Book Review: Mini Cross Stitch Ornaments

There’s nothing cuter than handmade holiday ornaments, and Kooler Design Studio has you covered for ideas with their book Mini Cross Stitch Ornaments.

The book, published by Leisure Arts, has 160 little deigns for just about everything you’d want to use to deck your halls, from snowmen to Santas, stockings and bells, even a Christmas cow.

There’s a series of penguins, a collection of religious designs and images for the 12 days of Christmas.

It also includes details on different ways to finish the ornaments, such as stitching on plastic canvas and trimming to size, using regular cross-stitch fabric backed with felt or adding batting and backing to make a more three-dimensional shape, among other options.

This book is a lot of fun to look at and to stitch from and should give you a lot of ideas for your own holiday decor as well as gifts.

About the book: 64 pages, paperback, 160 patterns. Published by Leisure Arts, retail price $9.99.

Looking for more Christmas Cross Stitch patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

I feel like summer is the time we all wish we could be somewhere tropical, but if we can’t, at least we can stitch some tropical flower cross stitch designs. There are tons of great options available, but here are a few that caught my eye.

If you’re looking for a relatively basic one, this orange hibiscus from StitchChickUS is a good one. It only uses three colors and measures 46 by 45 stitches. That’s about 3.25 inches or 8.2 cm square and will fit in a three inch hoop.

This plumeria from Cross Stitch Lukova is more detailed and uses 20 colors plus one blend, but you could leave off the watercolor background if you want to make it easier on yourself. This design is 80 by 74 stitches, which comes out to 5.5 by 5.1 inches, or 14.5 by 13.4 cm, when worked on 14 count fabric.

Speaking of watercolors, this stunning design from Light Unicorn Designs looks like it would be a lot of fun to stitch. This is a bigger project, at 200 by 200 stitches, and it uses 27 colors. If you work it on 14 count fabric it will come out to 14.29 inches or 36.29 cm on each side.

These pretty pink flowers from Emerald Oasis Designs are sure to brighten up any space. This one uses 29 colors and has a stitching area of 93 by 100 stitches. A variety of size options are listed in the pattern notes, but on 14 count it will come out around 6.75 by 7.25 inches, or around 17 by 18.4 cm.

The color palette is more toned down on this greenery-forward design from XStitched Art, but I love the fun shapes of tropical fronds and leaves, too. At 180 by 180 stitches, this project uses 30 colors. Again lots of sizes are mentioned and if you use 18 count fabric you’ll get a 10 inch/25.4 cm square.

It’s always fun to see bold colors on a black background, but you can also use a light colored background for this flamboyant design from SamXstitch. This one calls for 23 colors and is 129 by 129 stitches. That’s 9.21 inches or 23.4 cm on 14 count fabric.

Have you read?