SBQ: Stitching Publications

The Stitching Bloggers Question of the Week:
Do you currently subscribe to any stitching publications or have you in the past? (Either in print or online) If so, which ones?

I don’t subscribe to any at the moment, and I rarely buy them off the rack. I have hundreds of them in my stash, and I keep meaning to go through and just keep the designs I’m still planning to stitch, but I never get around to doing it! I stopped buying them because I realized that I haven’t ever stitched one single pattern in any of those hundreds of magazines.

I was a “charter subscriber” to Cross-Stitch and Country Crafts, and have about five years or so of old issues. I let the subscription lapse somewhere around the time that it became Better Homes and Gardens Cross Stitch and Needlework¹It was just Cross Stitch and Needlework for a little while, too.

I love Cross-Stitch and Needlework²Formerly Stitcher’s World, and The Stitchery before that. and meant to subscribe but just haven’t ever gotten around to it. I’ve bought several issues of Jill Oxton’s Cross-Stitch and Beading, and while I enjoy those, I don’t think I’d subscribe. The Gift of Stitching looks interesting.

I’ve never been big on Stoney Creek Cross Stitch Magazine, but I’ve never been wild about their designs, either. I have a few issues of the old Leisure Arts magazines, but the cross-stitch designs they published were usually too simplistic for me. I’ve seen some magazines from the U.K. at Borders from time to time, but I don’t think any of the patterns in them have ever sung to my heart. It’s been years since I saw an issue of The Cross-Stitcher, but it looks like they might have upgraded a bit in that time.

I’ve liked a lot of the patterns in Just Cross-Stitch, but I’ve never subscribed (and don’t buy every issue) partially due to the very Christian tone of the publication. I don’t think they want my pagan money. I do enjoy their annual ornament issue, and sometimes I even remember to look for it before they’re all sold out.

Look what I found while searching for the magazine sites! A searchable database of over 4000 patterns published in various magazines!

By the way—how do you spell it? Cross-stitch, cross stitch, or something else?