Book Review: Holiday Ornaments Galore

Still looking for some holiday decor to stitch up or a gift for your favorite cross-stitcher? Check out Holiday Ornaments Galore, a book from Leisure Arts with a whopping 98 designs on all sorts of holiday themes.

Here you’ll find cutesy snowmen, elves and gingerbread people; stockings, ornament motifs and wreath designs; text sentiments, animals, Santas and more.

The projects are all designed by Urusla Michael and they are show in a numbered, full-color project gallery at the front of the book, with corresponding numbered charts in the back. Basic stitching instructions appear at the front of the book to help new stitchers or give you a refresher on any needed skills (the patterns use full stitches, quarter stitches, back stitches and French knots).

You can download the ebook from Leisure Arts or order a paper copy.

[Photo: Leisure Arts.]

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20 Snow Globe Cross-Stitch Patterns

Cross Stitch Foxy has a huge selection of cross stitch patterns perfect for gifts or using in your own home decor. As of this writing there are more than 900 patterns listed, so there’s no way I can cover them all, but let’s take a quick peek at some of the options.

As with many cross stitch designers, Cross Stitch Foxy has a lot of holiday themed patterns, including Christmas, Halloween and Easter and St. Patrick’s Day. There are patriotic American patterns, feminist patterns and so much more.

Since we’re heading into the Christmas season as I write this, I thought I’d highlight one of the more than 100 Christmas listings in the shop. These Christmas mugs would be cute to have hanging in your kitchen or anywhere else all winter long.

The full pattern is 86 by 101 stitches, which comes out to 6.1 by 7.2 inches, or 5.5 by 18 cm, when stitched on 14 count fabric. It calls for 19 colors. Of course you could also stitch a single mug if you’d rather, or put them into individual frames.

One thing that is fun about Cross Stitch Foxy’s projects is that the intention is that to some extent you can use what you have to make the projects. None of the projects include single stitches of a color, and colors can be replaced with the colors you have or use blends made up of colors you already have, making the projects more cost effective and environmentally friendly. Of course for holiday patterns you’ll want some holiday colors, but there’s wiggle room to use the threads you already own, which is nice.

In addition to the categories I already mentioned, there are many other patterns, including a wide selection of seasonal gnomes, patterns with cats and dogs, food and drink patterns and a nice collection of flowers and plants, just to name a few. There’s probably something for everyone in this store, so go check it out at Cross Stitch Foxy on Etsy.

[Photo: Cross Stitch Foxy]

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