I received this e-book ARC of Whimsical Cross-Stitch through Net Galley from Dover Publications in exchange for a truthful review.

The book starts off with the requisite introduction about fabrics, needles, floss and how-to cross-stitch. Then, the book is all about the patterns! Over 130 patterns are included, with DMC floss used in the legends. The patterns are in black and white; each pattern comes with a color reproduction of the final product.

Most of the patterns are small and perfect for the beginner. They are truly cross-stitch patterns, with only a sprinkling of backstitching included for effect.

I can't wait to try these patterns: the patterns in the Dashing Designs chapter are most intriguing to me, Other chapters include Animals: Real & Fantasy, Home& Hearth, Nature in Bloom and Special Occasions.

This book is chock full of adorable cross stitch ideas. There are excellent directions on how to start your adventure in cross stitch or continue on your journey. I was overwhelmed in the amount of different projects in this book. One was cuter than the next. There are small projects for beginners or for those who don't have a ton of time to work on a project. I am an avid stitcher and each pattern is indeed whimsical. Great book!

This is a great cross stitch pattern book with smaller patterns that are easy to read charts . Divided into several chapters, animals, flowers, snowflakes etc. These are quick to stitch patterns that would make some great small pictures for a grouping on a wall or quilt. This is a great gift or addition to any crafter's library. Perfect for beginners that want to complete a project quickly. More than 130 charts. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A super cute collection of cross-stitch designs! Designs are grouped in the following categories: animals (real and fantasy), dashing designs, home and hearth, nature in bloom and special occasions. As expected in this type of book, the basics of cross-stitch are covered before getting into the designs and many designs would be easily stitchable by a newbie, but there are also designs that would present more challenge. I found quite a few designs I'd love to stitch for myself and for gifts.

Thank you to Dover Publications and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

I love leafing through sewing and cross-stitch books. Even though I'm probably not going to learn anything new, every now and then I'll pick up a nifty tip or stumble upon a nice design I'd like to try.
This is a lovely little cross stitch book which would be perfect for beginners and/or children. None of the patterns are particularly difficult and all come with straight-forward instructions.
Not sure whether the copy I downloaded was incomplete, or more likely, the book is still under construction, but it would have been a nice touch to have a little thumbprint of the finished product next to each pattern. This was blank in the copy I have so I hope this rectified when it published.

Fun, very easy to follow patterns! I love that they are not big, but big enough to keep you busy. Exact colors are given which makes it even easier. I want to make one of each pattern!

There are some lovely cross stitch designs in this book, all beautifully presented with both a color chart for thread and a very easy to read graph for each design. They cover Christmas, seaside, plants, sayings, animals/birds, snowflakes and some lovely pattern interlocking combinations. There is some clear instructions at the beginning of the book and then just designs from then on. I loved the little hedgehog in the front cover, and there is a lovely fir tree forest combination that I like too, but all in all lovely designs for any occasion.

Love this book! Beautiful, whimsical designs with clear charts and directions. Not really for beginners, but the patterns don't look to hard, either.

This is a great book, just love the animals (the baby dragon and the hedgehogs), can't wait to try them. I found here ideas for borders and all kind of designs. First I want to make my bookmark with "Feed the mind - feed the soul". Great book.
Thank you Netgalley for this wonderful copy.

The book is filled with many cute cross stitch designs (with some straight stitching here and there). Ornaments, mandalas, sayings, holiday designs, flowers, houses - tons and tons. I liked many of them. They are mostly smaller size designs. Each of the designs has a computer simulated picture of what it would look like if stitched. The only design I could find that appears to be actually stitched with needle and thread is the hedgehog on the cover.
Each design has a black and white chart and a table of symbols/ DMC thread colors used. The charts are not colored, and the symbols choices are not always the best for the design. For example, there is an elephant picture which is all made in white and black thread, and both symbols used are dark and hard to tell one from another, which makes something so obviously easy to see into jumbled mess. Other designs are not that bad, though. Black and white charts are easy to copy so you can work from a piece of paper and not put too much wear on the book itself, but there should be some care taken on how to make them easier to see.
I liked that there was not many designs with huge flat areas of the same color. There was always something interesting added like shading or lines or extra details to make stitching more fun challenge and to make more visual interest to the picture.

I received a digital copy of the book from NetGalley

If I’m not curled up with a good book reading, you are more than likely to find me cross-stitching. I have been cross-stitching for over 20 years now, and always seem to have a million and a half projects going at any one time. And yet, I’m constantly looking for new designs to work on.

Whimsical Cross-Stitch delivers exactly what I want from a pattern book. The directions at the beginning of the book were extremely clear and comprehensive, and even provided me with some information I was not familiar with! The pattern were easy to follow, including the finished size. I appreciated that the patterns included symbols, so stitchers with any color vision difficulties could follow along with no issue.

And the patterns themselves! So adorable! The patterns ranged from mythical animals, to holiday greetings and included everything in between. What I immensely appreciated was the fact that patterns of any specific object tended to have three different variations, making them into perfect sets to hang and display within a home. Too often I am left with one piece and no way to incorporate it into my décor because it just doesn’t fit with anything. Having sets of three completely negates that! There were certainly patterns I look forward to completing in this book. And, importantly, the patterns are not overly complicated or large. Most can fit within a 6 inch diameter, which means that these projects are easily completed in a weekend or two. Perfect!

*I would like to thank the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

An absolutely charming book with delightful charted designs using whole cross stitches (no fractional stitches). While a fair number of the designs use Backstitching four outlining and details, the majority of patterns have no Backstitches. This means they can easily be used for other crafts such as needlepoint, bead weaving, filet crochet, and charted knitting.

That's fantastic because there aren't many books with such a wealth of great designs. They are organized into chapters by theme.

After a short introduction on the basics of cross stitch the book gets down to business, the designs. Each design has a large chart using black-and-white symbols. There is also a full-color thumbnail. The color key (tied to DMC floss numbers) shows both the color and the symbol. There isn't any text, but each of the designs has aa descriptive title.

When I was little I used to do a lot of cross stitch with the images printed on. I have recently bought a counted cross stitch kit and depending on how well that goes, I may start trying some other designs. So when I saw there was a book of more than 130 whimsical designs I knew I had to check it out to see if it sparked any ideas for me. And within 2 pages there was a dragon, so I was sold! Each design is shown completed as well as the charting for it and recommended colors to use. Each color corresponds to an icon that can be found in the chart. I was also excited to see there was one labeled "pansies" but it was not the same as the flowers I know and love so I'll skip that one for now - but there are definitely a good number in this book that look amazing and probably way over my head to try, but I will dream about doing them anyway. In addition to designs of animals and flowers and sayings for around the house, there's also alphabets, borders, etc so you could really customize anything you want and make it look great by combining different items from the book.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated. This book will be released on February 13, 2019 from Dover Publications.

A panoply of delightful cross-stitch designs! Where can you find patterns for hedgehogs and hearts, mythical creatures, animal silhouettes and favorite pets, holiday greetings, fruit, teapots, and more? Right here in another Dover Publications well done craft book. Instructions about materials and stitching are provided in the introduction. Whether you're a cross-stitch expert or a beginner, you're sure to find something to inspire.