Cross-Stitch

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Tips for Stitching on Black Fabric

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I generally like to use light colored cross stitch fabric when I work, mostly because I don’t want the frustration of not being able to see what I’m doing all that well. But I’ll admit the allure of working with dark fabric is strong, because it can really make your projects pop and it’s perfect for Halloween projects or other moody scenes.

I was happy to find this post from Stitching the Night Away that’s full of tips for making it a little easier to work with dark cross stitch fabric, because using all these tips I feel like I just might be able to pull of stitching one of these projects. 

I won’t spoil the whole article for you so you can still click over there and read all the tips, but I did want to touch on a couple of them. The first you can probably guess: good lighting.

In the case of working with black fabric, it’s probably not enough to use your usual lighting situation. You might need to work under a bright lamp or even use a head lamp or a reading light that goes around your neck, because it will shine down on your work and make it easier to see the holes in the fabric.

One thing the post mentions that I hadn’t thought of before is using pins to help you count. Similar to adding a grid to your fabric, which might be harder to do on dark fabric, you can use pins to mark out a section of stitching or help you count the number of stitches left blank between two areas of stitching. There are special pins for this purpose (which she talks about in her post) that are blunt so they don’t damage your fabric, but I imagine if you were careful with them you could use regular sewing pins for this purpose.

Head over to Stitching the Night Away to read all the tips. If you have any more insight into how to work with black cross stitch fabric more easily, I’d love to hear it!

[Photo via DMC]

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Cross Stitch Patterns Fit for a Pool Party

I don’t know why it still surprises me that there are cross stitch patterns available for almost anything you can think of. I wasn’t looking for pool themed cross stitch patterns, but in scrolling around Etsy looking more generally for summer cross stitch patterns, I found a lot of pool patterns so I figured I should share them.

I love the colors in these designs, almost as cool as sliding into the pool on a hot day.

The first one I found was Pool Party by Milky Stitch. It features someone lounging in the pool, someone lounging next to the pool, and some fun accessories you might need for a day at the pool. It uses 20 colors and was designed for 11 count fabric, which means it comes out to 12.2 by 8.2 inches, or 31 by 21 cm.

Pastel Pool from Stitch Me Good Designs looks like it would fit right in with Pool Party on a gallery wall. This one uses seven colors and 14 count fabric and fits in a 7-inch hoop. 

Speaking of gallery walls, if you want a room full of summer sun and pool themed cross stitch, check out this trifecta of pool designs from Craft Bundle Lab. There’s a women floating in a pool with a large hat, a float in a pool and several floats and pool toys in another pool with a fun checkerboard bottom. Each design uses 12 colors and they are about 14.6 inches/37 cm square worked on 14-count fabric.

This designs from Cross Stitchers United shows three people floating in a pool in different ways. This one has cross stitched water, or you can stitch it on blue fabric and save yourself some time. As shown it uses nine colors and is 94 by 94 stitches, which is 6.7 inches or 17 cm square on 14-count fabric.

The Swimmers in a Pool cross stitch pattern from Thread Nova Studios is delightful. It’s stitched with everyone wearing red suits, but you could change up some of them — or even just one of them — to change the look of the project. This one uses 14 colors and is 200 by 200 stitches. That’s about 14.3 inches/36.3 cm on 14 count fabric, though the pattern includes sizing for other stitch counts, too.

And finally the pool pattern from The Lady at Home just makes you wish you could jump right into it. The pool with floats looks super inviting, and it is stitched on 14-count fabric with a finished size of 5 by 7 inches/12.7 by 17.8 cm.