd ever heard of switch plate patterns for cross stitching,  but apparently many people have and there are numerous places on the internet that supply patterns for such projects.

Well, I just had to have a look once I knew about them and to my surprise I quickly found a number of adorable patterns suitable for all rooms in the house. Some were for single switches while others fitted double and even triple switches and so that swung it for me -- I was on a mission to personalize my house in a way none of my friends had thought of.

Many of the sites I visited on my quest for the perfect patterns sold them as part of a complete kit which was, in my eyes, even better. For example, www.silverneedle.com/oldies.html stocks a wide selection of kits that can be used in a number of rooms including the kitchen, the laundry and the conservatory or porch. I also got a guardian angel for my daughter's room and a digger design for my young son. The kits include the fabric, chart, floss, instructions and the clear standard sized switch plate cover with matching colored screws and safety backing foam. These are beautiful designs and because they come as a kit they are suitable for even novice stitchers.

Next I visited www.mcgtextiles.com where I searched for the term 'switch plate'. Here I found even more gorgeous patterns that again come as part of a kit but in addition to the everyday designs there are a number of fantastic Christmas patterns meaning I can really go to town on the Christmas decorations this year. The patterns at this site include Christmas angels, a cute holy cow, an even cuter cat in a sock and some more traditional designs such as holly and Christmas bulbs.

Staying on the theme of complete kits I then tried www.yarntree.com where on page 19 of the web catalogue they have a large selection to choose from including lighthouses, country cottages, butterflies and flowers. These are brilliant kits and contain absolutely everything a beginner would need to stitch the pattern themselves, hence I bought a couple for my novice daughter.

If however you are a professional stitcher and enjoy simply buying a pattern and working the rest out for yourself then you may wish to visit www.jeanettecrews.com/results.cfm?SubCategory=11 where three quarters of the way down the page there is a 10 page book called TGIF! Let There Be Light! which contains a collection of 15 switch plate and outlet cover patterns suitable for each of the rooms in the house including the kid's rooms, the kitchen, the dining room and the smallest room in the house.

After visiting these sites I thought I had enough but then another thought hit me -- eBay. After logging on and going to the craft section, I clicked on cross stitch and searched for 'switch plate' again. At the time there were 19 entries ranging from oriental designs to some very sweet 'Log Cabin' patterns. The patterns were presented as leaflets with up to 36 patterns in a single leaflet and all for the bargain price of $4.50!

Another great reason for keeping an eye on eBay is that the items for sale change regularly and so new things appear all the time. The only down point to this way of buying patterns is that it is an auction site and there is the chance that you will be out bid at some point, however the majority of the switch plate cover patterns when I visited were 'buy now' and so there was no bidding involved.  

Switch plate covers that are lovingly cross stitched make a beautiful addition to any room and indeed any home, but really… who thought of cross stitching them in the first place!