Cross-Stitch

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Review: Sports Alphabets to Cross Stitch

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Sports Alphabets to Cross Stitch review.This time of year is full of sports activities for kids, and if you like to personalize their bags — or anything else — in a crafty way you can combine their love of sports with your love of craft with a little help from Sports Alphabets to Cross Stitch.

This Leisure Arts booklet, with designs by Kristi Bryant, includes sports-themed alphabets for:

  • soccer
  • volleyball
  • bowling
  • golf
  • baseball
  • bouncy ball (yeah, I’m not sure, either)
  • tennis
  • basketball
  • hockey
  • football

The book also includes a design with football helmets, balls and stars, with room for words and the year to make a memory plaque. There’s also a sports-themed birth announcement, as well as blank charts for your own designs and a simple small alphabet should you want to combine the graphic images with regular text.

In many cases, as you can see in the samples on the cover, the balls cover up parts of the letters, so color choice will play a big role in your design’s readability. But these are definitely a fun starting off point for room decor, gifts for coaches and more.

The book is available as a paperback or downloadable PDF, both of which cost $9.99.

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Everything You Need to Know About Embroidery Hoops

One of the most common supplies for cross stitch, aside from fabric, needles and floss, is an embroidery hoop. A hoop isn’t needed for every project, and indeed there are some stitchers who prefer not to use them at all. I generally don’t use a hoop when I’m working on a small cross stitch project, especially something that’s shape isn’t conducive to using a hoop (like a bookmark). 

But embroidery hoops can be really helpful for cross stitch because they hold your fabric at an even tension, which allows you to stitch more evenly without any more work on your part. It’s great for beginners to use hoops because the tension on the fabric can both help make your stitches more even and make the holes in the fabric a little easier to see. 

I’ll admit to always just buying whatever hoop is available in the right size when I’m ready to start a project without giving it much more thought than that. But there are things you should consider when choosing among the different kinds of hoops, which Caterpillar Cross Stitch covers in their great guide to embroidery hoops. 

The post walks you through wooden, plastic, spring tension and flexi hoops (which I’ll admit to having never heard of; they’re made of vinyl and plastic apparently), as well as Q-Snap frames, which aren’t really hoops because they’re made of plastic tubes that you snap together in the size and shape you need. 

It also covers what size hoop you should use for the project you’re working on and how to actually use a hoop in the right way. 

Whether you’re new to cross stitch or more seasoned, you’re sure to pick up a tip or a product to try in this post, so go check it out over at Caterpillar Cross Stitch. 

Do you have a favorite kind of embroidery hoop to use for cross stitch, or do you go without? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]