Seven Ways to Anchor Your Cross Stitches

I will fully and openly admit to being the sort of cross stitcher who starts her threads with a knot. I don’t usually care what the back of my work looks like, and I don’t need to it be perfectly smooth, so I’ve never had a problem doing it that way.

I always tie my knots like I show in this post on tying knots for hand sewing, which makes a large knot but it’s sturdy and it won’t pull through the hole in the cross stitch fabric.

I know there are other ways, and potentially better ways, to go about starting a cross stitch project or working in a new piece of floss. If you’re wondering what they might be, check out this very comprehensive post from Sirious Stitches, which includes seven different options for securing your thread.

From techniques that bury the thread end behind the stitches as you work to various ways to use knots on the back to a couple of versions of loop stitches and one process that definitely looks like way too much effort, this is a great overview of your options if you’ve never really thought about how you start stitching or if there’s a “better” way.

Note here that better is totally subjective, and if you don’t mind knots on the back of your work and that’s the way you’re comfortable working, that’s probably the best method for you.

If on the other hand you need the back of your work to be pretty, because, for instance, you’re entering it in a competition of some sort, or the back will be visible for some reason, by all means check out another way to start your stitching that’s a little less intrusive.

Have you ever given any thought to how you anchor your stitches when you start a new thread of cross stitch? Are you on team never knot, or do you always start with a knot? Let’s talk about it!

[Photo: Sirius Stitches]

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How to Railroad Your Cross Stitch

The designs from Bella Rose Craft look like they would be good for beginner cross stitchers and others who like relatively simple and small designs that are quick to finish for gifts or decor.

I’ll mention up front that this Etsy shop based in Indiana has no organization whatsoever. There are two categories: kits and patterns. So it’s a bit of a treasure hunt to find what you might be interested in.

As mentioned there are lots of minis and small looking projects with simple lines and minimal colors. There are holiday projects, animals, summer motifs like palm trees and beach umbrellas, a bathtub with a rubber duck, some text based designs (like hoppy spring and merry and bright), some biblical and religious designs, flowers, bunting and more.

On a site like this its difficult to pick something representative of the whole page, but I liked this bees and beehive design, so it’s the one I picked to share. This one illustrates a lot of my general points about the patterns from this shop. It’s small (2.79 by 2.57 inches, or about 7 by 6.5 cm on 14 count fabric), it looks like it’s all whole cross stitches and probably uses only six colors, and a couple of colors are only used for a handful of stitches.

Of the 300 plus cross stitch patterns available as of this writing, 140 are also available as cross stitch kits. These would be great to give as gifts if you’re trying to get someone interested in cross stitching. The kits include the pattern, fabric and floss, and you can choose to have it include a needle or not. The hoop is not included but the patterns explain what kind of hoop is shown if you want to get one to match.

So if you’re looking for cute, beginner friendly patterns for yourself or you’re trying to be a crafty enabler for someone else, check out Bella Rose Craft on Etsy.

[Photo: Bella Rose Craft]

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