{Guest Post} A Stitch in (Summer) Time

Our family will have to skip our annual trip down to Utah and/or Arizona this year, but The White Magic Five and Dime by Steve Hockensmith and Lisa Falco gave me a vicarious trip to Oak Creek Canyon. Today, I'm happy to have a guest post by Lisa Falco. 


A Stitch in (Summer) Time by Lisa Falco

I’ve been doing a lot of writing recently, which is a craft in itself. But lately I’ve been longing to get my hands busy doing something other than typing. Usually, I’m a crazy knitter but in July, when the temps regularly reach over a 100 degrees in Los Angeles where I live, I don’t want to touch yarn. That’s when it’s cross-stitch time.

Cross stitch is so satisfying. It’s neat, orderly, and if you just follow the directions, it comes out perfectly. So as I thought for a while about a quick and enjoyable project I could do this summer, it hit me: tarot cross stitch!

I’ve been cross-stitching almost as long as I’ve been interested in tarot. I started learning both around 8 years old. I won’t go into how long ago that was, but let’s say it would be measured in decades!

Recently, a friend and I worked on a book about a tarot reader who solves mysteries. My friend, Steve Hockensmith, is a mystery writer, and I’m a tarot enthusiast. It was the perfect pairing! In the book, The White Magic Five & Dime, a young woman inherits a New Age shop in Arizona after her mother is murdered. She decides to stay on and run the shop. She learns to read the tarot and helps investigate her mother’s death. The book includes tarot spreads with pictures. The fact that the book comes out in this month led me to think about cross stitching some of my favorite cards from the tarot deck.

There are some beautiful free and for purchase patterns out there for anyone interested in tarot cross stitch. I’m a traditionalist, so I have to say I’m partial to the Rider Waite Deck (one of the most popular and well-established tarot decks). That’s why Whoopi Girls’ shop on Etsy caught my eye. Click here and you’ll see a cross-stitch pattern for a Rider Waite-style Ace of Swords, the card which represents the genesis of a new idea. Perfect, right?

I’ve come to the conclusion that if you are creative enough, you can marry any of your passions. Tarot and cross stitch? Why not?

Happy stitching!

Lisa Falco is a teacher, author and tarot-card reader. Her first book (published under her maiden name, Lisa Humphrey) was A Mother’s Promise. Her tarot novel with Steve Hockensmith, The White Magic Five & Dime, is the first in a new mystery series from Midnight Ink.