Stitch a Summer Scene Because You Know You’re Ready

We are so. close. to the end of the school year here. Literally counting down the days. We’re especially excited this year because we’re heading to the beach for our vacation within days of the end of school.

If you’re longing for the beach, too, this beach hut cross stitch pattern might not actually make it better, but at least it will keep you in the summer spirit.

The pattern was designed by Anna Field for her book Sand Sea and Cross Stitch, and is presented on Sew and So. It features a sun, fish, waves and a little striped cabana, all of which sounds pretty perfect to me right about now.

The design uses eight colors and is the perfect size for a card or a wee wall hanging.

The rest of the book looks super sweet, too, if you have a nautical theme in your home.

[Photo: Sew and So.]

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Cross Stitch Patterns Inspired by the Beach

I recently came across a post from Lord Libidan talking about embroidery floss packs and whether it’s worth the money to buy a set of threads all at once instead of one skein at a time.

With the closure of Joann some people were buying these bundles as a way to build their stash/stockpile if they didn’t have another place to buy locally. I did the same thing when I first started cross stitching again after a break of many years, because I wanted to get a bunch of colors all at once without the overwhelming job of picking colors from the wall of thread when I didn’t have a particular project in mind.

And I think for this purpose buying a package with colors you like or some basic/popular colors is probably a good idea and relatively cost effective.

My Joann didn’t have any floss packs when it was closing (in fact it didn’t have cross stitch floss at all for a month or more, then suddenly go a bunch about a week before closing) but I might have bought one just to have the variety if they had been available.

If Amazon is going to be your source for cross stitch supplies going forward, I think buying packs of cross stitch floss when the colors make sense is definitely going to be a better deal. As I write this a pack of 36 popular colors was running $39.50, or about $1.09 a skein. I used to pay 66 cents per skein at Joann, but buying a single skein of black floss on Amazon would run you $4.29.

Herrschners sells DMC floss for $1.05 per skein or less, but shipping isn’t free and you’ll have to buy a lot (or a lot of other things, too) to meet their minimums for free shipping when they offer it.

Check out the post on Lord Libidan for his thoughts and let me know where you are buying cross stitch floss now if you used to buy it at Joann.

[Photo via Herrschners]

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