If you’re a fan of the strange and unusual, little trinkets gathered from here and there, natural wonders and found objects, you’ll enjoy the projects in Grace Isobel’s Cross Stitch Cabinet of Curiosities: 500 Magical Motifs and Peculiar Patterns.
This book covers everything from mushrooms and bones to ghosts, crafting tools, the phases of the moon, strange bottles and old keys, just to name a few. The designs are divided into topics such as:
- anatomy and botany
- animals and insects
- myth and magic
- trinkets and treasures
- apothecary and academia
- alphabets and numerals
Each chapter includes a bunch of charts for various designs on the theme. Generally several patterns are shown on the same page, with colors listed for the whole page at the bottom. In the PDF version I reviewed, the grid lines were hard to see so you might want a photocopy of the design you’re working so you can mark up the design if you need to.
Only a few of the designs in each chapter are shown stitched as a finished project, so it can be hard to visualize what things will look like stitched up or how large the designs are (most of them are relatively small, though there are some bigger designs that have a whole page chart, like a shelf full of beetles and butterflies). In some cases I wasn’t totally sure what the image was depicting, and nothing is labeled.
I found flipping through the book a little overwhelming because where do you even begin with 500 patterns? There are interesting patterns here and I could definitely see making some of the little designs as pendants or to put in tiny frames for my daughter’s curio shelf.
There are also six alphabets included if you want to make your own signs or add your own words to a design.
Instructions at the back cover the basics of cross stitch, and plenty of these designs would be fine for beginners because they are so small. So if you’ve got a witchy friend who wants to get into cross stitch, this is just the book for them.
About the book: 112 pages, paperback, 500 patterns. Publishes 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.
