Cross Stitch Tutorials and Reports

Ornament Finishing Tutorial

Stitched a bunch of ornaments, but you’ve been putting off the finishing? Here are step by step instructions to get your cross stitch ornaments ready to hang and have on display or give as holiday gifts…

Step 1: Wash and prepare your stitched piece. Select your backing fabric, trim, cord, ribbon, hanger, and or tassels to compliment your ornament.

Step 2: Measure your ornament and decide how much larger than your stitching you want the finished ornament to be than your stitching. I like to stay within 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of the edge of the stitching. Mark out the size on two pieces of mat board, and cut them. I like to use my mat cutter, but an Xacto knife and a ruler will do as well.
Tip : Some framing shops will sell or give away scraps of mat board.

Step 3: Cut out two pieces of 1/4 inch foam slightly larger than the pieces of mat board.

Step 4: Cover your work surface with a cheap plastic tablecloth or garbage bags. Spray the back of your mat board with an aerosol glue.

Step 5: Place the mat board on the foam glued side down. Press firmly. Trim away excess foam.

Step 6: Center stitching over foam-covered mat board.

Step 7: Turn stitching and foam-covered mat board face down. Make sure your fabric doesn’t shift so that you keep the stitching centered.

Step 8: Trim excess fabric.

Step 9: Trim on all sides, I also like to cut away the corners – its less fabric to have bunched up on the back later on.

Step 10: Using a hot glue gun start adhering stitching to mat board. Apply glue in sections to back of mat board. Do not apply glue to all sides at once (hot glue dries quickly).
Tip : If you like a nice rounded, pillow-like front, put pressure on the edge of the mat board with one hand as you pull the fabric to the back with the other hand.

Step 11: Glue down all sides of stitching.
Tip: If you mess up or the ornament ends up not centered properly, use a hair dryer on the hot setting. This will allow you to pull off your stitching with little trouble. When this happens I remove all dried glue before I try again.

Step 12: You now have your stitching glued to one piece of mat board/foam.

Step 13: Cut a piece of your backing fabric.

Step 14: Make sure you cut your fabric larger than your foam-covered mat board. You want enough fabric that you can pull it over to the back.

Step 15: If needed, press your fabric.

Step 16: Glue backing fabric to foam-covered mat board with hot glue (same as you did with your stitched ornament).

Step 17: You now have two ornament “half” pieces ~~ one is your stitched ornament, the other your coordinating fabric back.

Step 18: Spread a thin coat of white glue (I use Aleene’s Tacky Glue) that will dry clear on the back of both pieces. Do not use too much glue, or it’ll ooze out of the sides. If you do not intend to make your hanger out of cord or ribbon later, or add a tassel, do it now on one of the glued halfs. Make sure to center your hanger and/or tassel.

Step 19: Sandwich the two pieces together (glued sides touching each other).

Step 20: Tightly wrap the sandwich with plastic wrap and place clothespins all around the edges (the more the better in my opinion). Leave the ornament like this for two hours.

Step 21: After two hours, remove clothespins and plastic wrap. Where the two halves of the ornament meet, run a thin bead of white glue. I like to do this in small sections.

Step 22: To hide where the two halves of the ornament meet, “hide” it with cord. Place the cord where you’ve just run the bead of white glue.

Step 23: A hanger can be made out of a loop of cord as you’re running it around the edges. I re-enforce my loop with a pin pushed through the cord and into the ornament’s foam.

Step 24: Before cutting the cord make sure you wrap the cord where you plan to cut it with clear tape. This will stop the cord from un-ravelling later on! Tip: Use only a clear tape, don’t use a magic tape or a frosted tape, it is very obvious even from a distance.

Step 25: Cut the cord where you wrapped it in tape.

Step 26: Glue down the last bit of cord, making sure it meets up with your starting point.

Congratulations on finishing your ornament 🙂

Snowflakes on my nose and …

Hello everyone! I’m very happy to be posting here on Stitching the Night Away! I’ve been cross stitching for many, many years, but when I found this site I found the world of cross stitchers and A LOT of great blogs! I started following the blog hop and found blog after blog about cross stitching! Such a fun world of cross stitching friends.

For my first post, I thought I would use a scrap of Aida. I don’t know about you, but I hate to throw things away and I now have a basket of scraps. During the last year I’ve made a card or two by grabbing a scrap and cross stitching a heart or flower and “Happy Birthday” and gluing it to a card. I think it’s fun to make cards if you have the time! [Read more…]

Back to Basics Wednesday – Ways to Start Your Stitching

Howdy stitchy folk! I am a newbie stitcher (I have only been at it for a couple of years), so I have decided to share some of the little wisdom I have compiled during my journeys through cross stitching blogs, tutorials, YouTube videos and Yahoo groups with all of you in a series I am calling “Back to Basics”.

I’ve realized that when it comes to the needle arts everyone has their own way of doing everything, which means there is always a newer/cheaper/easier way to make your projects beautiful. Luckily for me, I know I don’t know much at all so I am always on the lookout for better ways to make my stitching time more enjoyable. First up on Back to Basics Wednesdays, a how-to on starting your threads. [Read more…]

How to Use Counting Pins in Your Cross Stitch

So we had a discussion on Facebook and here about using counting pins, especially on larger projects. I mentioned that I was looking at ordering some and wanted to hear everyone’s experiences. In an effort to better understand the whole concept of using counting pins in counted cross stitch I turned to Tommye J Bunce (aka TJB Designs) and asked for a brief explanation of how these beautiful tools worked to make our stitching easier……

(by the way, hop over to http://facebook.com/tjbdesigns and give her fan page a “like” if you haven’t already)

—–TJB counting pins explanation for cross stitchers—–

Counting pins are a must for anyone who does counted thread embroidery. They will scare away that ugly frog!! The tips are blunt like tapestry needles, so they won’t split the threads of your fabric. Rubber earring nuts are used to hold the pins in place.

The most common way to use them is when moving from one stitched area to another spot where you want to start stitching. For instance, if your next stitching point is 12 stitches left and 15 stitches down from completed stitch “A”, using the counting pin to count 12 stitches to the left of stitched point A. Insert the counting pin into that hole, bring it back up 2 or 3 stitches away and put the nut on the pin to anchor it. Take a second counting pin and count down 15 stitches from where the first pin was inserted. Insert the second pin at that point and anchor it. Then you can thread your needle and start stitching.

TIP: if you are truly paranoid, pick a completed stitch “B” in a different area, and figure out how far your new stitching point is from point B.

Repeat the counting and marking process, as before, from point B. If you come up in the same place as you did when counting from point A, you’re ready to go. If you don’t, recount. If you still don’t, you probably made a mistake in your previous stitched area somewhere between A and B. (you probably weren’t using counting pins then. LOL)

Another popular use is when stitching long bands or rows. Insert a counting pin every 25 or 50 stitches, or whatever number you are comfortable with. That way you don’t have to count the whole row over and over again trying to figure out when you are done.

This photo isn’t a good demonstration of the counting and marking process, but it does show how to anchor them.

And, of course, all are welcome to visit my Etsy shop for more counting pins, many of which are color coordinated with (super pretty) scissor fobs. http://etsy.com/shop/tjbdesigns

And to keep up with new products, be a fan of TJBdesigns Facebook page. http://facebook.com/tjbdesigns

A special thank you to TJB Designs for this great explanation and for getting me off the fence about ordering a set of counting pins. Actually, two sets. I ordered these and these from TJB Designs Etsy shop on Sunday afternoon. I figured if I didn’t get to stitch I could at least shop for stitching goodies!

I grabbed both the large and small size because even though I usually stitch on evenweaves and would be using the small size pins, I do have a project coming up in my stash that I think those large pins will come in handy for – besides that they were pretty and they matched! You know how that goes 😉

As always, happy stitching everyone!

Cross Stitching Over Two on Evenweave or Linen Fabrics

Stitching Over Two on Evenweave or Linen How to Guide by Loretta Oliver at StitchingtheNightAway.com

Cross stitching on linen or evenweave fabrics might be intimidating to someone that has only stitched on aida cloth before. But, I assure you that it’s not as hard as one might think. Infact, in most cases it’s easier, especially when it comes to quarter and three-quarter stitches that give a piece detail and finished edges to a design, or to add turns inside borders.

Here are few illustrations to help you out with your first “over two” project. Over two basically means over two threads of the fabric. If you were stitching on aida cloth, you would be stitching “over one”. [Read more…]

Free Guide to Evenweaves