Book Review: Bob Ross Cross Stitch

Bob Ross is well known for his leisurely approach to creativity, producing paintings on the fly that might have “mistakes” covered up by happy little trees, or clouds, or just left to be an expression of a happy accident.

Cross-stitch designer Haley Pierson-Cox took Ross’ famous quotes and aesthetic as inspiration for the designs in Bob Ross Cross Stitch, which includes 12 patterns and a kit with supplies to make two of the projects.

The patterns include a lot of text, with phrases like “There is an artist hidden in every single one of us” surrounded by painting supplies or “anything we don’t like, we turn it into a happy little tree” with, of course, trees.

I looked at a PDF copy of this book but it looked like the charts were well-sized and easy to read. This would be a fun book for anyone who likes Bob Ross, or you can stitch up these sweet and colorful projects for your Ross-loving friends. What a great confluence of two great crafts, painting and cross stitch.

Bob Ross Cross Stitch is set to be released Aug. 30, 2022. You can preorder it on Amazon.

About the book: 48 pages, 12 patterns plus cross-stitch materials. Published August 2022 by becker&meyer! books. Suggested retail price $22.99. Publisher’s website.

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How to Fix Mistakes in Cross Stitch

I’ll admit to not taking as much care as I should when finishing cross stitch projects. Just like blocking in knitting or crochet, taking the time to finish a cross stitch project right means it will look its best, whether you’re making it as a gift or to keep.

And when it comes to cross stitch, the best method for finishing is washing and pressing.

Kat and Catkin and Lillie makes the argument that you should always press your finished pieces, and wash them the vast majority of the time as well.

Washing of course will help if there is any visible dirt that got on the project while stitching, but it also helps remove oils and skin cells you can’t see but that can speed up damage to your project in the long run.

Washing and pressing also help remove creases from the hoop or from storing the project, and if you use heat-erasable marking pens to grid your fabric, this will remove any visible marks.

So we’ve got the why down, but what about the how?

Kat has a great step by step tutorial on how to wash your cross stitch projects and how to iron them safely. You probably have everything you need to do this, it just takes a bit of time to go through the process. It’s certainly worth it, though, if you’ve spent a lot of time on a project and are gifting it or framing it and want to show it off to its best.

Click over to the post at Catkin and Lillie for all the details, plus some really good thoughts on times when you might not want to wash a project and how to test the colorfastness of your threads so you’ll know if a project is safe to wash.

Do you wash and press your finished cross stitch projects? I’d love to hear all about your process!

[Photo: Catkin and Lillie]

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