Turn your reading year into a framed, stitchable shelfie. This project is a year-long craft-along where you’ll cross-stitch a tidy set of 12 floating shelves (one for each month) on a 12″ hoop. Each tiny “book” stitched on the shelves represents a book you read. Track books by color, genre, rating, format, page range, or whatever system you invent. Add little shelf decorations like plants, a cat, candles, holiday or monthly items, etc. By year’s end you’ll have a beautiful, counted-cross-stitch visual library of everything you read.
Basic Stitch-A-Long Kit:
One-Time Cost: $80 (value of $125)
Includes:
- Choice of 14-count Aida panel (12" area) in Blue, Seafoam, Pink, or Natural
- 12″ embroidery hoop
- Counted cross-stitch pattern for 12 floating shelves laid out for a year of reads
- Notebook + pen for logging titles, codes, and your tracking system
- Heat erasable pen for easily marking grids on your aida cloth
- Inspiration booklet with tiny “shelf trinket” motifs and ideas for mapping books to colors/genres/ratings
- Option
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al kick-off workshop for setup ideas and inspiration
- Weekly meetups
- Optional finishing workshop next December for closure ideas and display inspiration
- End of year party exclusively for Cross Stitch Reading Tracker participants to show off their finished hoops and celebrate this huge year long achievement!
Deluxe Stitch-A-Long Kit:
One-Time Cost: $100 (value of $150)
Includes:
- Everything in the Basic Kit plus
- 12″ hoop storage bag that will be perfect for keeping your project, threads, and notebook together for weekly meetups!
What’s NOT Included:
- Embroidery floss! This project is perfect for using your stash and leftover skeins. This also allows you to choose your own color palette for your personalized tracking system!
Weekly Meetups & Support:
A year-long project thrives on community. Weekly in-store meetups Sundays at 1:30pm offer stitching time, troubleshooting, and accountability. Attend regularly (even once a week) to keep momentum, swap ideas, and enjoy cheering each other on.
Optional Setup Workshop:
Kick off the project with a guided planning session: define your tracking rules, pick palettes, assign icons, and set a stitch schedule so you feel confident and excited to start.
Optional Finishing Workshop:
Optional finishing workshop at the end of December 2026 to go over how to close up your hoop and discuss ideas on how to display it!
Optional End of Year Celebration:
Join us for an end of year party at the end of December 2026 exclusively for the Cross Stitched Reading Tracker Bookshelf participants to show off their nearly complete hoops and celebrate a year well spent together!
Six Ways to Track Your Books (pick one or mix & match):
- Star Rating: full and half stars to mark how you felt (2½ stars, 5 stars, etc.).
- Genre: 12 common genres mapped to colors or tiny icons.
- Format: physical, eBook, or audio (stitch a tiny icon or color code).
- Cover Color: match book covers to stitch color for a rainbow shelf effect.
- Page-Count Range: small icons or shades representing short, medium, long reads.
- Reading Month or Time-to-Finish: visually note when you finished or how many days it took.
Use any system or combo system you like such as cover color + star rating, or genre + format. The counted pattern leaves plenty of room for creative coding!
How It Works:
- Each stitched “spine” is a tiny block on a shelf; choose a color or icon rule and log it in your notebook so each symbol keeps its meaning.
- Stitch a little every day or catch up weekly at meetups... both approaches work.
- Add tiny trinket icons between books (a cup for cozy reads, a comet for favorites, a paw for pet-themed books) from the included inspo booklet.
- By year’s end you’ll have a 12″ hoop that’s both pretty wall art and a personalized reading archive.
Who This Is For:
- Readers who love data + aesthetics (visual trackers, bookstagrammers)
- People who want a low-pressure daily creative habit
- Stitchers who want a long, meaningful project with community support
- Anyone who wants a unique year-in-review keepsake
What You’ll End With:
- A finished 12″ cross-stitched reading tracker that documents your year in books
- A notebook mapping what each color/icon means (so your memory stays clear)
- A new stitching habit and a weekly stitching community
Stitch your reading life into something you can hang on the wall; colorful, clever, and totally yours. Want help planning a color system or picking which Aida color will make your covers pop? Join the setup workshop and we’ll map it out together.
