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
