More Fun Sampler Style Cross Stitch Patterns

July 21, 2023 by Sarah White

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.

Have you read?

Easy Fonts to Add to Your Cross Stitch

I don’t usually cross stitch text or add words to my cross stitch projects. Sometimes I will sign things using basic block lettering worked in backstitch (luckily my initials are pretty easy to stitch), but if you give your cross stitch as a gift or otherwise want to personalize it, adding text is a great way to go.

But if a project didn’t already come with text, and you don’t want to draw your own, you’ll need a good cross stitch font that you can use for your project.

I like collecting fonts that are easy to read and to stitch and that would be good for lots of different uses.

For example I really like this bold alphabet font from Cross Stitch with Art, which has both capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers if you need them for dates or other information on your design. The capital letters are an inch/2.5 cm/14 stitches tall, which makes it easy to figure out how much space you need to leave for them. It’s a nice, basic, readable serif font you can use for lots of project.

If you want a script font that’s still really readable, check out Magic Calligraphy from Soft Pattern Designs. This hand drawn font has upper case letters around 28 stitches tall, with lower case letters mostly being around 20 stitches (though the ones that go up or down a lot like f, p and y are bigger). The numbers also vary a bit in size but range from 25 to 29 stitches.

Sometimes you just want a classic font that looks like sports lettering, and in that case you’re going to need Varsity, an all caps font from Stitch Mod. This one has letters that are 21 stitches tall, and it includes capital letters and numbers. But there are definitely times this one would come in handy!

Another sometimes useful and really cute font is this alphabet block letters alphabet from Stitch Junction. These letters are all upper case and look like classic building blocks, and there are also numbers available. This one would be perfect for a birth announcement project or some other cross stitch for the baby’s room.

And if that’s not enough for you, check out this post with 85 free cross stitch fonts for you to try!