Doodle’s Halloween Cross Stitch Freebie

Stacey from Fearn Abbey Needleworks is a more recent addition to our freebie design world (and I hope you have also checked out her designs that are for sale too.) She always has the cutest design and this one is sure not to disappoint as well. She has a penchant for lamb designs and once again she has included her mascot Doodle in her free design, this time with a Halloween kick. Of course, you can stitch this one without the lamb silhouette if you like and it will still be stunning. She has included some specialty flosses in her creation so be sure to read all about it before you begin stitching if you want to achieve exactly the same look. Get the free chart.

Looking for more fun Halloween Cross-stitch patterns and charts? Check out these Halloween themed Cross stitch designs on Etsy.

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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