Ways to Display Your Cross Stitch Projects

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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When you put all the time and energy you do into making a great cross stitch project, it’s worth taking the time to frame it in a way that will make it look its best.

Often for smaller designs we’ll choose to frame projects in a hoop, which is cute and a fine option, especially for seasonal projects you might want to change out through the year. Others will send their finished projects for professional framing, which is a great option for gifts and heirloom items that need to be preserved, but it can also be quite expensive.

Crewel Ghoul has a great tutorial for a way that you can easily frame your cross stitch projects at home with just a few supplies.

She uses adhesive mounting board (but you can use non-adhesive board if you have some one hand or you need a size that’s not available in an adhesive version) and a few other basic supplies to secure the sides and corners of the cross stitch fabric around the board before putting the design in the frame.

This requires a bit of hand sewing, but we’re cross stitchers so I’m sure we can handle that.

Framing your cross stitch like this gives it a little padding in the frame, which makes it look better than if it were just flat in a frame with no special finishing. It’s also a great idea to use a frame without glass or to leave the glass out of the frame so it doesn’t crush your stitches.

And though this is super secure it’s not 100 percent permanent if you decide you don’t want the project framed in that way any more. Or you can take it out of the frame and the edges are still all nicely finished so you can display it a different way without having to do anything else to it.

Check out the tutorial at Crewel Ghoul.

[Photo: Crewel Ghoul.]

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