What is a Pin Drum and How to Make One

The other day when I shared about designer Kathy Barrick, I mentioned that some of her patterns were for pin drums, and that that wasn’t something I had heard of (and from the size I thought it might have something to do with knitting).

A pin drum is a special kind of pin cushion that is cylinder, or drum, shaped, and they’re a rather traditional design that you don’t see all that often in “modern” cross stitch circles. Kathy’s designs are definitely historically inspired, so that makes sense that it is something she would offer and that I wouldn’t have seen it before since historical designs are not my preference for making.

I found a tutorial at Sirious Stitches all about how to make pin drums, and it’s pretty easy to do.

You just need a band of cross stitch that is as wide as you want your drum to be tall, and as long as you would like it to be around. In the tutorial she uses a bookmark pattern, but you can start with a design that’s made to be a pin drum, or you can design your own based on your own sizing specifications.

Once you’ve got that part done, you’ll need to make the top and bottom for your drum, which they show how to do with a bit of mat board and fabric, but you could probably use poster board or card stock or something else if you have that on hand.

Check out the tutorial for all the details on how to make this fun cross stitch pin cushion. It would be a fun gift to make for a stitching friend, and you can make them with holiday designs, floral themes or really any design you like and whatever size you’d like as well depending on the size of your stitching.

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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Stitch Designs with a Classic Look from Kathy Barrick

I was trying to think of some different Christmas cross stitch pattern themes that I could share with you and I came up with wanting to do a post of patterns with ornaments on them that aren’t necessarily ornaments themselves.

This is a really hard term to search for, so I’m sure there is more than what I was able to find. But I love the idea of stitching up some ornaments if you don’t have space for a tree or want to send a little holiday cheer from afar. Let’s take a look at these cross stitch patterns featuring Christmas ornaments.

The bold baubles sampler from xCounting the Starsx is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. This set of 16 little ornaments would be cute propped up on a mantle or bookshelf, and of course you could stitch them individually and turn them into ornaments, too, if you wanted. The full design is 165 by 186 stitches and uses 30 colors.

If you want even more baubles that you can mix and match into your own sampler project, check out this collection from Mason Art Maison. It includes a whopping 140 cross stitch Christmas ornaments that you can combine or use on individual projects. I love the hand drawn and painted look of these. There are seven pages or ornaments, each of which is around 300 by 300 stitches, with the individual ornaments running around 70 by 70 stitches.

Looking for something smaller? This little branch with three ball ornaments from Wild Bluebell Patterns is super cute and just 59 by 43 stitches. It comes out to 4.2 by 3.1 inches (or 10.7 by 7.8 cm).

Or try this little bundle of three baubles from Ecliptica Design. They’re shown in individual frames but you could also line them up into one project. Each is 34 by 38 stitches, or 2.4 by 2.7 inches/6.2 by 6.9 cm. They use five colors and two blends each.

Snail Fishes Stitches also has a cute Christmas ornament cross stitch pattern with a variety of little ornaments. This one uses just three colors and is 63 by 64 stitches. It’s perfect for a 5 or 6 inch hoop if you stitch it on 14 count fabric.

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