Cross-Stitch

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Do You Use a Needle Minder?

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magnetic needle holder

After talking about waxing embroidery floss the other day, I got to thinking about other accessories or things that are optional but could potentially save you a lot of trouble when you’re doing cross stitch.

Another thing that falls into that category is a magnetic needle minder.

As you might guess from the name, these little gadgets stick to your cross stitch fabric by way of a magnet, then you can stick your needle to the top of the needle minder when you aren’t working so it won’t wander off/fall into the couch cushions when you aren’t working.

There are a lot of really cute needle minders out there these days. Swoodson Says has a fun collection of needle minders on her site you can browse, or search for them in your favorite place for indie crafts.

Do you use needle minders? Have a favorite kind? We’d love to hear all about it.

[Photo via Swoodson Says.]

Looking for more Fall-themed Cross-stitch patterns and charts? Check these out on Etsy.

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Comments

  1. I have never heard of a need minder. I’m so glad you mentioned it. I might just have to pick up one. I’ve been itching to embroider something lately…

  2. I’ve been cross stitching for decades but didn’t discover needle minders until recently (as in less than a year ago). I am absolutely hooked and have 4 currently. I’m always on the look out for more and I want to start getting into making them. The hard part for me is finding the right materials and pairing that with the right magnets.

Have you read?

Pencil Bookmark Cross Stitch Pattern

To celebrate back to school season, I wanted to make a fun and useful cross stitch pattern, so I decided on this cross stitch pencil bookmark. 

It’s a really easy pattern even though it calls for six colors. You definitely don’t have to use all the colors if you don’t want to, and you can use different colors to make a colored pencil instead of the traditional yellow one. 

These sorts of projects always end up taking longer than I imagined they would in my head, because I just don’t stop to do the math of exactly how many stitches are in a piece that’s 23 stitches by 74 rows (1,702, though not every single one of them is covered, most of them are). 

But because the coloring of the chart is so straightforward, I’d say it also doesn’t take as long as 1,700 stitches sounds, if that makes sense. Because you barely have to count anything and could make most of it without consulting the chart, you can get into a groove pretty easily and stitch whole sections in a single sitting. I had a lot of fun stitching this one and I think you will, too. 

Once the stitching is done, take a piece of felt and sew it to the back to hide the mess you’ve made and make it a nice smooth bookmark that’s easy to use in whatever book you might be reading. 

This is a fun one to make for yourself or a kid in your life who is going back to school. But it would also be a fun teacher appreciation gift or holiday gift, especially for an English teacher but really anyone would like this one I think. 

You can grab the free chart and get all the instructions for assembling your own cross stitch pencil bookmark over at Our Daily Craft.