How to Cross Stitch Napkin Rings

I like small projects in all my crafts, and I’ve been spending some time this year coming up with little cross stitch projects that I can do to build my skills and also not be working on a gigantic project (which I also am, just not regularly).

I feel like most of us prefer closer to instant gratification projects most of the time. While there’s also room for those big, dramatic, super detailed projects, my lifestyle, and maybe yours too, is much better suited to smaller projects.

With that in mind I thought it would be fun to try making a cross stitch napkin ring. My version has three little flowers on it, but you could take this idea 100 different ways for different holidays and seasons. Tiny Christmas trees or snowflakes, stars, hearts, flowers of different colors.

Since it’s a small project it doesn’t take long to make one (which is nice, because you’ll probably want more than one to embellish your table).

I made my flowers in different colors, with a different one of the same three colors I chose serving as the center for a different flower. The centers are worked as French knots (which are so much fun to make), and I did mirror images of the flower chart just to make it more fun for me.

I also finished the edges with blanket stitch using another color of embroidery floss, which adds cuteness and hopefully will keep the fabric from fraying too much. So far so good.

Check out the pattern and grab the little flower chart I used over at Our Daily Craft.

Do you love little cross stitch projects? Or ones that are maybe less traditional ways to use cross stitch? I’d love to hear your ideas for different kinds of projects I could try.

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]

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