What Are Needle Minders and How Do You Use One?

One of the great things about cross stitching is that you can get started without a lot of supplies. Really just a bit of fabric, some embroidery floss and a needle are all that you need to try it out.

But like any craft, there are accessories and special tools that might not be essential, but they do make the work a little easier. And sometimes they can even make it a little more fun, too.

Take needle minders, for example.

I didn’t know these existed until a few years ago. I always just stabbed my needle through a couple of holes in the cross stitch fabric (ideally outside of the stitching area because that can stretch out the holes) when I wasn’t using it so I wouldn’t lose it.

But clever stitchers figured out a way to hold their needle close without damaging their fabric, and that’s a needle minder.

It’s basically a couple of magnets that you place your fabric between; then the top magnet can hold the needle while you’re not using it. You can also attach it to your paper pattern if you like instead.

Of course just using plain magnets for this is possible, but it’s not very exciting, so there are all sorts of designs of needle minders that you can buy (which we’ll get to in a minute). I’ve got an idea for making my own which I will share as soon as I try it out.

In the meantime, check out this post from Catkin and Kindle that goes into a lot more detail about how needle minders are made and different ways you can use them, as well as potential pitfalls of using them.

As for where to buy your own, I’ll probably do a whole post on that soon, too, but here are a couple of fun options from Etsy:

Caffeinated Cat Crafts has a wide variety of needle minders ranging from gnomes to a steampunk octopus, bees and ouija planchettes.
Adventure Needlework has a decided witchy/cat vibe, including needle minders of both a cat and a mushroom holding a knife.
Needles Notions and More focuses on seasonal designs including a bunny holding a carrot, candy corn and a snowman, but I really had to share this one because they have a Highland Cow needle minder!

[Photo: Catkin and Kindle]

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Tools to Make Your Cross Stitch Life Easier

One of the fun things about cross stitch is all the different surfaces you can stitch on. Of course regular cross stitch fabric is the most common, you can stitch on anything with holes (and even sometimes on things without holes, if you use water soluble cross stitch fabric.

An option that has become more popular with the widespread availability of laser cutting machines is wooden blanks, which are often cut in shape to be bookmarks, holiday ornaments or other simple shapes. They can be keychains, picture frames or necklaces.

(While not wooden I even have a stitchable journal that I cross-stitched on.)

Stitching on wood or heavy card stock isn’t the same as stitching with regular cross stitch fabric, so Craft with Cartwright wrote a post about how best to work with these wooden blanks.

The main thing to know is that you don’t need a sharp needle because the holes are drilled. She also has tips on how to manage your thread (she recommends one strand of embroidery floss folded in half) and finish your project if you need help with that.

Check out the post at Craft with Cartwright for tons of tips and ideas for working with wooden blanks.

Ready to try it out for yourself? You can get rectangular pieces your could mount to a journal yourself from Toms New Old Things.

Fiore Designs has square blanks that come in different sizes and colors for your crafting needs. I am putting some stamp shaped blanks from Lunari Woods on my wish list (they also have gift tags in different sizes and colors).

You can get stitchable keychains from Millions of Stitches, circles from Geniuses of Wood, baubles from Pip and Chip and Christmas ornament shapes from Happy Stitching Time to name just a few.

Have you ever stitched on a wooden blank? I’d love to hear any tips you have!

[Photo: Craft with Cartwright]

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