Stitch a Lovely Tree of Life

This time of year is a great one for thinking about nature, not only because the world seems to be coming back to life for those of us in the northern part of the world, but also because this month has both Earth Day and Arbor Day in it.

It might just be time to cross stitch a tree.

And why not make it a tree of life? This lovely free pattern from CrossStitchPattern.net uses a single color, but you could pick any color you like, or stitch the leaves on the tree green if you would rather.

This would be a great one for the front of your favorite canvas shopping bag.

[Photo: CrossStitchPattern.net.]

There’s no question that the Tree of Life’s origins pre-date the Celts as it is a powerful symbol in Ancient Egyptian mythology. Archaeologists unearthed items portraying “tree of life” motifs during excavation works. Different religions call it by different names, each with its own mythology. It seems every religion has an interpretation of the tree of life. For Adam and Eve, the tree was their symbolic connection to Divinity. For Hindus, it is the eternal Banyan tree. Judaism has a fascinating symbolism you will notice this looks very similar to the Assyrian Tree of Life. Looking for more tree of life crafts? Check these Tree of life blog posts out.

One of the easiest ways to make a cross stitch project more personal is to add text to it. Whether you’re adding the names of people getting married to a generic floral cross stitch design, birth information to a project on theme with the new baby’s room or just adding a word or phrase that’s meaningful to you, adding words to cross stitch projects make them that much more special.

But if you’re not working with a project that already has text built in, or you want to change the text that’s there, that can feel a little daunting.

Caterpillar Cross Stitch has a great guide to adding names and words (as well as numbers) to projects, which talks you through what to consider and how to actually go about adding text to a cross stitch project successfully.

You’ll need to think about what kind of font you want to use and if you’re using back stitched letters or larger filled letters, how much space you need and how the letters work together in the text you’re planning to make sure it’s readable.

Their post includes common pitfalls such as running out a space or ending up with text that’s off center and how to avoid them (spoiler: chart out your text before you stitch!).

The whole post is really helpful if you’ve never added lettering to a project before and don’t know where to start. I like to use block letters in back stitch when learning how to add text to cross stitch, but of course there are tons of lettering options. Check out this collection of cross stitch fonts if you want to see some different things you can try.

And head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch to get more tips for how to successfully add lettering to your cross stitch projects. They also have their own alphabet and number charts you can buy to add text to your stitching.

Have you ever added text to a cross stitch project? I’d love to hear how it went!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

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