Cross stitch for book binding

I've been experimenting with different bindings for assembling books and journals that I make myself. I love how cross stitching looks on a book spine. After learning how to do it and then actually completing the book making process I now know that it is harder than it looks and honestly, quite fussy.Here are the basics of what I learned:

• Looking from the outside, the thread always goes at an angle or crosses, never straight.
• Inside the book, in between the signatures of pages, the thread only can go up or down. (There is no crossing threads between signatures)
• Complete an X before continuing down your row.

Here are a couple more pictures of what the front and back look like for different kinds of stitching patterns.I did these test stitches without pages attached to learn the sewing first. In the examples above I made 3 columns of 7 rows of markings. I didn't make holes in all of the markings. For example, in the pink cross stitch pattern, I didn't poke holes in row 4 since I was taking the thread from row 3 to row 5.I made a tutorial for others who are interested in using the cross stitch for book binding. There are other tutorials out there; I'm kind of adding mine to the bunch, but I of course have added my findings.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVJgzcMdQKQOverall, I still like the look but doubt I will do this kind of stitch again. I might try the straight stitch instead.