Tools for Adding Beads to Cross Stitch

It’s always fun to add a little something extra to your cross stitch patterns, regardless of whether the project actually calls for it.

One way to make a cross stitch design a little more special is to add beads. Some patterns are written for incorporating beads, but it’s always up to you if you want to add them even if the pattern doesn’t call for them. They’re fun to use for eyes, the centers of flowers, to dot the letters with dots on them or just to add decoration beyond the cross stitching.

If you’ve never worked with beads before you might be a little intimidated, but, as with most things, if you have the right tools it will make it so much easier.

I haven’t done a lot of stitching with beads (another thing to try this year!) but Kat at Catkin and Lillie has, and they’ve got a great post all about tools that will make beading on cross stitch that much easier.

I don’t want to spoil it for you because you should click over there and check out all of their suggestions for the best needles, thread and other tools, but I do want to highlight the suggestion to use invisible thread rather than regular embroidery floss when adding beads to your cross stitch.

It’s not literally invisible but it is sort of translucent and hard to see when you stitch with it. Of course that can be a negative because it’s not that easy to see while you’re stitching or if you need to fix a mistake, but it’s a great tool to use if you’re working with different colors of beads in the same project.

Head to Catkin and Lillie to find all their tips and tools to make beading cross stitch easier.

Have you ever used beads in cross stitch? I’d love to hear any tips you might have.

[Photo: Catkin and Lillie]

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35+ Sunflower Cross Stitch Patterns

It’s back to school time where I live, which I always feel like is a great time to learn a new skill or take a deeper dive into something that you might not have learned a lot about before.

Usually when we are learning new hobbies we only know what we know. We learn the terms that we encounter, the skills that come up in the projects that we want to make. It’s not that we don’t care about other basics or different approaches, we just learn what we need to know to make what we want to make.

And that’s totally fine, but sometimes it’s a good idea to go back and review the basics or learn the things you might have missed the first time.

In that spirit I share this post from Caterpillar Cross Stitch all about basic cross stitch terms that every stitcher ought to know.

Did you know that the little bundle of thread you use for cross stitch is called a skein, for example? Or the difference between grid size and design area in a pattern? Or that working complete stitches one at a time is known as the English method? (I didn’t know that one! Apparently doing half of the stitch across the row and then coming back and finishing it is the Danish method. Who knew?)

There’s also a little bit about getting started with confidence that might be helpful at any skill level.

So what I’m saying is, even if you feel like you know a lot about cross stitch already, head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch and check out their list of terms and make sure you know them all. If nothing else you’ll feel a little smarter, either because you already knew them all or you learned something new!

And if you do learn something new, I’d love to hear about it.

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