A New Skill for the New Year: Embroidering Your Handwriting

We often want to add letters to our cross stitch projects, whether to add a word or a date or a person’s initials. But it’s not always easy to find cross stitch fonts you like that will fit into the space you need in your design.

One easy way around that is to use your own handwriting to fill in the words with embroidery.

The Craftsy blog has to how-to, plus all the different things you need to think about before you add handwriting to a project. It also shows samples of many different stitch techniques used in lettering so you can get the look you want without doing a ton of experiments.

Have you ever added embroidery to a cross-stitch or other project? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Craftsy.]

Looking for more fonts? Check these out at Fontbundles.com

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Find the Right Font for Your Cross Stitch Project

If you’re a fan of detailed and colorful cross stitch patterns, Design for Cross Stitch might have a pattern you want to try. This Etsy shop is based in Spain and has more than 50 designs with a focus on animals, holidays and landscapes.

I’m just going to start with the first pattern that caught my eye when I visited the site, which is this Sakura by the Lake project. This pattern is 200 by 200 stitches and the whole background is stitched, so it’s definitely not for a beginner, but it’s stunning and would be amazing to make for someone who loves Japan. Despite the detail it only uses 24 colors. Worked on 14 count fabric it will measure 14.64 inches, or 37.19 cm.

There are a few other landscape designs, including a canal in Venice and a few cabins in the woods.

The shop also has some cute animal cross stitch, with big, round faces and often holding a warm beverage. Holiday projects focus on Christmas and Halloween. Most of the patterns have a cute, chibi-like feel, but there are some that are more detailed and realistic as well. Take for examples the flower patterns, which are full of details and soft colors.

You’ll also find some fun bookmark cross stitch patterns with a watercolor feel, as well as some that look kind of like paint pouring turned into stitches.

If this sort of stuff sounds like fun to you, check out their Etsy store at Design for Cross Stitch.

Do you have a favorite cross stitch designer who I haven’t featured yet? Let me know in the comments or share more about them by clicking on “suggest a DIY” at the center top of the page and let me know the details. I’d love to share the designers you’re enjoying with a wider audience.

[Photo: Design for Cross Stitch]

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