Stitch Up Some Birds with Birds of a Feather Booklet

I love the look of birds and gardens in cross-stitch, and the booklet Birds of a Feather from Leisure Arts and Herrshners combines both in a lovely way that is sure to inspire nature-loving stitchers.

The book includes the four small bird and flower panels seen on the cover, as well as Garden Path, a lovely design by Barbara Sestok featuring flowers, birds and butterflies; Elegant Cranes, a design of cranes in flight surrounded by lotus flowers and designed by Linda Bird; and In Everything, Give Thanks by Gail Bussi, which shows three sweet little birdhouses and their inhabitants.

While the bigger projects use a lot of colors and are rather complex, the little birds (also designed by Sestok) are a great project for a newer stitcher looking to try something that’s a little intricate but not too big to be overwhelming.

Have you seen this booklet? If so, I’d love to know what you think!

[Photo via Leisure Arts.]

Most of the cross stitch projects I make are pretty small and not something I would consider heirloom quality (though I am working on a big project for my daughter that I hope to have done for her high school graduation in two years that I hope is something she’ll want to keep forever, but that’s another story).

But it is definitely possible to cross stitch projects that will stay around for generations, and one prime example of that is a cross-stitched linen tablecloth.

Linen tablecloths are classic, while stitching one can be a big project, depending on the size of your table, it doesn’t have to be really complicated.

Koekoek has a good, detailed post about figuring out how much linen you would need to make a tablecloth that you can cross stitch and/or embroider on (they also sell tablecloth linen in their shop if you don’t already have some or a linen tablecloth you already use). Of course for a project like this you’d want the best fabric you can find and afford, because you’ll be stitching it for a long time and hopefully using it for years.

The post walks through how to measure your table and determine how much fabric you’ll need including the drop you’ll want and hems. It includes the math for rectangular and square tables as well as circular tables, which helps take the guesswork out of buying fabric. It also talks about preparing the fabric and making mitered corners if you have a square or rectangular table, which will help the tablecloth sit nicely on your table.

The tutorial doesn’t include specific patterns to use for your tablecloth, but it does advise keeping it simple because this is a really big project. You can start with a motif in the center or doing borders, and this is a project you can add to through the years by, say, stitching a symbol for each family member or adding names, wedding dates, etc. and making it a real record of your family.

Would you ever cross stitch a tablecloth or have you done so? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Koekoek]

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