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]

30 Bookmarks To Cross Stitch For Kids

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30 Bookmarks To Cross Stitch For Kids

I have not done a lot of big cross stitch projects, but sometimes even with small projects it can be hard to decide exactly where to begin and how to work through the chart if you’re working with multiple colors. The general categories for the possible methods are known as cross country and parking.

Cross country means that you’re working one color at a time, moving around the chart (or the section of the chart you’re working on) until you’re done with that color. Parking means you’re working in a smaller section and doing all the colors in that area, “parking” the threads by leaving them attached to the canvas but out of the way while you finish each section.

Royal Rows is a specific way of parking named by Alison Royal, which is explored in detail on a post on Stitching Daily.

The idea is that you’re working one “tower” of stitches at a time (she uses a section of 10 stitches across by 20 down, but you can do whatever makes sense to you). You work all the stitches of a color at a time, starting at the top left and working your way down. When you’re done with a color you can park it where needed in the section below your current tower (known as the dungeon) or in the “east tower,” which is the section to the right.

There’s also a specific way of dealing with thread ends when you’re done with a color. This is a super simplified version (head to the blog post at Stitching Daily to get all the details) but the basic idea is that you’re working from left to right and top to bottom across the work, parking the threads in the next section when you’re done with them and systematically choosing which color to work with next.

The whole idea of parking is kind of overwhelming to me though I will admit that it makes a lot of sense. I guess I need to try it on a smallish big project and see how it goes. Do you use the parking method of cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Stitching Daily]

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