Twisted Stitches: 30 Corrupt Cross Stitch and Embroidery Designs

by Phil Davison

Inspired by popular culture, Twisted Stitches brings a contemporary twist to cross stitch designs with wicked results. Stitch cards or pictures featuring sinister skulls or zombies. Decorate your home with towels bordered in barbed wire, jar covers crawling with bugs or a set of pillows that feature a fly meeting a comic book "splat!" demise. Create cool accessories like a "game over" laptop cover or a "tweet this" phone case, or stitch a scarily realistic stab wound onto a tee shirt. Projects range from easy designs for newcomers to the craft to advanced projects that will appeal to experienced cross stitchers. The book includes a pocket on the back cover with full size fold-out charts of the larger designs.

Genres: Crafts, Nonfiction, Reference, Sewing

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not your traditional cross stitch book. You won't find cute lil' puppies, pretty unicorns or teddy bears in diapers. Things here are a little bit different.

Those are the first three lines of Davison's foreward to his book of wacky stitchery projects, and boy, he ain't kidding! From a flasher-Santa to a cellphone case featuring the middle finger salute, there's very little here to make your granny for her bithday. (Unless your granny is like me, in which case you should get a-stitchin'!)

There's a gorgeous floral Dia de los Muertos skull, a highly detailed ancestral portrait of a zombie, and a "Home Sweet Home" cottage featuring trash on the lawn and a car up on blocks. This is a great book for fans of the anti-cute. True, there IS one really sweet little bunny, but he's a keychain, and if you flip him over you'll see the same bunny AFTER an encounter with a Honda Civic. And there are a couple of rats who are kind of adorable in a very non-cutesy way.

I'm curious about the author's obsession with barbecue aprons. Is it a guy thing? I certainly wouldn't spend umpteen hours making a project I'm only going to spill sauce or dribble blood on.

There are a total of 30 somewhat tasteless projects in all. I can't wait to start (and never finish) 8 or 9 of them.

[Ligaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun book, particularly if you like a subversive point of view. I found the photos looked a bit out of focus, but that might be because of the very subtle shading. The patterns are clever and cute in their own way. I think many of the patterns for wearables should have been completed with soluble canvas for a more professional look, but this type of canvas isn't explained in the Tools and Materials section. The biggest turn-off of this book is the teeny black and white stitch charts!

[Kelly (Maybedog) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of these designs would definitely be considered twisted by most people such as the bleeding bullet hole on a T-shirt, the bloody hatchet and Lizzy Borden matching pillows, and the roadkill bunny keychain. I think the game over laptop bag, rat race card holder, and Day of the Dead (a positive Mexican holiday) tablecloth are normal.

The instructions are good even though there are few images to accompany them. Although the title implies other kinds of embroidery are included, this is solely a cross stitch motif book. The other stitches are simply to finish off the cross stitch designs.

Some of the charts are tiny and in black and white but there is a lot of good information included such as DMC floss color numbers used, the count of the aida cloth used, and the size of the finished project using that size aida cloth.

I might adapt some of these designs to other embroidery styles but mostly this is just a fun book to look at.

[Caran-marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these cross stitch designs! They are dark! Urban fantasy dark humor lovers will totally dig them. Cross stitch does NOT have to just be cute puppies and insipid quotes. It can also be skulls and vampires and zombies!

[Nic · Rating 2 out of 5]

The two patterns I think I’d like had poor photos. I get that they wanted to make the book look cool but there should be an actual photo of each pattern because I’m not about to start an entire cross stitch pattern without knowing what the whole image looks like. (pages 15 and 107)

[Valentine Hayward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing! For that twisted friend!
Downside diagrams on the small side.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just interlibrary loaned this one, to see if it's one I should I should purchase. Unfortunately, it's not going to be one I add to my collection. The patterns are gorgeous, but they are very, very small and hard to read, encroaching into the spine, so it can't even be photocopied.

Maybe if it comes in a hardcover, I'd consider it, but the trade paperback? Pretty useless.

[Jenna Sturr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Checked this one out of the library and was very excited. Complete disappointment when I learned that there was no embroidery in it at all, just cross stitch. So if you like cross stitch go for it but if you are looking for embroidery don't bother. Misleading title. :(

[Marissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked a couple of the patterns, but the author's tone really turned me off.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very clever, tongue in cheek, cross stitch book. I enjoyed it!

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This it's definitely not your grandma's cross stitch. These designs are corrupt in the coolest way. I can't wait to make the skull butterfly and eerily beautiful skull water scene!

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked some of the projects, but I'm not a huge fan of subversive cross stitch (trying to be as out-there and offensive as possible, although that wasn't really true of this book). The thing that most let this book down were the charts - very badly charted, some looking like they had been put through a cross stitch generator program with bad results.

The bigger patterns were on separate foldout pages tucked into a back pocket and I know from my past experience that they would be quickly lost.

A book I definitely won't be adding to my collection, mainly due to the horrible charts. It just didn't feel or look like a usable pattern book.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cross stitch designs in this book are crazy. If you have friends with a twisted sense of humor and you do embroidery I seriously suggest this cross stitch book for you. I'm definitely going to make the Lizzie Borden Pillows for my living room as a Halloween decoration. I highly recommend this book.

Re-read 2017
Going through a few cross stitch books looking for a new pattern to work on.

[Yvonne Mendez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was browsing through cross-stitch books looking for inspiration for a baby project I want to make when I came across the book cover of a pig with a taste for humans, instant buy! I haven't tried the projects yet but I loved the uniqueness and twisted nature of the designs, my first project will be the vampire lips with the words Bite Me under it, then I'll do the couples skull, then the butterfly skull, then the apron...this book will keep me entertained for years to come!

[Karen Tompert · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the same vein as Anticraft, a cross-stitch book for those less conventional. I love the patterns in this book, may have to buy it for myself. I especially like the "RIP"(read in peace) bookmark. Fun stuff!

[Laurla2]

-i liked the butterfly/skull pattern, the bite me pattern, and the skeleton head/balloons pattern.

-unfortunately, 3 of the 5 double sided pattern sheets supposed to be included in the pocket of the book were missing.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant patterns!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the designs were funny and just charming. And I can't wait to make them.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really my cup of tea but if you're into that type of thing you might like the patterns.

[Kym · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this!

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the feisty ones!

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good to see greater variety of patterns. Just didn't like any. Would have liked the photos of the projects to focus more on the actually projects.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, the book was very informational and extremely helpful for those who wished to learn and use those patterns. I just wasn't big into the patterns.

[Alexandria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book of less-than-traditional embroidery designs with a little something for almost everyone.

[scc101]

Twisted Balloons Pretty Picture - page 12