pattern // congrats grad!

My new book Cross Stitch Celebrations: Graduation is available now, and to celebrate, I'm sharing a bonus pattern with all of you! This simple "Congrats Grad!" design is a nice little extra that you can use alone or in combination with the patterns in the book.

There are lots of cross stitch charts to work with in Cross Stitch Celebrations: Graduation, and they're designed to be easily customizable. That means you'll find borders, graduates, mini motifs that represent lots of educational topics, and of course, several alphabets. Something that you won't find, however, is any pre-designed words (numbers, yes, but not really words!). That's so folks of any language could easily work with the patterns.

But I wanted to have some kind of congratulatory message that wasn't just a DIY from the alphabets. So I made one as a bonus!



This pattern is quick to stitch when you want to make a card similar to the one that's in the book. Which is what I've done here! You can really use any of the designs, including this bonus chart, to make a cross stitch card.



The background color looks a little yellow on this because, well, it's attached to yellow paper! But we'll ignore that.



Once you have the card made, add an envelope and you're ready to give this to your favorite grad!



The greeting card project in Cross Stitch Celebrations: Graduation is based off of the mylar number balloons that you see at graduation parties, but done in cross stitch of course. And in addition to the 2024 chart that's included (we planned ahead with the dates in the book!) I have tips on how to use the XL number charts to make any of them look like this style.

For the card chart, I also included a simple border and some custom elements like initials and a little graduation cap. The "Congrats Grad!" pattern is just the wording, but you could certainly add a border or other mini motifs.

Now, let's get you that pattern!

DOWNLOAD THE CONGRATS GRAD CROSS STITCH PATTERN PDF

The colors in the chart are the same as what you'll find in the book. In fact, they're the same ones that are in the Celebration Streamers border that you can see on the cover, as well as on page 42. It would be a perfect pairing! I'm thinking, streamer border, congrats message, a smiling graduate, and a year to really mark the occasion.

As a brief aside, since we're talking about colors, the colors and general chart sizes are consistent with those that I created in Cross Stitch Celebrations: Bundle of Joy! That means if you're stitching for someone who would like a vine border for example (it would be great for an ivy-league graduate), you can easily work in that element from Bundle of Joy with the designs in Graduation. Fancy, right? If you know someone of any age who is graduating soon, I hope you check out Cross Stitch Celebrations: Graduation and make them something super special!