Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Charles Dickens Saying

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This is a repeat of a post from last year – I want to make sure you didn’t miss out! A beloved holiday tradition is “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens and whether you like to read the original, watch the Mikey or Muppet version, or participate in the local stage version, this free chart will allow you to create your own stitched version of Scrooge’s famous saying. Thanks to Feathers in the Nest blogger Jennifer Dalenberg for posting this free chart.

Be sure to visit her blog Feathers in the Nest for the full-size chart. (When I post about a free chart, you always want to visit the blog indicated for the full-size chart – the post here will be a thumbnail version at best. Here at Craft Gossip we always want to encourage you to visit the original post for more information about the free charts or tutorials we let you know about each day.)

Looking for more Christmas Cross Stitch patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

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Cross Stitch Cards for All Occasions

I have never stitched a greeting card, but I kind of like the idea of it. It’s a card and a gift all in one, and hopefully one the recipient will hang onto for years to come. 

This collection of easy and colorful greeting card cross stitch patterns from Susan Bates (via Gathered) are a great place to start if you want to stitch your own greeting cards. 

These text-based designs cover a lot of card-sending events, such as:

  • get well soon
  • happy birthday
  • thank you
  • thinking of you
  • congratulations
  • anniversary
  • new home
  • good luck

The lettering is done in gradients and there are other details like hearts and stars, a house key and a gift, depending on the text. There are full cross stitches and back stitch on all of the cards, and they use 15 colors for the cross stitching and six for the back stitching (and just two colors are used for both, so it’s 19 colors total). 

The designs vary a bit in size but the biggest one is 52 by 67 stitches, which comes out to 3.75 by 4.75 inches or 9.5 by 12 cm when worked on 14 count fabric or 28 count evenweave. The text suggests beads are also used in the patterns but there’s no note of them in the key, so go wild and add some beads if you like. 

Designs are worked on a price of 6 by 8 inch/15 by 20 cm fabric and then mounted to a card with a colorful baking piece of card stock behind it. This is easy to assemble with whatever cardstock greeting cards you have on hand.

You can get the free charts as a PDF from Gathered. 

Have you ever stitched your own greeting cards? I’d love to hear about it, or let me know if these inspire you to try. 

[Photo: Susan Bates via Gathered]