Table of Contents

The embroideries 8

ADVENT FOLIAGE
Adopt a fir tree 10
Be good 12
Those little extras 14
Liven up Christmas Eve 16
Read a Christmas story 18
Cutlery pouches for festive place settings 20

CHRISTMAS ANIMALS
Create a fairytale atmosphere 22
Send Christmas cards 24
Stave off hunger pangs 26
Count the days 28
Choirs are singing 30
A cover for a festive photo album 32

FESTIVE FOLIAGE
A time for giving 34
Secret Santa 36
Regional traditions 38
A candle in your window 40
Keep them going with a little
bag of treats 42
Write a letter to Santa 44
A furoshiki gift wrap 46

AMAZING ALPHABETS
Welcoming guests 48
Enchanting tales 50
Keep the secret 52
The elegant hellebore or Christmas Rose 54
The essential Christmas jumper 56
Personalised gift labels 58

Cross stitch patterns 60

Techniques and how to make up your embroidery projects 82
Stitches 84
Getting started 85
Equipment 86
Classic fabrics 86
Instructions for making up 88

Acknowledgements 96

About the Author

Hélène Le Berre is a talented designer who graduated from the Duperré School of Applied Arts. She has been creating her lovely embroidered designs since 2007. She loves to play with bright colours, joyful and delicate patterns and to tell a little heartwarming story through her work. Her favourite embroidery themes are flowers and stories for children.

Reviews

Cross stitch lovers will adore this book of Christmas designs. Foliage, animals and alphabets are designed to fit together to create samplers or use separately for small decorations on napkins, wall banners or bunting. I just adored the picture of the wooden box of thimbles, I feel this sets the tone for the book in general. It is traditional, warm and really makes you want for Christmas to come early. The designs are neat and simple. The colour palette is beautifully put together and each project has a story attached as well as tips from the DIY Christmas elf. The full page charts are accompanied by a thread key, and instructions to complete each project are easy to follow. The photography is beautiful, showing the delicacy and elegance in each design. This is a perfect book to give as a gift and one that will used year after year.
*Postcard Reviews*

As you can see from the contents page, there is a wide range of cross stitch designs from festive foliage to Christmas animals, and from advent to alphabets. Each design is so beautiful, classy and fabulously photographed. Following the photos of the projects, and then the charts, there is a “techniques and making up” section.
*naomialice.com*

Hand embroidery enthusiasts will be so excited to explore these festive cross-stitch designs by accomplished embroiderer Hélène Le Berre The projects are suitable for beginners and advanced stitchers alike, with comprehensive information on techniques to fill in any gaps in your knowledge. There are 20 dedicated winter scenes to choose from, so the hardest part will be selecting which one to stitch first!
*Sew Christmas*

This book contains 20 designs and each design has an anecdote, recipe, game, or quote alongside the design picture. This is different and both informative and interesting. For example, there are regional traditions, vegan nutty star recipes, stories and more. Now to the cross stitching. Helene works on DMC 28 count ivory evenweave and she also recommends 6 stranded embroidery thread. She gives a table for using Aida, linen, evenweave and etamine. As well as saying how many strands of threads needed for different fabric counts. All the charts in colour with corresponding thread numbers. Helene suggests that you use a punched thread organiser and note down the chart colours to numbered thread, especially if you use your own threads. I would also recommend this. This book has very fine embroideries and looks extremely delicate and beautiful. If you are looking for Christmas cross stitch projects with a twist and contemporary designs, I think this book would suit perfectly.
*The SEW Region Magazine - Book Threads*