Carousel Horses in Cross Stitch: Beautiful Projects for Every Month of the Year

Not only was this copy of the used book completely clean just as described, it also arrived a lot sooner than I expected! I am super thrilled to have this and look forward to doing all the designs in it!!

This book contains most of Kooler Designs carousel horses, all in one place. I like that they're all the same size, making it easy to switch them out, if you want to change your display to match the current month or holiday. Mounted on foam core, they could all share one frame if you don't want to frame each piece. They're also lovely, and most are quite ornate. These are not for beginners, due to the heavy use of blending filament. They'll also be easier to stitch on linen or an evenweave because there are a lot of fractional stitches. These weren't designed for aida cloth. These designs can be stitched by a beginner if you leave out the blending filament. The finished piece will appear "flatter" without the shimmer or glints of light filament provides. This book calls for Balger filament, which in now Kreinik. The color names listed are still available under the Kreinik label.As for the horses, the only one I hate is March, because of it's baby theme. That makes it unsuitable for a 12-month display rotation. August and September will also require some explaining to guests because one is a rodeo horse and the other is a circus zebra, neither of which indicates the season or month. But if you want these for the holidays, you're covered. February is classic Valentine's Day, April has bunnies and chicks, May is themed for Mother's Day, July is pure Americana, October is haunted with black cats, bats and witches, November has a horn of plenty and Happy Thanksgiving. December is definitely Christmas with Santa, a tree and all the rest. January can be displayed through most of winter, with it's snowy theme. April can work for spring, because it says "Welcome" and features rain showers and lots of flowers in addition to chicks and bunnies. If you omit the "Mom" banner in May's border, it can also be a little seasonal, although it isn't obviously spring or summer. It does have roses and butterflies to help the effect. June is full-on bridal, no getting around it. I plan to put July's patriotic horse up for Memorial Day and leave it right through July. I'll use September's circus zebra (the one on the cover) to fill in for March, August and September, as it's the most generic of the bunch. If I choose to stitch May, I'll definitely change the fabric from the chosen black, and will probably change many of the colors to brighten it up. It is very old-fashioned with muted colors.My only complaint is in regards to the charting. Each horse is presented on 4 pages. It would have been better to print them on a single page, and allow the stitcher to decide how much to blow them up. Additionally, there is no shaded overlap area to make the transition from page to page easier. This is a cardinal sin in my view because with complicated patterns it can be very tricky to transition to the next page when there's no overlap to give a point of reference. My best advice is to copy the charts and tape them all together, or make an extra copy of each page, cut off the last 5 rows where the overlap should be, tape that to the next page, and highlight it on both the initial page and the page that follows. In other words, mimic a properly done chart. Because of the poor charting and lack of notice that these patterns are nonsuited for beginners, I can't give it more than 3 stars.

I HAD THIS BOOK BEFORE, AND HAD DONE THE XMAS CAROUSEL, IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. I HAVENT STARTED ANY YET, HAS IM HAM WORKING ON THE 12 ANGELS AND QUILTING, BUT IF YOU LIKE CAROUSELS, THIS IS THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER SEEN. 12 CAROUSELS FOR YEAR AROUND, I ADORE IT. I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE THAT LIKES CROSS STITCHING AND CAROUSELS, THERE ALOT OF TIME IN THEM, ESP. IF YOU WORK,, BUT THERE WELL WORTH BUYING THE BOOK, FOR AMAZON., THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE I COULD FIND ONE. EVEN USED I WAS GLAD TO PAY $9.76 , INSTEAD OF 30.00 FROM A BOOK CLUB , LIKE I DID BEFORE, AND THE BOOK IS IN GREAT CONDITION. NO RIPS, TEARS, SPOTS, NOTHING. PERFECT CONDITION, SO YOU CROSS STITCHERS OUT THERE DEFINITELY GET THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE CAROUSELS. I HAVE SO MANY THINGS STARTED. LIKE I SAID, I DRIVE MYSELF CRAZY TRYING TO GET THINGS DONE, I WANT THEM DONE ALL AT ONCE.,LOL, THATS JUST ME, ALWAYS HAVE HAD MORE THAN ONE PROJECTS GOING AT THE SAME TIME. GOOD THING IM NOT MAKING MY WREATHS NOW, BUT I AM WORKING ON 12 MONTHLY ANGELS AND CUTTING SQUARES FOR A XMAS RAG QUILT, AND A IRISH QUILT FOR MY SON, FOR HIS HERITAGE. THEN MORE TO DO FOR MY OTHER CHILDREN AND MY NIECE., WHILE YOUR BUYING THE CAROUSEL BOOK, TRY GETTING A RAG OR JELLY ROLL QUILTING BOOK, AND TRY THAT TOO.. THESE BOOKS ARE GREAT. BUT I AM AN AVID SEWER AND ARTS AND CRAFTS OF ALL KINDS OF PERSON. I AM NOT ABLE TO WORK, ANYMORE, SO I GET INTO MY HOBBIES, WREATH MAKING, CROSS-STITCHING, QUILTING, AND HOME DECORATION MAKING. SO I AM ALWAYS DOING SOMETHING. TRY IT AND SEE FOR YOURSELF , THESE CAROUSELS ARE BEAUTIFUL, THE XMAS ONE I DID BEFORE IS GONE NOW, BUT I WILL DO ANOTHER ONE,. I DID ON LIGHT PINK AIDA 18 OR 22 CT. AND JUST FILLED IN WHAT WAS SUPPOSE TO BE WHITE TO COVER THE PINK, YES IT ADDED MORE STITCHING, BUT WELL WORTH THE LOOK. I REALLY MISS IT, I HOPE WHO EVER TOOK IT IS ENJOYING IT. SO TRY THIS BOOK, TOO.

I'm stitching the carousel horses to make a quilt and had misplaced my book. Was delighted I could find a replacement

This was a Christmas Gift for a friend of mine. She is really into horses and loved this book.

I haven’t finished my first cross-stitch yet but am very pleased w/ the pattern book. Instructions are easy to follow and so far very accurate. She included several side projects to make in addition to the 12 carousel horses. The horses (1 zebra) are all different themes. Halloween, wedding, baby, Southwest, etc.

This is an absolutely lovely book, you get twelve main charts for each month, special ones for halloween, thanksgiving and Christmas as well as others. There are also smaller charts as well. This book is wonderful and I can't wait to start stitching

Great

Love this book, the horses in it are pretty and fun looking forward to stitching them.

I rather liked the book however I was slightly disappointed to find it had been written in and the charts were not in color However it's still more than usable and full of lovely pictures I am now eager to get sewing!

Nice detailed pattern