Review: Cross Stitch with Cattitude

It’s no secret that I’m a cat person (I even shared a collection of black cat cross stitch patterns in honor of my favorite black cat, Baron) so when I saw that a book full of cat-themed cross stitch patterns existed I had to check it out immediately.

Cross Stitch with Cattitude by Emma Congdon includes 20 designs inspired by our feline companions, or should I say the cats that are gracious enough to put up with our human nonsense in exchange for food.

The patterns are colorful, sarcastic and full of cattitude, from sentiments like “feed me and tell my I’m pretty” to “you work and I judge” to “hiss off” and “how about no” for those days when we just don’t want to deal with humans. (You can see a few of the patterns on the Amazon listing for the book.)

The designs are mostly from the cat’s point of view but a few take the human’s side, for instance saying it’s not that we’re crazy cat ladies so much as everyone else are crazy people persons.

There are also a few designs that include different cat faces and activities more than text, which is a lot of fun. The different cats on the “purrsonalities” sampler could be stitched individually on a card or as a mini design for a cat-loving friend.

Each pattern includes a stitch count and size and tells you what kind of fabric was used. The charts are large, taking up either two or four pages, and all the DMC colors are listed with the pattern (there’s also a conversion chart if you like different thread).

The book is also filled with sarcastic notes from the cats, which, if you’ve ever met a housecat, will sound familiar.

If you’re a cat lover or you know a cat lover you’d like to stitch for, this book is a lot of fun and will let you create colorful, snarky and sweet cat cross stitch designs.

About the book: 112 pages, paperback, 20 patterns. Published 2023 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price

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45+ Free Disney Inspired Cross-Stitch Patterns

The other day I shared some cross stitch patterns with ornaments on them, so this time around I wanted to share cross stitch patterns that you can use as ornaments. It would be fun to do a whole tree in your craft room with cross stitch ornaments, or just add a few to your tree or give them as gifts.

These little quilt inspired cross stitch patterns from Flamingo Toes look like ornaments and fit in 3-inch hoops, which are perfect for hanging on the tree or using to decorate a gift. I love the pastel colors on these but you can use more traditional Christmas colors if you like.

This cute Christmas tree from Lagodargetoshop uses a single color and fits in a 4-inch hoop, but you could make it smaller if you wanted by trimming the last ornaments and gifts from the sides, or just stitch the tree without any other embellishments. Either way it’s a cute addition to your holiday tree.

Stitched Modern has a super cute collection of retro Christmas ornament cross stitch patterns from designer Gera. This is a printed pattern that will be shipped to you. Each pattern is about 40 by 56 stitches, or 2.9 by 4 inches/7.4 by 10 cm on 14 count fabric. To work the whole set you’ll need 20 colors of floss.

These snowflake ornaments from Our Little Handmade Home are each about 2.5 inches/6.4 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric, and they use a single color of floss. They are pretty in red but you could also do white on a blue or black background, or whatever suits your other Christmas tree decorations!

From the description it sounds like this set of vintage style cross stitch characters is presented as one large chart, but the photo from Sampler Antique Stitch shows each of them stitched up as their own little ornament, so it gets included here. You’ll find Santa and snowmen in different poses in this cute collection.

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