How To

Want to learn something new or see how we accomplished something? This is the place.

Finishing

Step-by-step instructions for how we finished something.

• Cross Stitch Finishing: Overcast Backstitches -

  A two-sided bookmark, fob, tag, etc.

• Bookbands -

  A non-dangling bookmark that keeps the embroidery outside the book.

• Going, Going, Gone! Bookmark Finishing -

  If you’re stitching the Going, Going, Gone! Bookmark pattern as we did, on a Tokens & Trifles Trinkets Star Card, here are illustrated instructions for finishing.

From Us to You

Complimentary charts, projects, templates, etc.

• Free Cross Stitch Pattern: American Flag Illusion -

  Download a free cross stitch chart of a green, black, and yellow flag. See how this optical illusion reveals a properly-colored American flag.

• A Christmas Tree: Embroidery Free-For-All -

  Use random, layered, every-which-way stitches to create texture and depth for an embroidered Christmas tree ornament or bookmark.

Make It Yours

Very cool ways others (or we) adapt and alter our patterns.

• Colorful Critters Tree Frog -

  Dawn from AR stitched our Colorful Critters Tree Frog pattern for her son, Mac.

• The Great Outdoors -

  Pamela from Dayton, OH, used letters from The Great Outdoors pattern to spell her sister’s last name.

• Reverse Night Howl -

  Linda, from Jefferson, SC, “reverse stitches” the Night Howl Stitchling.

• Portraits of the Wild Life -

  Check out the story behind Joyce’s stitchery.

• Reads a Story Ambigram -

  What’s better than a hand-embroidered bookmark made especially for you? A hand-embroidered bookmark with your name on it!

Other Handy Dandy Stuff

Odd and ends, this and that. Tidbits that don’t fit anywhere else.

• Counted Thread Embroidery Fabrics 101 -

  Plain weave, even-weave, Aida, Hardanger, linen, Lugana, canvas—what are these things?

• Counted Thread Embroidery Fabrics 102 -

  Calculating design sizes for fabrics with different thread counts.

• How Our Online Classes Work -

  I got an email from Joyce recently, asking how, exactly, our online classes work. Great question! I’m sure you’re not the only one wondering, Joyce, so I’ll answer here.

Stitching

Explanations and demonstrations of stitches and stitching techniques.

• Overdyed Thread Techniques -

  Notice the different effects achieved by different stitching techniques.

• Learn to Cross Stitch -

  I made this how-to-cross-stitch video as part of an outreach project for Needle and ThREAD: Stitching for Literacy.

• Embroidery: Stitching Over Two Threads -

  When we cross stitch on Aida fabric, we make Xs over nicely-delineated squares. We can embroider the same patterns on linen and other evenweave fabrics that have individual woven fibers instead of squares.

• Cross Stitch Over One Thread -

  Learn the secrets of cross stitching over one thread on any linen or evenweave fabric to create tiny, delicate embroideries.

• Fractional Stitches in Cross Stitch -

  What is a fractional stitch, and how do we know which color is the quarter and which is the three-quarter stitch?

• Starting Thread With a Pinhead Stitch -

  I just released the I Heart You Earrings pattern. In it, I mention starting my thread with a sort of pinhead stitch. I may have called it a pin stitch. I’ve heard both. We need to check with…