Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Project Idea: Cross Stitch Napkin Ring

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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]

30 Bookmarks To Cross Stitch For Kids

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Easy Fonts to Add to Your Cross Stitch

I don’t usually cross stitch text or add words to my cross stitch projects. Sometimes I will sign things using basic block lettering worked in backstitch (luckily my initials are pretty easy to stitch), but if you give your cross stitch as a gift or otherwise want to personalize it, adding text is a great way to go. 

But if a project didn’t already come with text, and you don’t want to draw your own, you’ll need a good cross stitch font that you can use for your project. 

I like collecting fonts that are easy to read and to stitch and that would be good for lots of different uses. 

For example I really like this bold alphabet font from Cross Stitch with Art, which has both capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers if you need them for dates or other information on your design. The capital letters are an inch/2.5 cm/14 stitches tall, which makes it easy to figure out how much space you need to leave for them. It’s a nice, basic, readable serif font you can use for lots of project. 

If you want a script font that’s still really readable, check out Magic Calligraphy from Soft Pattern Designs. This hand drawn font has upper case letters around 28 stitches tall, with lower case letters mostly being around 20 stitches (though the ones that go up or down a lot like f, p and y are bigger). The numbers also vary a bit in size but range from 25 to 29 stitches. 

Sometimes you just want a classic font that looks like sports lettering, and in that case you’re going to need Varsity, an all caps font from Stitch Mod. This one has letters that are 21 stitches tall, and it includes capital letters and numbers. But there are definitely times this one would come in handy!

Another sometimes useful and really cute font is this alphabet block letters alphabet from Stitch Junction. These letters are all upper case and look like classic building blocks, and there are also numbers available. This one would be perfect for a birth announcement project or some other cross stitch for the baby’s room. 

And if that’s not enough for you, check out this post with 85 free cross stitch fonts for you to try!