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

One of the most common problems that cross stitchers at all skill levels have is that the cross stitch fabric can start fraying while you stitch.

Beginner cross stitchers might wonder why this happens and if there is something they are doing wrong to cause it.

The reason cross stitch fabric frays is because it is a woven fabric, and the nature of any kind of woven fabric (whether that’s cross stitch fabric, a torn up towel or a piece of fabric you’re going to sew) is that it wants to fray.

It’s not necessarily a huge deal if you cross stitch fabric starts fraying mid-project if you have left a lot of extra fabric around your stitching. But if there’s not much fabric to spare in order to be able to finish the project the way you want, you’ll want to do something to stop the fraying.

When I was growing up I remember my mom using masking tape for this purpose, but it turns out there are lots of different things that you can do to stop your cross stitch fabric from fraying.

Craft with Cartwright came up with 15 different things that you can try, which seems like a lot, but that just means you have lots of different things you can try.

If you don’t want to buy something, you can stitch along the edges. If you already have supplies like tape or glue, or access to pinking shears or a serger, there are lots of options you can try.

Some of these are more permanent than others, so it will depend a little bit on how you want to finish your cross stitch project as to which is the best choice for you. It’s a great idea to read through the whole list just so you can have them in the back of yoru mind the next time you start a project and think about how you would like to protect it.

You can find the whole list at Craft with Cartwright.

How do you like to stop fraying on your cross stitch projects? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[Photo: Craft with Cartwright]

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