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]

As a knitter, I love a good sheep motif, so let’s take a look at some cute sheep cross stitch patterns.

If you want to stitch a little sheep, this mini square from Good Dog Needleworks is a nice choice. It uses just three colors and measures 32 by 32 stitches. That’s 2.2 inches or about 5.5 cm square if you stitch it on 14 count fabric.

I also love these two little sheep, which you can stitch together or in individual hoops and shown. The designs are form Threadbound Art and use six colors. They are slightly different in size, with one being 21 by 17 stitches and the other 21 by 20. They fit in four inch frames if you work them on 14 count fabric.

You can stitch a sweet sheep bookmark with this design from Kits by SA Stitch. This is not for the person who doesn’t like back stitch, because there’s a lot of that here, but it is really cute. It measures 30 by 91 stitches and uses 10 colors. That will make your bookmark about 2.4 by 6.5 inches, or 6 by 16.5 cm on 14 count fabric.

Stitch a pretty scene of sheep in a meadow with this design from Motok Nytok. It uses 21 colors and the design is 99 by 73 stitches. On 14 count fabric that makes it about 7.07 by 5.21 inches, or 17.96 by 13.24 cm.

This yarn full of cross stitch sheep has a bit of a knitting twist because the sheep all look like they have sweaters on. The design is from Soda Stitch Design and it measures 179 by 216 stitches. The full design uses 27 colors. On 14 count fabric it will work out to 12.78 by 15.42 inches, or 32.48 by 39.19 cm.

Another great one with a knitting theme is this one where the wool is coming off the sheep and straight onto the needles. This one is from Happy Cross Stitchers and uses 12 colors. The pattern is 137 by 137 stitches, which comes out to 9.7 inches or 24.86 cm square on 14 count fabric. This would be a fun one to stitch for the knitter in your life (even if that is you).

Or you can stitch the field of sheep of a knitter’s dreams with the Happy Sheep chart from Charts and Stuff. These per-colored sheep can be stitched as shown or worked in any colors you like. The eyes are French knots but you can just stitch them in white if you’d rather.

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