Book Review – Just CrossStitch

Autumn stitching abounds! From framed pieces to pincushions, coasters and more, the 25+ patterns in this issue of Just CrossStitch will have you stitching through the chilly season with your warmest colors. The magazine features patterns for autumn, Thanksgiving and Halloween, so you’ll have projects to last you until Christmastime!

Capture the colors of autumn with the Colorful Leaves Biscornu. Stitch autumn leaves in shades of topaz and red settled delicately among fresh green branches. Use simple stitches—cross stitch and backstitch—to create this elegant design.
Fall feline! The deep, black linen fabric of the Autumn Cat creates a dramatic canvas that’s perfect for the rich autumn colors of terra-cotta, yellow, brown and green. Easy-to-follow finishing instructions will have you completing this feline-shaped project in no time.
Halloween Spooktacular! Stitch 6 spooky ornaments featuring classic black cats, skeletons, ghosts and more. By the end of this issue, you’ll be cackling with joy. Plus, you won’t want to miss our ongoing series features! Pick up Part 2 of the House for a Wife, a Huswif, and continue perfecting your specialty stitches in the Floral Band Sampler, Part 5. All this and more when you download (or subscribe!) today!

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]

Have you read?