Cross-Stitch

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Ways to Display Your Cross Stitch Projects

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I think most of the time when we make cross stitch projects, we are pretty conventional in how we choose to display them. We might mount them on a board of some sort, or show them in a frame.

Sometimes we might make special kinds of projects that are displayed or used in different ways, such as making cross stitch bookmarks, holiday ornaments or badges.

Or we might stitch onto fabric that isn’t meant to be for cross stitch at all, such as adding a monogram to a set of napkins or stitching a design or some words on an apron or something cute on a tea towel.

But there are more things you can do with cross stitch beyond this handful of options.

Craft with Cartwright has a list of 26 different ways you can display finished cross stitch projects, which are sure to get your imagination going.

I love this list as a way to think about making cross stitch gifts for people for the holidays or other occasions. It’s a reminder that we don’t have to make a big thing and frame it (though the one Christmas gift I’m working on is going to be framed).

We can make magnets or iron on patches for clothes (that’s one I hadn’t thought of before!). There are lots of different ways to make ornaments, from tiny frames to making a little stuffed pillow or pincushion style ornament.

You can make wall hangings, or gift tags, or even make your own frames if you want to frame your pieces for display.

There are so many great ideas in this list and I don’t want to give them all away, so head to Craft with Cartwright to check them all out. There are tutorials to all of the different projects and presentation ideas, so you’re sure to find something to spark a new project idea for you.

[Photo: Craft with Cartwright]

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Rosh Hashanah Cross Stitch Patterns

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year celebration, and it’s a time full of special symbols and meaningful happenings that are perfect for stitching. Anything with a bee or honeycomb, apple, pomegranate or challah on it would be a great choice for stitching this time of year. 

Or how about a towel to cover your challah that includes all those other symbols? This pattern from Sew Perfectly Designed has bees, honeycomb, an apple and a pomegranate, as well as stars of David. (This is really a hand towel but you could also stitch the design on a tea towel to use on the table.) The original design includes some partial stitches but the designer says you can make them all full stitches and backstitch to get the proper effect on the lettering if you’d rather. It uses 15 colors and measures 178 by 24 stitches and is good for intermediate stitchers. 

Speaking a challah covers, there’s also this design from Sew Marie Studio, worked in a single color. The pattern is 197 by 301 stitches, which comes out to 14 by 21.5 inches, or 35.7 by 55 cm, on 14 count fabric (sizes for other counts are given as well if you don’t need a cover that big). The designer recommends adding a fabric border as shown and includes instructions for how to do that. 

This kit to make an apple and honey coaster would be a great project to make for the holiday. It comes from Siman Kriaa and the kit includes perforated paperboard for stitching, thread, a needle, the chart and instructions in English and Hebrew. 

And because I love a good(?) pun, I couldn’t resist sharing this Shofar Sho Good pattern from The Kosher Stitcher. (The shofar is the ram’s horn that is blown through at Rosh Hashanah.) The deisgn uses five colors and measures 60 by 37 stitches, which comes out to 4.3 by 2.6 inches, or 10.9 by 6.7 cm on 14 count fabric.