How to Choose the Perfect Color Fabric for Your Cross Stitch Project

When I was a kid, pretty much the only colors of cross-stitch fabric you could buy where I lived were white and cream (or what’s called Ivory in the picture above). I don’t even remember black Aida fabric being around, though I’m sure you could buy it at a crafts store or specialty shop.

These days there are a whole lot more options, from different colors and shades to fabric that’s printed with patterns you can stitch right on top of.

All this choice is amazing, but it can also be somewhat daunting, especially if you are trying to buy online and you aren’t sure exactly what color you’re looking at.

Stitched Modern has a great guide to some basic Aida colors for cross-stitching that will help you see the differences between different colors of “white” and “black” so you can pick the best one for your project.

Do you have favorite places online to buy cross-stitch supplies? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Stitched Modern.]

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How to Railroad Your Cross Stitch

I was looking for some new Passover cross stitch patterns but I couldn’t find much I didn’t share in last year’s Passover cross stitch patterns post, but I did find some funny Jewish cross stitch patterns that would be fun to stitch any time of year.

This one is more whimsical than funny but it is super cute so I wanted to include it. This animal cross stitch alphabet from Mindy’s Cross Stitch shows the Hebrew alphabet shaped with different animals. This would be so cute to stitch up in whole for a child’s room, or just do the letters of their name or the family’s name or whatever other word you would like to spell out. The full design is 218 by 307 stitches, which comes out to 15.57 by 21.93 inches, or 39.55 by 55.7 cm on 14 count fabric.

If you’re super busy getting ready for the holiday, or, you know, Tuesday, you can probably relate to this design from Sew Perfectly Designed. The flowers are cross stitched while the words “functioning on caffeine and pure chutzpah” are worked in backstitch. It uses six colors and is 53 by 55 stitches. On 14 count fabric that comes to 3.79 by 3.93 inches, or about 9.5 by 10 cm.

The Kosher Stitcher has a lot of great snarky Jewish cross stitch patterns, but for this collection I chose this ode to ‘Shevitz, because maybe you need something to celebrate today? This one is 95 by 107 stitches and uses full stitches and back stitching. It uses 13 colors. On 14 count fabric it comes out to 6.8 by 7.6 inches, or 17.2 by 19.4 cm.

Another one the Kosher Stitcher has is “ain’t no challah back girl,” but that’s included in this set of Hanukkah (though a couple would work for other times of the year) cross stitch patterns from Whimsy Orchard so I include it here. I also love “this is how we Jew it,” which is appropriate for all seasons. They’re all roughly 71 by 94 stitches and to work the whole set you’ll need eight colors of thread.

Comments

Share Smithwick says
March 4, 2019 at 10:30 am
So interesting you should post this regarding backing fabrics for stitching. Have been researching the various ones and have come up with 4 (Burlap, Linen, Monks, Warp) Out of the 4 reviewed on youtube “Standard Warp” is recommended for ease of use and longevity but let me tell you there is only one place I have found that sells it and there are no coupon offers for discounts.

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