Book Review: 50 Cross Stitch Quickies Animals and Friends

Animals are some of the most popular cross stitch motifs out there, and the Leisure Arts book 50 Cross Stitch Quickies: Animals and Friends by Plaid Bucilla features a bunch of cute and small scale animal patterns perfect of all sorts of projects.

All of the stitch counts are 35 by 35 or less, so they’re quick to stitch and perfect to use on cards, as tiny framed gifts, or even on tea towels, napkins or other little projects.

The patterns are arranged by theme as follows.

Animals of the sky: hummingbird, bee, goldfinch, ladybug, cardinal, robin, dragonfly, monarch butterfly, blue butterfly, bluebird
Farm animals: pony, chick, rooster, dog, goat, cow, cat, sheep, pig, bunny (in a spring floral hat!)
Forest animals: squirrel, wolf, fox, doe, raccoon, bear, chipmunk, moose, owl, black bear
Ocean animals: blue tang, dolphin, porpoise, clownfish, seahorse, crab, sea turtle, shark, octopus, whale tail
Safari animals: chimp, lion, zebra, tiger, lemur, crocodile, elephant, giraffe, leopard, gorilla

The patterns use mostly whole stitches, with some one-quarter and three-quarter stitches (learn more about partial stitches here) and back stitching to add details. Some are just the face of the animal while others show the whole body.

The book is laid out so there are two patterns on each page, with a photo of the stitched project, the chart and key. Charts are in black and white except for the back stitching.

The patterns are really cute and though they are small some of them include a lot of details. For instance the owl is just 33 by 31 stitches but it uses 10 colors to illustrate different colors of feathers and the bird’s eyes.

The booklet also includes two pages of general instructions on how to read charts, where and how to start and how to form stitches. If you’re totally new to cross stitch this should give you enough information to get started.

This book is really cute and has a nice variety of animals to stitch for people who like that particular animal, for a nursery or for other projects.

About the book: 32 pages, paperback, 50 patterns. Published 201y by Leisure Arts. Suggested retail price $9.99

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Bee Cross Stitch Patterns

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year celebration, and it’s a time full of special symbols and meaningful happenings that are perfect for stitching. Anything with a bee or honeycomb, apple, pomegranate or challah on it would be a great choice for stitching this time of year.

Or how about a towel to cover your challah that includes all those other symbols? This pattern from Sew Perfectly Designed has bees, honeycomb, an apple and a pomegranate, as well as stars of David. (This is really a hand towel but you could also stitch the design on a tea towel to use on the table.) The original design includes some partial stitches but the designer says you can make them all full stitches and backstitch to get the proper effect on the lettering if you’d rather. It uses 15 colors and measures 178 by 24 stitches and is good for intermediate stitchers.

Speaking a challah covers, there’s also this design from Sew Marie Studio, worked in a single color. The pattern is 197 by 301 stitches, which comes out to 14 by 21.5 inches, or 35.7 by 55 cm, on 14 count fabric (sizes for other counts are given as well if you don’t need a cover that big). The designer recommends adding a fabric border as shown and includes instructions for how to do that.

This kit to make an apple and honey coaster would be a great project to make for the holiday. It comes from Siman Kriaa and the kit includes perforated paperboard for stitching, thread, a needle, the chart and instructions in English and Hebrew.

And because I love a good(?) pun, I couldn’t resist sharing this Shofar Sho Good pattern from The Kosher Stitcher. (The shofar is the ram’s horn that is blown through at Rosh Hashanah.) The deisgn uses five colors and measures 60 by 37 stitches, which comes out to 4.3 by 2.6 inches, or 10.9 by 6.7 cm on 14 count fabric.

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