How to Make Cross Stitch Ornament Blocks

There are so many fun different ways to display cross stitch. From making the smallest designs into magnets or pendants to framing in conventional frames or hoops, making into little pillows, ornaments and more, there are all sorts of ways to add your finished cross stitch designs to your home or to turn into gifts.

Sirious Stitches recently had a post about making cross stitch pieces into block ornaments that can stand up on their own, which is a good way to display cross stitch on a desk or bookshelf, and makes a fun way to present it as a gift.

They call this a block finish, but it also can be called cube finish or Styrofoam finish, since it uses a block of foam to attach the cross stitch to.

This is a great option if you want to display a piece temporarily, such as having a seasonal rotation of designs on your desk. It’s also lightweight, doesn’t take a lot of time to do, and it’s attached to the block with pins, not sewing (thus being easy to take apart when desired). You can also embellish the block in different ways to make it more seasonal or to match the theme of the cross stitch itself.

This isn’t a technique that I have used before but it looks pretty easy, especially if you already have a piece of foam on hand. And if you’re the sort to want to hoard packing materials, knowing that this technique exists will probably encourage you to hang onto that stuff a little longer and make cross stitch projects just for that purpose.

You can see the full tutorial with lots of great pictures to guide you along the way and lots of ideas for embellishing your project at Sirious Stitches.

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

The cross stitcher behind the blog Sirious Stitches is quite into biscornu.

If you’re not, a quick primer: biscornu are three-dimensional cross-stitched objects with eight points, often with an indention in the middle that makes them look a bit like doughnuts without the hole. They can be just about any size and subject you can think of. They’re often used as pincushions but can also be seasonal decor or just decoration for any time of year.

I’ve got a collection of biscornu cross stitch patterns here.

Once you’ve stitched one or several (they are a little addicting) you might wonder what you can add to them to make them even more extra.

It very much depends on the design of your biscornu and the look you are going for, but Sirious Stitches has a great post all about some of the options you might consider.

I don’t want to give you the whole list because you need to go visit and see all of their great biscornu they’ve stitched, but one really easy thing that you can do with a lot of designs is take advantage of that center indent by adding a button, beads, silk flower or another embellishment.

This is great to do just with a basic button from your stash that coordinates with the design and colors of the cross stitching, but it’s extra fun if you have a button that’s on theme, such as a leaf for a fall biscornu or a flower shaped button for a floral design. Add a jingle bell to a Christmas pattern, or a charm if you don’t have a button that coordinates.

Just this one idea is sure to get you thinking about ways to embellish biscornu (not to mention other cross stitch projects) but head over to Sirious Stitches to see all of their ideas for embellishing biscornu to make these already fun projects even more fun.

Have you ever made biscornu? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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