Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Graduation Cross Stitch Patterns

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I recently shared a review of a book full of graduation cross stitch patterns and noted that I haven’t shared a lot of graduation cross stitch patterns before. So let’s take a look at some in case you have a graduate this year.

Keep it simple with this personalized mortarboard and diploma design from Little Apple Stitchery. You can add the graduate’s name, school and the year of graduation, or put their name at the top and their school, major (if graduating from college) and year at the bottom. As shown the design is 119 by 119 stitches, which comes out to about 8.5 inches/21.5 cm square.

Favorite Gnome has a cute graduation gnome, and you could personalize the color of the gown and/or the balloons to the school colors of the graduate. As shown it uses 21 colors and comes out to 8 by 7 inches/18.5 by 17.1 cm on 14 count fabric, with a stitching area of 102 by 94 stitches.

This word art graduation cross stitch pattern from New England Artsncraft is available as a pattern only or a kit that includes floss, fabric and a needle as well as the instructions. (The pattern is printed and shipped, not a digital pattern.) The project is 9.6 by 9.1 inches, or 24.3 by 23.3 cm on 14 count fabric and uses two colors.

The design from Elchka Cross Stitch doesn’t have a place for personalization, but it’s still a nice project for someone graduating. It  is 93 by 87 stitches, and it’s about 6.6 by 6.2 inches, or 16.9 by 15.8 cm.

Cross Stitch of the Sea offers this lovely design of a graduation cap sitting on a stack of books with flowers. It’s 150 by 135 stitches, which is 10.71 by 9.64 inches/27.21 by24.49 cm on 14 count fabric. It uses 40 colors but is all full cross stitches. 

If you know a girl who is graduating, these last two might be for you. The Graduated pattern from PuntAGOpetitePattern shows the back of a graduate with long brown hair, but you can change the color of the gown and the hair as needed. If you want a custom color pattern written for you, you can contact the designer.

And Skylark Cross Stitch has this pretty design perfect for a girly girl graduating in her heels. It uses 25 colors and four blends and has full and half cross stitches, back stitch and small back stitch, but if you’ve got the skills this is a beautiful one to make!

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]