The Crafy Mummy shares this photo among several others of her wedding cross stitch project. She also wonders if you gravitate toward large projects like this one or like to do quick-to-stitch projects more. Check out more photos of her project here and let us know what you think about large projects vs. quick-to-stitch projects in the comments section below.
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Project Idea: Cross Stitch Napkin Ring
This seems like a project that would be great for spring, maybe even to stitch up a bunch of for your Easter table. Koekoek has a free pattern for a set of napkin rings that you could take in a lot of different directions.
The original chart is by Gerda, and it uses a scalloped edged cross stitch fabric ribbon that reminds me of the bookmark cross stitch blanks you can buy. You could of course cut your own fabric to size and finish the edges with ribbon or by sewing blanket stitch on the edges if you’d rather.
This gave me the idea that you could use anything that fits on a bookmark as a napkin ring, though of course it would be sideways in comparison. But it works for flowers, geometrical designs and other little motifs that are symmetrical. You could even do it with a word and just flip the letters so they’re stitched sideways along the fabric instead of up and down.
These would be cute, to keep the Easter theme going, with a row of little Easter eggs or other mini cross stitch patterns for Easter. But really any kind of flower, any little holiday motif, rattles and bottles for a baby shower, the ideas for how you could use these are limitless.
The pattern is available as a free PDF from Koekoek, and the original design is 83 by 96 stitches and worked on a ribbon that’s 5 by 19 cm (about 2 by 7.5 inches). It calls for six colors and shows them used in different ways to make flowers with petals of different colors. You could also put a bead in the center of the flowers rather than using a single white stitch just to make it a little fancier.
Those are some of my ideas; how would you run with this cross stitch napkin ring design?
[Photo: Koekoek]
I tend to work on large projects for the most part. I really am not interested in having a ton of little stitched pieces cluttering up everything. I do lots of samplers for myself and as gifts. People love heirlooms.
I do both kinds — I usually have a large, ongoing project that I work on periodically, and I also have plenty of smaller “instant gratification” type projects. Sometimes I just need a break from the big project.