Review: Cross-Stitch to Calm

Cross stitch is a calming activity, especially when the pattern you’re working is simple and suits your personal style. Leah Lintz says she likes to cross stitch as a means of stress relief, but a lot of the cutesy patterns that are out there just didn’t suit her style.

So she designed her own projects and has published a bunch of them in the book Cross-Stitch to Calm: Stitch and Destress with 40 Simple Patterns.

If you’re new to cross stitch, there’s a little bit of an introduction here that covers basic supplies, reading charts and getting started, stitching different kinds of stitches in different directions and an easy way to finish off projects.

The patterns are arranged into categories: creatures, nature (which would be more accurately called plants), symbols and words.

A lot of the patterns involve leaving stripes of fabric unstitched in the middle of the pattern, which makes them even faster to stitch. For example, the star on the cover is striped with red and blue, but the white stripes are just the fabric showing through. This same technique is used to stripe an elephant, giraffe, cat and cherries, to name just a few patterns where it is used.

Most of the projects only use one or two colors (in fact it looks like there are two patterns that use three colors, and one each that uses four or five) so they’re great for beginners. The charts are large and each project is also shown stitched.

There’s a pretty wide range of patterns, from a butterfly to a bonsai tree, ice cream cone to anchors. The words eat, family, home and smile are charted, and I will admit to giggling when I saw that the chart for home had the word separated onto two lines, but you can always work it all in one line if you’d rather.

This collection might be one you want to flip through before you decide to buy the book to make sure the patterns are your style, but there are a lot of fun options for a new cross stitcher to try.

About the book: 112 pages, paperback, 40 patterns. Published in 2016 by Interweave Press. Suggested retail price $18.99

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Cross-Stich For Stress Relief - Unwinding And…

I love mini cross stitch patterns any time of the year, but they’re especially nice as we head toward the holidays and you might want to make some last-minute gifts. Mini Christmas cross stitch patterns are super cute as ornaments, or you can make them into bookmarks, little pins, add them to napkins, or whatever else you might like to add a bit of cross stitch to.

They’re also great because they’re usually sold as a set so you’re getting a bunch of patterns you can use together or separately all in one.

For example, Cross Stitch by Coconut has a collection of 100 mini holiday cross stitch patterns, which would be so cute stitched as a whole bunch in a sampler style, or as the border of another project, etc. Most of the individual designs are around 20 by 20 stitches and will take less than an hour to stitch up.

If 100 patterns sounds a little overwhelming, try Stitchonomy‘s mini collection, which has 30 tiny designs. I love the variety in this little collection, which has everything from Santa to a mug of hot chocolate, a Christmas pudding and a snow globe. The largest ones in this set are 31 by 31 stitches.

Purple Kitty Yarns has a collection from an old Coats & Clark leaflet designed by Barbara Swanson (and used by permission) that includes a couple of cute borders, ornaments, a wreath and other cute stuff.

These minis from Cross Stitch Inn Shop are meant to be ornaments, but you could use them for other little projects as well. It includes 16 patterns, all of which are smaller than 2 inches. The most complex ones use seven colors, but most only use two or three.

And these cute little projects from X Cross Stitch Pattern X on Etsy are all meant to fit in three-inch hoops. The largest size is around 35 by 35 stitches, and several of these are more winter than Christmas so you can use them as decor even after the season is over.

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