Review: Enchanted Garden Cross Stitch

Crafting and gardening seem to go together, and a lot of designers use flowers in their designs because they also enjoy growing them.

Gail Bussi is a cross stitch designer and an avid gardener, and she combined her two loves for a collection of outdoors-inspired patterns called Enchanted Garden Cross-Stitch.

The book includes 20 patterns featuring flowers, bird, butterflies and other images from backyard gardens, complete with words or quotes related to gardens, flowers and the outdoors.

For example a couple of the designs feature quotes from the book The Secret Garden, another has a quote from Maya Angelou, while others have lines like “flowers are happy things” and “heart of a rose,” which is shown on a heart-shaped design of flowers and an arbor.

The patterns use a lot of different colors (the fewest colors used in a pattern I could find were 12 or 13) and there’s a lot of detail that makes these patterns best suited to stitchers with some experience. Each chart is shown on a single page regardless of the size of the design, which means some of them are much smaller than others. That could be a problem for those with vision issues.

Also some of the colors used in the charts make it harder to read them. A few of the charts are shown with green as the background color, which can make it harder to see the stitches that are also green around them, or even to read the words in the design.

If you can get past those issues (by copying the image larger and in black and white, for instance) these are pretty designs and things that would be nice to stitch for flower-loving friends or for yourself.

The book also includes a recipe for carrot cupcakes, tips on making herbal tea and other tidbits from the garden.

Enchanted Garden Cross-Stitch is a lovely book with sweet designs worth taking the time to get over the hurdles of their presentation for.

About the book: 114 pages, paperback, 20 designs. Published 2023 by Stackpole Books. Suggested retail price $26.95.

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30 + Bird Cross Stitch Patterns

There’s not much to say about Etsy seller Knotty yites other than if you like pop culture cross stitch patterns this is the place for you. It’s pretty much all they do, and there’s a wide range of fandoms and characters represented.

I first learned about this shop when I was doing Only Murders in the Building cross stitch patterns, and if you like that one the rest of their patterns are similar in vibe. They feature little characters in a lineup, sometimes labeled with the name of the show/movie they are from or with other text.

There’s everything from She-Ra to Ghostbusters, Lost to Xena, Game of Thrones to the MCU. While lots of the designs only cover a few characters, there are some larger ones as well.

Like this “space superhero” alphabet full of characters (and one spaceship!) from the Star Wars universe. The full design is 196 by 272 stitches and uses 81-86 colors (the range being because there are actually two alphabets with some different characters to choose from, or mix and match your favorites).

If you’ve ever wanted to stitch up Katniss and the mockingjay pin, an homage to Cersei Lannister or Jem and the Holograms, this shop has got you covered. Or you can try the X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy or characters from the video game Mass Effect.

Like I said, there’s a wide variety.

If this sounds like the kind of shop you would like, check out all the options at Knotty Bytes. I’d love to hear if you make something from this shop (or if you have already!).

Know a designer who should be in the spotlight? Or are you a designer who wants to share your store? Leave a comment or fill out the form you get when you click on “suggest a craft” at the top of the page.

[Photo: Knotty Bytes]

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