Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Are Thread Bundles Worth the Money

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I recently came across a post from Lord Libidan talking about embroidery floss packs and whether it’s worth the money to buy a set of threads all at once instead of one skein at a time.

With the closure of Joann some people were buying these bundles as a way to build their stash/stockpile if they didn’t have another place to buy locally. I did the same thing when I first started cross stitching again after a break of many years, because I wanted to get a bunch of colors all at once without the overwhelming job of picking colors from the wall of thread when I didn’t have a particular project in mind.

And I think for this purpose buying a package with colors you like or some basic/popular colors is probably a good idea and relatively cost effective.

My Joann didn’t have any floss packs when it was closing (in fact it didn’t have cross stitch floss at all for a month or more, then suddenly go a bunch about a week before closing) but I might have bought one just to have the variety if they had been available.

If Amazon is going to be your source for cross stitch supplies going forward, I think buying packs of cross stitch floss when the colors make sense is definitely going to be a better deal. As I write this a pack of 36 popular colors was running $39.50, or about $1.09 a skein. I used to pay 66 cents per skein at Joann, but buying a single skein of black floss on Amazon would run you $4.29.

Herrschners sells DMC floss for $1.05 per skein or less, but shipping isn’t free and you’ll have to buy a lot (or a lot of other things, too) to meet their minimums for free shipping when they offer it.

Check out the post on Lord Libidan for his thoughts and let me know where you are buying cross stitch floss now if you used to buy it at Joann.

[Photo via Herrschners]

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Toy Story Cross Stitch Patterns

I’m going to go ahead and admit that I totally missed Toy Story 4, so it took my by surprise when Toy Story 5 came out, but let’s celebrate with some Toy Story cross stitch patterns. 

This sweet design including Woody, Buzz and Jessie is from The Xstitch Shop, and they actually have a few different Toy Story options. This one says it is for intermediate stitches, probably because of the size and number of colors, but the sales page doesn’t say how big it is or how many colors it uses. It’s still cute, though!

If you’ve got a fan of Jessie in your household, this collection of Jessie themed icons is super cute to stitch. The design is from Mercury Stitches and it measures 97 by 144 stitches. that comes out to 6.9 by 10.3 inches, or 17.6 by 26.1 cm, and uses 11 colors. It has full and half cross stitches, as well as back stitching and French knots. 

Share the love of friendship with this sweet Woody and Buzz heart hands cross stitch pattern from Pixell Patterns. This design uses eight colors and is shown worked on 14 count fabric, but the notes don’t indicate how bit is is (based on a finished project photo, though, it looks pretty big). 

And for the Buzz Lightyear fans, of course we have to have a “To infinity and beyond” pattern, so here’s one from Silver Lake Stitches. This design is super cute on blue fabric, but use whatever you have. It measures 78 by 92 stitches, which comes out to 5.6 by 6.6 inches, or 14.2 by 16.7 cm, on 14 count fabric. It calls for 14 colors. 

Or if you want to go beyond the core three main character toys, check out this project from ThreeOOne Patterns, which includes our main toys as well as Bo Peep and her sheep, Bullseye the horse, the Slinky dog, Rex, Ham, the Potato Heads and an alien. The design is 310 by 80 stitches, which comes out to 21.14 by 3.5 inches, or 53.7 by 8.9 cm, when worked on 14 count fabric. It uses 65 colors. Or pick out your favorite characters to make a smaller project. 

All those characters and a few more are found on the mini Toy Story character sampler from Knotalot UK (only part of which is shown above). This one uses 31 colors and measures 134 by 108 stitches. It includes whole and fractional stitches, as well as back stitching. On 14 count fabric stitching the whole thing would make a project that’s 9.57 by 7.71 inches, or 24.31 by 19.59 cm.