Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Book review: X-Stitch by Sarah Fordham

&Stitches book reviews

X-Stitch book review
Today I have the pleasure of reviewing X-Stitch - Cross Stitch Projects to Make A Statement by Sarah Fordham. I am not really a cross stitcher, but I really enjoyed having a peek into the world of little thread Xs. :-)

X-Stitch book review
These are the sections of the book: Getting Started, Charts and Projects.

Getting Started includes Tools & Materials, How to Cross Stitch, Understanding Charts and Designing Cross Stitch. The book is about cross stitch but it also includes a few other stitches that are commonly used alongside cross stitch to add various details.

Sarah shares her method for designing cross stitch. I thought that was really helpful. Although it only shows the method for making a design from your own drawing. If you're not comfortable with drawing, maybe suggestions for using photos as the source would be handy.

I really like that Sarah encourages you to make the designs your own, either by changing the colours or only using parts of them or altering them.

X-Stitch book review
The cross stitch Charts are separated into several themes including Tattoo, Borders, Nature and Pop Art. The designs are fun, cute and quirky. I like that they are really varied and don't just have 'girly' designs. Who doesn't like a cross stitch dinosaur, right? There is also a selection of numbers and alphabets. Most of the designs feel like they will be relevant in years from now, but I also spy a selection of mustaches which are very much of the moment! ;-)

I like that the designs are mostly small and fairly simple. If you're new to cross stitch a large complicated design could be quite daunting. That's not to say that you can't put several of the designs together to make a larger one if you wanted to go big.

X-Stitch book review
The Projects are split into three: Very Easy, Easy and Trickier. There are projects like buttons, needle case, coasters, mini samplers and customized shoes. For each project there is a photo and list of the materials needed. The projects are also illustrated with step by step photos. For a book that feels very much like a beginner's book, I think that is a good thing. None of the projects are too tricky.

At the back there are a few pages of graph paper in the right size for several sizes of cross stitch fabric if you want to make your own designs.

X-Stitch book review
I am no expert in cross stitch, but this book seems like a really great place to start if you want to get your feet wet in this particular area of needlecraft. I have bookmarked several of the designs to stitch. :-)

X-Stitch book review


What are you stitching? Please share in the &Stitches Flickr group. We'd love to see it!

1 comment:

  1. I too love cross-stitch! A few years back I used to have a blog just about my cross-stitch work! I hope to find my photos hopefully they didn`t get lost on my old computer. Your needlework is perfect and so beautiful!
    Hugs, Debbie

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