In the late fall, we had a parent-teacher conference with our daughter’s wonderful art teacher. Stella loves everything about art, and we wanted to get ideas for crafts that could be done safely in person or right here at home. Because we already have just about every Crayola product under the sun and an arsenal of paper, her teacher recommended trying crafts that were more tactile, such as weaving, knitting, or cross stitch.
We decided to give cross stitch a try.
Getting started
I found some inexpensive little cross stitch projects that could be ordered from Michaels and picked up curbside. Can I just say as an aside that the convenience and safety of curbside pickup is something I have quite enjoyed in this mess of the past year and my former car seat-lugging self would have loved this option. I hope it continues even beyond pandemic times.
It just so happened that we picked up the cross stitch kits around Election Day, when I was already feeling anxious energy surging through my body. After getting out one of the kits, it became apparent pretty quickly that Stella didn’t have the patience for cross stitch. Even I was having trouble making sense of the directions and where to begin. Once we got the hang of it, she helped me with some of the stitches before moving on to other things. I, on the other hand, fell into a rhythm and loved how focusing on this little, manageable project was keeping my hands and mind busy during a stressful Election Day.
I finished one project and then made the others we got from Michaels, working on them while the girls did their virtual learning and homework. It was a satisfying and creative form of crafting, so different from my usual crocheting and knitting. I know how to do both, but just skate by skill-wise. I never really moved beyond the scarf phase. With cross stitch, I could easily take breaks, choose my own adventure as far as which areas of the projects to work on, and see the design come to life.
A new favorite craft hobby is born
With some of these very, very basic projects under my belt, I decided to order my own supplies. I bought a set of wooden hoops, sheets of aida fabric, a pack with multiple colors of floss, and felt to hot glue to the back of my hoops for a more finished look. I also looked into patterns and kits, finding a well-reviewed little kit with designs from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
The kit ended up being the perfect thing to inspire some Christmas ornaments for gifts:
Venturing into my own cross stitch terrain
As I started trying to figure out how to put together my own design elements and lettering, I found an amazing resource online for cross stitch fonts: StitchPoint. The shop behind this free cross stitch writing tool allows users to map out their lettering projects in a variety of fonts and then print the pattern (or in my case, take a screenshot on my phone). I’m so thankful this online tool takes the guesswork out of doing lettering in cross stitch.
I used the StitchPoint tool to create some Christmas ornaments/decorations to hang around our house, including one for each of our girls:
I also used the StitchPoint site to draft out a cross stitch project for my friend Jen, using a quote from Schitt’s Creek. In addition to the words, I wanted to include a rose as a nod to the characters in the show. Thanks to some poking around online, I found some basic flower patterns to create the image, then used a back stitch technique to make the flower look more like a rose:
For Christmas, my husband Zack got me a pad of graph paper to help with doing some of my own designs. I also received 6-inch hoops and larger sheets of felt. These new materials have opened up the possibilities for other cross stitch projects.
Cross stitch portraits
My latest venture into the cross stitch craft world is making little portraits of people. These are very popular on Etsy, and initially I was pretty intimidated to give them a try. However, thanks to some Googling around, I found a blog post from Martha Stewart on cross stitch family portraits. The post offers some great templates and examples of how to make different features on people, from hair to outfits to accessories.
I put my new graph paper to use and drafted up a portrait of my friend Danielle and her husband Ryan as a gift for her birthday. I had a lot of fun deciding on the colors and patterns of their outfits, borrowing my daughter’s colored pencils to get the best sense of how I wanted the portraits to look. I mixed together elements from the Martha Stewart templates, adding a hat, making the legs longer, and even a little block S for Michigan State on Ryan’s shirt.
My big pack of floss colors came in handy for choosing what would best match my draft. Considering how large the portraits looked on the graph paper, it was really fun to see how cute and small they actually turned out on the aida fabric. This project took longer that others if only because there were so many color changes and having to pay close attention to the pattern throughout the project. I was thankful to have a little practice with back stitch on those kits from Michaels, because I realized I needed to add an outline around Ryan’s white shirt to make it stand out more. In hindsight, I might have inverted the colors so that the shirt was green and the S white, but you live and learn I guess.
When the portraits were complete, I used the StitchPoint font generator to help me with their name at the bottom. I think it turned out pretty darn cute!
I’m planning to take the fabric out of the hoop and re-tighten it to make sure the picture is completely flat before doing the back.
For finishing projects, I cut away much of the excess aida fabric and then use a running stitch so it folds inward toward the hoop. Then I use a piece of felt cut to the correct size and hot glue it to the back.
I’ve tried to learn other techniques for how to finish off the back of the projects, but one thing I struggle with is getting the aida to lay flat when I stitch it together. I love the look of the felt stitched directly onto the back of the hoop instead of glued, but it feels like the tutorials make it look easier than it is.
With this portrait project being on a larger hoop, I might try stitching on the felt backing and see how it goes. It definitely looks more finished and complete that way.
My next big project is going to be a map of the United States from a very cute kit I found on Etsy. Sadly this particular one is sold out, which is unfortunate because it’s so darn cute! I asked my mother in law for it for Christmas, likely in anticipation of the next few dreary months of quarantining during Michigan winter. I can’t wait to do a larger scale project that will really test my (limited) skills and patience for sticking with something.
Perhaps picking up an old-school hobby is cliche for our pandemic times, but I’m thankful to have a break now and then from doom scrolling.
Have you picked up a quarantine hobby? Tell me about it!