Hoop-di-do Cross Stitch Gift Ideas

This week I have been posting about stocking stuffer ideas for stitchers. Of course, if you aren’t shopping for many stitchers this year, you can always add them to your wish list and leave it about for those who shop for YOU to find!

This item is one of my favorites. The Clover hoop, which comes in size small, which is 4 3/4 inches and size large, which is 7 inches. I personally started out with the smaller size and added the larger size to my collection recently. These hoops were designed for embroidery, so they hold the fabric snugly with a lip. There’s also this lovely feature – the hoop tightener is designed so that it doesn’t catch the floss.

These hoops are very sturdy, they are plastic so they are easily cleaned and don’t leave hoop marks like wooden hoops. I highly recommend the hoops and they are what I personally use. In case you wonder – I have no personal connection with Clover and I purchased both hoops and did not receive them for review.

One of the easiest ways to make a cross stitch project more personal is to add text to it. Whether you’re adding the names of people getting married to a generic floral cross stitch design, birth information to a project on theme with the new baby’s room or just adding a word or phrase that’s meaningful to you, adding words to cross stitch projects make them that much more special.

But if you’re not working with a project that already has text built in, or you want to change the text that’s there, that can feel a little daunting.

Caterpillar Cross Stitch has a great guide to adding names and words (as well as numbers) to projects, which talks you through what to consider and how to actually go about adding text to a cross stitch project successfully.

You’ll need to think about what kind of font you want to use and if you’re using back stitched letters or larger filled letters, how much space you need and how the letters work together in the text you’re planning to make sure it’s readable.

Their post includes common pitfalls such as running out a space or ending up with text that’s off center and how to avoid them (spoiler: chart out your text before you stitch!).

The whole post is really helpful if you’ve never added lettering to a project before and don’t know where to start. I like to use block letters in back stitch when learning how to add text to cross stitch, but of course there are tons of lettering options. Check out this collection of cross stitch fonts if you want to see some different things you can try.

And head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch to get more tips for how to successfully add lettering to your cross stitch projects. They also have their own alphabet and number charts you can buy to add text to your stitching.

Have you ever added text to a cross stitch project? I’d love to hear how it went!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

Have you read?