More Fun Sampler Style Cross Stitch Patterns

I recently shared some fun birth announcement cross stitch patterns, as well as talking about a designer who reproduces historic sampler designs.

This post is sort of a mashup of those two, highlighting the designs from Cherry Lane Design, because when I was browsing her website one of the first things that caught my eye was this alphabet sampler birth announcement pattern.

It’s so sweet, complete with the letters of the alphabet in different fonts and colors, and a little stitched thing that starts with each letter (balloons, mailbox, rainbow, zebra, etc.). There’s still space for the baby’s name, birthdate and weight. It’s definitely not a quick project but it is super cute!

I also like this sort of sampler style wedding announcement, which features books, a giant monogram of the couple’s last initial (assuming the couple will share a last name) as well as their first names, the date of the wedding, and some flowers and other frills. I love the idea of stitching titles on the books or making the covers meaningful to the couple in some way.

Check out her other designs as well. There are flags for the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom that are really pretty and different from the usual flag design because they’re made with starburst shapes rather than straight rows of stitching. She also has some floral designs, other styles of announcements, and a few holiday designs as well.

Visit her website to see more! I will note it doesn’t look like she’s updated her blog or any social media in a couple of years, but as far as I can tell it looks like the website is still functional for sales. If you try to buy something and find that it doesn’t work, please let me know and I will update or take this post down.

Cross-Stitch Graph Paper is specially designed to provide a structured layout, allowing you to easily translate your ideas onto the fabric. Each sheet features a grid of squares that correspond to individual stitches, making it simple to plan and execute your cross-stitch designs. You can purchase Cross-stitch graph paper here.

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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