Great magazines on a great hobby (Cross-Stitch Magazines)

Member Name: herbie__53

Product:	Cross-Stitch Magazines
Date:	02/04/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You get a free gift (usually), and get to see new kits that are out

Disadvantages: Cross Stitcher is the best really, the others I find are of lesser quality.

I have been an avid cross stitcher since I was a little girl - I find it relaxing and its great to see a stitched picture take shape as you work your way through it. There are loads of online shops where you can buy kits from, and there are also several magazines which you can buy on the subject.

These titles include:

Cross Stitcher
Cross Stitch Gold
Quick and Easy Cross Stitch
Cross Stitch Crazy

I have bought and read all of these magazines in the past, and though they are all on the same subject, I find them to be totally different.
Quick and Easy Cross Stitch and Cross Stitch Crazy focus on the busy stitcher that completes small projects like cards, and small scenes or pictures. I find the charts to be of a lesser quality than I'd perhaps like - they dont use backstitch or fractional stitches to their full potential as they are focusing on time here rather than the neatness of the picture. As a result of this I find the designs are often very "blocky" - they would look so much better with smooth edges, but this takes more time.

Cross Stitch Gold features more advanced pictures - often very large with stunning images. These will take the stitcher much longer, and are not aimed at beginners. This is more in the region of what I would expect a cross stitch magazine to be about - quality pictures that you have to put the time into to get the desired result.

Cross Stitcher, in my opinion, is the best cross stitch magazine out there. Often you get a free gift with the magazine, this is usually a free kit, and the quality of these free kits are amazing. At the moment I am doing one of these free kits (which is a Margaret Sherry Cattitudes kit) for my Mum for her birthday. You get all the threads pre-sorted for you, and the kit comes with everything you need such as needle, fabric etc. Compared to the quality of other magazine's free gifts, these ones really do stand a cut above the rest. Cross Stitcher normally features a variety of charts - small ones for cards or towels, medium sized pictures and large masterpieces. They cater for everyone and the charts are always of a high quality and often by well known designers.

All the magazines are roughly priced the same at around £4, and all will include a few pages on how to get started if you are a beginner, but try Cross Sticher before you try any of the others as it's the better of them.

Summary: Get those stitching fingers out!