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

At first glance at My Big Toe Designs’ website, you might think you’ve stumbled upon a pretty classic cross stitch designer who makes samplers using bible verses and traditional designs.

And there is that, but if you look a little closer, you’ll see another side, with designs that call cat hair a “specialty fiber,” refer to the voices in their head saying to eat the chocolate, and that as far as everyone else knows, this is a “normal” family.

These designs are billed as whimsical on the My Big Toe Designs website, and they are that, especially compared to the other designs on the site. Who couldn’t relate to “If it’s not one thing, it’s three others” or “I barely survived yesterday and it’s already today”?

As mentioned above, in addition to the snarkier side, this designer makes a lot of samplers and inspirational designs with bible quotes and heartfelt phrases. There are also holiday designs, mostly for Christmas with a religious bent. The pinkie series offers sets of small Christmas designs that can be framed in tiny frames, used as ornaments or given as gifts.

In addition to all the patterns on offer, the website includes tutorials that show how to use stitched fabric in different ways, including making a biscornu, covering a wooden block, making a needle book, a flat ornament and an ort box (if that last one doesn’t mean anything to you, check out this post all about orts).

There also are a few free patterns on the website, including designs about winter, stitching friends, being a grandparent and more.

While you can browse all of My Big Toe Designs’ patterns on the website, you can’t actually order directly from them. But there is a list of websites on the site that you can use if you don’t have a local needlework shop that happens to carry the designs you want.

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