100 Cross Stitch Patterns To Mix and Match

by Jane Greenoff

       If you like to mix words or sampler-style alphabets with your motifs then this is the book for you. It looks ordinary enough on the outside (in an attractive way of course) but inside the pages are split in half with motifs at the top and letters on the bottom. Flip the pages around and get many combinations for your projects.

I like innovative ideas and this is a good one. The motifs are grouped into themed sections ranging from flowers to buildings, Christmas to borders and the alphabets feature things like holly leaves, little boats, strawberries and flowers as well as classic fonts in styles like italics, traditional cross stitch, orphanage and more. These are the sort of wee designs that look great mixed together on samplers and other larger projects or used singly on cards. There are a large number of attractive buildings featured such as cottages, old mill, Windsor Castle, winter cottage, village scene etc which is another feature which is somewhat different to most books of cross stitch patterns. There is an index, a list of suppliers for UK residents and short section on how to get the best out of the book as well as plenty of instructions for the beginner cross stitcher. You can find out about basics such as starting and finishing off, fabrics, tools and threads as well as how best to work the stitches and various useful tips. This is one of those books that beginners can use to learn with and anybody else can mine for useful patterns. One for the keeper shelf, in fact.