Creative Cross Stitch

Cross stitch is one of the needlearts I still enjoy very much.  I see the word spelled several different ways...some venture into the three s's in a row and write it as crossstitch, others use the hyphen as on the cover of this book; I prefer to write it as two separate words just for simplicity's sake.  But no matter how you spell it it is a great form of needlework providing the opportunity to create the most amazing representations on fabric with thread.
I have spent a lot of time searching online trying to find cross stitch patterns and designs that are a little different and appealing to me. Here is a book by a lady I found during one of those searches.  While I am a little familiar with North American designers of cross stitch patterns, I am unaware of European artists who work in this field.  That is why I was so happy to come across Gerda Bengtsson of the Danish Handcraft Guild.  This book, Cross-Stitch Patterns in Color published originally in Danish in 1974 features her designs with full colour photographs of each finished picture.  The first section  includes different kinds of wild growing roses, the second contains designs of changing seasons and what people do during them, and the third is a 'flowering plants' section with various plants viewed through windows.  All are sweet and charming designs and all can be adapted to any number of projects. I am working on a pattern called "April Showers" above and I plan on doing three in a row.  I bought this book at the Book Depository a couple of years ago and I really like it.  Because of the 'counting' aspect to cross stitch I can only do this during the day when I can avail of the natural light.  But I can remember the days when I could work through the evening unconcerned about the light, even in a basement t.v. room where the light couldn't have been good.  Yes, yet another thing that has changed....