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.

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Cross Stitch Birth Announcements

I have not done a lot of big cross stitch projects, but sometimes even with small projects it can be hard to decide exactly where to begin and how to work through the chart if you’re working with multiple colors. The general categories for the possible methods are known as cross country and parking.

Cross country means that you’re working one color at a time, moving around the chart (or the section of the chart you’re working on) until you’re done with that color. Parking means you’re working in a smaller section and doing all the colors in that area, “parking” the threads by leaving them attached to the canvas but out of the way while you finish each section.

Royal Rows is a specific way of parking named by Alison Royal, which is explored in detail on a post on Stitching Daily.

The idea is that you’re working one “tower” of stitches at a time (she uses a section of 10 stitches across by 20 down, but you can do whatever makes sense to you). You work all the stitches of a color at a time, starting at the top left and working your way down. When you’re done with a color you can park it where needed in the section below your current tower (known as the dungeon) or in the “east tower,” which is the section to the right.

There’s also a specific way of dealing with thread ends when you’re done with a color. This is a super simplified version (head to the blog post at Stitching Daily to get all the details) but the basic idea is that you’re working from left to right and top to bottom across the work, parking the threads in the next section when you’re done with them and systematically choosing which color to work with next.

The whole idea of parking is kind of overwhelming to me though I will admit that it makes a lot of sense. I guess I need to try it on a smallish big project and see how it goes. Do you use the parking method of cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Stitching Daily]

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