Cross Stitch Patterns to Welcome Fall

OK, I know I’m a little late to the season on these, but honestly, it’s only just now starting to feel like fall where I live and I’m ready to welcome it with open arms and all the crafts, even if the calendar says it’s been fall for a little while already. If you’re still crafting for fall these are some great options, or you can stitch them up now and have them ready to go for next year (also: fall decor is a totally valid option now through Thanksgiving, so you’ve actually got plenty of time).

Erin Elizabeth’s Hello Fall design features colorful pumpkins and leaves, and has a stitch count of 78 by 82. It uses 21 colors and you can get it from 123 Stitch.

Hello Fall from Daily Cross Stitch features those words and a pretty wreath of fall-colored leaves. This one would be great for a beginner, and it is 68 by 62 stitches and uses six colors of embroidery floss.

Or just stitch the words hello fall and a little pumpkin with this simple but sweet design from Bella Rose Craft on Etsy. It uses just three colors and is perfect for a new stitcher. When stitched, the design comes out to 2.57 by 2.79 inches, so it’s perfect to display in a 4-inch hoop.

And if you don’t want your welcoming of fall to be quite so literal, I’ve got a couple of patterns for you, too.

When I first saw this primitive pumpkin sampler from Etsy seller NARAxStitchPatterns, I thought the bird was a penguin and was super confused, but of course it’s actually meant to be a crow or a blackbird. I love the colors on this one (it uses 12 total). The piece measures 127 by 173 stitches and comes out to 9.07 by 12.36 inches on 14-count fabric.

I also love this fall sampler from Riverdrift House, which features a woman holding a pumpkin and surrounded by leaves, acorns, apples and other symbols of fall. You could pull out little images from this one to use in other projects, too, if you wanted. It uses nine colors and measures 140 by 95 stitches. You can get it from Creative Poppy Patterns.

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]

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