Review: Cross-Stitch to Calm

Most needlecrafts are touted for their calming and meditative properties, but I think cross stitch might be even more relaxing than other crafts in a way because it is so slow. You have to have patience for a pattern to materialize stitch by stitch, and nothing makes you more in the moment than making a picture one movement at a time.

Leah Lintz took this idea to the next level with her book Cross-Stitch to Calm: Stitch and De-stress with 40 Simple Patterns.

She calls her patterns bold, cheerful and graphic, and they’re definitely not frilly or girly like traditional cross-stitch patterns. They often include colorwork, like a striped elephant or a checkered crab, that makes them a little more interesting to knit and gives them a fun look. She also skips columns or rows of stitching regularly to make stripes without having to use a second color.

The patterns are divided into categories such as creatures, nature, symbols and words. There are all sorts of interesting patterns here that will suit a lot of tastes, from beach motifs to animal heads, stylistic flowers and fruits to hearts, guitars and words like eat, family and home.

Projects are shown with large charts and a color-stitched sample, though any colors can be changed to suit the thread you have at home or the colors in your decor.

There are a lot of cute things here I’d love to stitch to decorate around the house or use on cards or in other ways. These designs seem like they would be interesting and entertaining without being too much of a challenge, the perfect thing for TV stitching or when you just need to wind down.

About the book: 112 pages, paperback, 40 patterns. Published February 2016 by Interweave/F+W, suggested retail $16.99

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Cross-Stich For Stress Relief - Unwinding And…

I love seeing different ways that cross stitch can be worked on unusual surfaces, from strainers to chain link fences and more. One slightly more common way to add cross stitch to your home without using cross stitch fabric is to stitch on a chair base.

Chairs that have woven ratan backs and/or bases are a marker of mid-century design through the 1970s and ’80s, but there are a lot of options currently for sale if you don’t want to hunt one down at a vintage store or garage sale. Because the open blocks are built into the furniture, it’s not that difficult to imagine what cross stitch will look like on the surface.

If you have a chair you want to stitch on, or you just want to be inspired by other people’s work, check out this tutorial from Bobo Stitch all about how to stitch on a chair base. The chair they used has a round base and a long oval piece on the back of the chair that had space for stitching. (They found it on eBay.)

The post walks you through all the tools you will need to be able to cover your chair with cross stitch. They actually used ribbon to do the stitching, but you could use wool yarn or even thick cotton yarn if you wanted.

It doesn’t look like a super difficult project but I can see how it might be tedious because it’s not as easy to stitch on a chair as it is to stitch on fabric. And if you are doing a set of chairs this won’t be a quick project, but it’s well worth the effort if you want to add a bit of color and funky boho style to your chairs.

Would you do this to a chair? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Bobo Stitch]

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