Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Book Review – Just CrossStitch

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Freshen your stitching basket with the joy of spring! This latest issue of Just CrossStitch is absolutely bursting with 20+ springtastic floral designs that are guaranteed to brighten your days with vibrant sunniness and warmth.

  • Stitch the spring sunshine into your home with every pull of your needle and floss. You’ll love Elizabeth Spurlock’s welcoming Folk Hello design, which features bright colors to create a heartfelt and bold statement.
  • The best things come in small packages. Showcase hues from every color of the rainbow as you stitch the delightfully diminutive Meadow Pincushions. This pair of pincushions use three strands of floss over one Aida square to provide a palette of rich, deep colors.
  • Celebrate Easter with elegant eggs and whimsical bunnies. The Ornate Easter Egg features stunning jewel tones that are reminiscent of a richly gem-encrusted Faberge egg, while Daisy, a charming yet playful Easter bunny, wishes you a hippity-hoppity Easter with kloster blocks, beads, herringbone stitches and eyelets.

You can download this magazine here.

Looking for more Easter themed Cross Stitch Patterns and Charts? Check these out on Etsy.

Have you read?

How to Add Text to a Cross Stitch Project

One of the easiest ways to make a cross stitch project more personal is to add text to it. Whether you’re adding the names of people getting married to a generic floral cross stitch design, birth information to a project on theme with the new baby’s room or just adding a word or phrase that’s meaningful to you, adding words to cross stitch projects make them that much more special. 

But if you’re not working with a project that already has text built in, or you want to change the text that’s there, that can feel a little daunting. 

Caterpillar Cross Stitch has a great guide to adding names and words (as well as numbers) to projects, which talks you through what to consider and how to actually go about adding text to a cross stitch project successfully. 

You’ll need to think about what kind of font you want to use and if you’re using back stitched letters or larger filled letters, how much space you need and how the letters work together in the text you’re planning to make sure it’s readable. 

Their post includes common pitfalls such as running out a space or ending up with text that’s off center and how to avoid them (spoiler: chart out your text before you stitch!). 

The whole post is really helpful if you’ve never added lettering to a project before and don’t know where to start. I like to use block letters in back stitch when learning how to add text to cross stitch, but of course there are tons of lettering options. Check out this collection of cross stitch fonts if you want to see some different things you can try. 

And head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch to get more tips for how to successfully add lettering to your cross stitch projects. They also have their own alphabet and number charts you can buy to add text to your stitching. 

Have you ever added text to a cross stitch project? I’d love to hear how it went!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]