Stitch Up Some Ice Cream that Won’t Melt

Looking for something cool to stitch for summer? Why not make an ice cream treat that won’t melt in the summer sun. Looking for DMC Threads Check out DMC’s website

Here are some fun free cross stitch patterns for ice cream. Enjoy!

Check out these Free Icecream sundae on DMC and this Fun Rainbow icecream pattern

About.com Needlepoint has a fun chart for a swirly ice cream cone, which you can work in different colors to represent different flavors.

Jessica Tromp has a great collection of ice cream treats in bowls and cones, as well as some candy and fun, fruity beverages for summer as well.

There’s another sweet collection of ice cream in cones and on sticks at El blog de DMC. It’s possible this is available in English somewhere (this site is in Spanish), but you don’t really need words to understand the charts.

This Strawberry Ice Cream and flan chart from Kandi Patterns is actually for making with Perler beads, but it works for cross stitch, too. So does the ice cream friendship bracelet pattern from Bracelet Book.

And while this one is not free, isn’t the ice cream drips cross stitch pattern from Daily Cross Stitch adorable?

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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