Check Out These Spicy Mardi Gras Cross Stitch Designs

I was hunting around for some Mardi Gras themed cross-stitch patterns that I haven’t already shared (you can check out some other designs here) and I found the site Spicy Needlepoint.

They have a bunch of great designs, including officially licensed Tabasco designs, other southern food products and holiday designs, including a page full of Mardi Gras needlepoint designs.

While these aren’t exactly charts, and they show + shapes instead of x shapes, you could use them as cross-stitch designs. I love the masks!

Do you craft for Mardi Gras? I’d love to hear what you’ve made in the past or are making this year!

[Photo: Spicy Needlepoint.]

looking for more patterns for Mardi Gras – Check out these patterns on Etsy

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Colorful Mardi Gras Cross Stitch Patterns

I’ll admit to not taking as much care as I should when finishing cross stitch projects. Just like blocking in knitting or crochet, taking the time to finish a cross stitch project right means it will look its best, whether you’re making it as a gift or to keep.

And when it comes to cross stitch, the best method for finishing is washing and pressing.

Kat and Catkin and Lillie makes the argument that you should always press your finished pieces, and wash them the vast majority of the time as well.

Washing of course will help if there is any visible dirt that got on the project while stitching, but it also helps remove oils and skin cells you can’t see but that can speed up damage to your project in the long run.

Washing and pressing also help remove creases from the hoop or from storing the project, and if you use heat-erasable marking pens to grid your fabric, this will remove any visible marks.

So we’ve got the why down, but what about the how?

Kat has a great step by step tutorial on how to wash your cross stitch projects and how to iron them safely. You probably have everything you need to do this, it just takes a bit of time to go through the process. It’s certainly worth it, though, if you’ve spent a lot of time on a project and are gifting it or framing it and want to show it off to its best.

Click over to the post at Catkin and Lillie for all the details, plus some really good thoughts on times when you might not want to wash a project and how to test the colorfastness of your threads so you’ll know if a project is safe to wash.

Do you wash and press your finished cross stitch projects? I’d love to hear all about your process!

[Photo: Catkin and Lillie]

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