Customer Reviews

Picture Your Pet in Cross Stitch: Over 400 Animal Portraits and Motifs

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has over 400 gorgeous animal designs, most at a size perfect for small projects such as cards and coasters. It has plenty of alphabets so you can choose several of your favourites to put together a sampler too.

The designs are excellent, many very realistic, with representations of most of the most popular dog and cat breeds. There are also a few cute cartoony ones that would be excellent for kids.

My only argument with this book was the lack of photos of the completed designs - only the charts were available for most of them. There was a lack of half stitches, too, so more experienced stitchers might like to add theirs in to make a tidier design. Overall though, a great buy and one I would recommend to all cross-stitching animal lovers!

I bought a copy of this book for a friend and I flipped through it out of curiosity. I absolutely loved it and immediately added "Picture Your Pet in Cross Stitch" to my own wish list! I am a Biology teacher with a passion for animals, I own a large variety of pets, and I love to cross stitch, so this book is perfect for me!

The book has five sections each containing a large range of small to medium animal designs. The vast majority of these designs are realistic while still maintaining their "oh how cute" factor. Many of the designs are also listed with alternative thread colors, so that a single pattern of a dog can be stitched in 2-4 different coat colors in order to match a pet in real life. I was also amazed at two of the alphabets. One alphabet has bubble letters colored in fur patterns and the second alphabet has a back-stitched cat stretching legs and tail out to make each letter. Both are quite cute!

I also found the written portion of the book enjoyable, full of fun facts about animals without drawing it out too much (this is something I usually find lacking in cross stitch books.) There is also an index provided to easily locate patterns and a variety of suggested projects including The Love Dogs Sampler, The Love Cats Sampler, Welcome sign, baby bibs, wall hangings, mounting ideas, etc. My favorite project idea was the ruler frame! The back of the book provides a supplier list of where to purchase the supplies to make the suggested projects including cross stitch ruler frames or Mill Hill beads.

The vast array of patterns provided truly boggled my mind! So, I will list each of the five sections and what patterns are found in each section below.

1. Dogs

Labrador Retrievers, German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, Beagle, Cocker spaniels, Springer spaniels, King Charles spaniels, Dachshund all three fur types, Poodle, Yorkshire terriers, Westies, Boxers, Bulldogs, Shuh Tzu, Pomeranian, Long and Short haired Chihuahuas, Schnauzers, Rottweilers, Dobermanns, Shelties, Collies, English setter, English sheepdog, Basset hound, Irish wolfhound, Afghan Hound, Dalmatian, Siberian Husky, Weimaraner, Pug, Maltese, Miniature Pinscher, Lhasa Apso, Jack Russell, Bull terrier, Boston terrier, Staffordshire Bull terrier, Border Terrier, some cross breeds, puppies, and generic dogs, doggie sayings and alphabets.

2. Cats

Persians, Siamese, Oriental Shorthairs, Burmese, Exotic Shorthairs, Birman, Ragdolls, Maine Coons, Bengals, Rex, American Shorthairs, British Shorthairs, Moggies (non-pedigree), kittens, and generic cats, cat sayings, and alphabets.

3. Furry Friends

Generic rabbits, Angora, English spot, Dutch, Netherland Dwarf.

Generic guinea pigs, smooth haired, long haired.

Generic hamsters and gerbils.

Chinchillas, Degus, Chipmunks, Rats, Mice, and Ferrets.

4. Scales and Feathers

Budgerigars/Parakeets, Golden finch, Zebra finch, European goldfinch, Java finch, Canaries, Scarlet Macaw, Blue and Gold Macaw, Grey Parrot, Fischer's Lovebirds, Cockatoos, Cockatiels, Blue-fronted Amazon.

Goldfish - common, veiltails, comet, fantail, lionhead, ryukin, and shubunkin.

Other fish - Orange Anemone fish, Clown Fish, Regal Tang, Powder Blue Sturgeon, Glowlight Tetra, Neon Tetra, Guppy, Black Molly, and Cuckoo Catfish.

Snakes - boa, green tree, garter, and ribbon.

Tortoise, Leopard geckos, fat-tailed geckos, iguana, bearded dragon, and chameleon.

5. Horses and Farmyard Friends

Horses - thoroughbred, American paint, American quarter, Arab, Appaloosa, Dartmoor pony, Shetland pony, Welsh Mountain pony, and New Forest pony and general horses.

Horses being ridden for - cross country race, Dressage, jumping, and pony club.

Chickens, ducks, geese, goats, sheep, and pigs.

My only concerns / mild disappointments with the book were these:

- The patterns do not have a lot of half or three quarter stitches, but I can easily add them in as I stitch and the projects are so well crafted most people will not even miss them.

- Designs only list DMC thread numbers, so those who use other brands such as Anchor, will have to translate the colors themselves. As I use DMC thread, this was not a problem for me.

- The patterns are in color, not black and white, so they cannot be xeroxed and blown up easily, but on the plus side the color does show what the pattern looks like and they did keep each shade different enough to tell them apart.

- The wide variety of patterns still did not include all of my pets. There were no tree frogs, Pembroke Welsh Corgis, or California King snakes, but in their favor they did have leopard geckos!

- The patterns do not contain whiskers even on the cats, which I found odd, but if they are desired they can be easily added in.

- Most of the listed suppliers are in the UK, especially the one with the specialty frames and other finishing project items.

So I would recommend this book for beginning to intermediate stitchers, or perhaps even an expert stitcher desiring smaller projects, who love animals or are looking for a pattern of their pets. The book is well worth the cost and can be used in numerous projects and gifts for those in your life who also love pets.

Happy stitching!

As a cross stitcher I love to come across different patterns. This book is full of all the animals, dogs, cats, birds etc. Really cute ideas to make cards, put on clothing..you name it, you can do it.

I requested this book because I design cross stitch pictures for my grandchildren and I needed more examples. I found that the book was everything I expected and more. This book has dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, etc but not just one but many different patterns for each. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone else out there that likes to design their own cross stitch patterns.

This book has a very wide array of patterns, and often includes multiple color variations for the same pattern. The designs are easy to stitch for a beginning stitcher due to their use of mostly full stitches. As mentioned in another review a more experienced stitcher will want to add some quarter stitches and change some full stitches to quarters to neaten up the design.

The only major flaw in this book is that the author used almost no symbols in the charts, just solid blocks of color. On several patterns, particularly the german shepherd although there are others, it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between similar shades. If your vision isn't the greatest, you may want to see if your local library has a copy to borrow before you spend money on it, just in case you can't see the colors well enough to actually stitch the patterns.

This did not affect my rating, but if you are looking for AKC style dogs of breeds which are typically docked and/or cropped, you'll need to perform those alterations yourself much of the time. The book was written in the UK, so most of the patterns depict natural ears and tails.

Picture Your Pet in Cross Stitch: Over 400 Animal Portraits and Motifs

I got two of this book. One for me and one for my friend. We like the small patterns of the animals. My friend is just starting cross stitch so she loves the smaller patterns. I like the variety of patterns. This book gives us many ideas for patterns for gifts.

We both love this book. It is very good. We highly recommend this book.

I raelly love this book. I really like the amount of patterns. If you want a picture of a Lab, you have multiple to choose from (and in different sizes). I also like the ideas they give you, to make your picture into. The only negative comment I can make, is that I really like to see the finished product for EACH pattern, and this book doesn't provide that.

This book has some of the best patterns of pets I have ever seen! The cats, dogs, rabbits, birds, and reptiles are simply beautiful. A must have for the stitcher and animal lover.

This is my favorite cross stitch book. Its a must to have in a cross stitchers collection. So many cute, easy to use designs. I love to put them on bookmarks and they are so versitile.

I have order more than one Cross Stitch Books. These one the best one by far the greatest book I ave recieve from Amazon. This one has all types of aminals. I make blankets and I cross stitch on them, these book will help you better then any other book will. For example this bolanket i am make right know I need all types of dahcshunds. This book is the best one to get. If you take a look it the book you wil see that this book is good for you.