We have found that by making our cross stitch designs the centerpiece of a quick-to-quilt piece, a lovely finished result is achieved. Many embroiderers also love to quilt, so combining the two “media” seemed like a natural!

Cross Stitch designs, especially the small ones, can be used in many ways in lots of projects. Their rich detail and color make them perfect to be the focus of small patchwork projects like those we created for our 9 Santas Quik Quilt Book (click the link to view the product, 10% off this week for readers of this post - use Promotion Code 9santasbook).

One of the great things about small designs is the many uses they can be put to. To begin with our 9 Santas designs can be made as simple ornaments. They can also be combined with "frames" of quilted patchwork, as shown in our book. These projects do not require huge amounts of fabrics. You can usually find all of the pieces you will need in your stash. We have also included a Holly Border and Holly Motifs in this collection that can be used to spice up some of your Christmas stitching.

We have taken our 9 Santas ornaments and used them in different ways for several lovely Christmas projects. Our Quik Quilt Book includes the printed 9 Santas charts (for hand cross stitch if desired), full-sized pattern pieces and layouts and instructions for each project in this book.

One of the quickest little projects in the book is our Treasure Bags. They stitch up in a snap into some delightful gift bags. You can use these bags for tiny gifts or even Gift Cards. All you will need is some bits of fabrics, a little floss or twisted cord, and a couple of tiny jingle bells to complete these little favorites. You can also personalize your each bag with the year numerals included on the CD.

Another lovely project is our 3 Santas Banner. This lovely wall hanging uses 3 Santas of your choice, framed by striking quilted borders. For a specifically Christmasy feel, stitch the designs on squares of dark green fabric, and replace the dark blue quilt patches with some dark green ones. Add a heavy braided cord with tassels at the top, for hanging. This piece would also make a delightful mini table banner for the center of your table.

Our 9 Santas Quilt uses all of the Santas, each stitched on a white fabric then pieced into its own patchwork frame. The Santas could also be stitched on another fabric, depending upon your fabric choices for the quilt. A dark brown, green, or blue fabric could work nicely for a different look. We have included our Border Holly machine embroidery design which is used to decorate each side of the quilt.

Please note that all of the patchwork projects in this book can also be used with any other small hoop machine embroidery designs—both for the holidays as well as everyday pieces. Just choose your designs and fabrics, using this book as a guide. The possibilities are endless!

Our projects consist of full lists of required materials for both the embroideries as well as the quilted pieces. Step-by-step instructions will lead you through the process of creating these lovely quilted projects.

Why Cross Stitch? With the Olympics going on in China, it seems that some of the members of the Chinese teams share our love of this wonderful craft. Please go to the following webpage to see a fascinating article about how internationally loved, Cross Stitch can be! See Article…

HINTS FOR PERFECT STITCHOUTS...
Even though we are doing our Cross Stitch on our incredible machines, there are still elements of the process that we all share. We all love the rich designs that Cross Stitch provides—those final results that make the time and effort well worth it. Patience is required both for hand cross stitching as well as machine cross stitching. Designs stitched by hand can require many hours to complete. That same design stitched on the machine can be completed in only a fraction of the time. The rhythm of hand cross stitch is that of working each single stitch, completing two stitches for each cross stitch. The rhythm of machine cross stitch is that of threading a new color into your machine and clipping threads between areas of stitches.

There are three important and simple things one can do to achieve a perfect Cross Stitch stitchout.

1.       Good Stabilization

2.       Appropriate machine stitching speed

3.       Upper tension on machine

GOOD STABILIZATION
Good solid stabilization is the most important aspect of stitching perfect Cross Stitch. For most of our stitched models, we stitch on a Cotton/Linen fabric, which is light to medium weight . We use an IRON ON stabilizer. The type that we find works best is a lightweight butcher paper, backed with the adhesive to iron on the fabric. While it takes a couple more minutes to iron on the stabilizer, it is well worth that small amount of time. This type of stabilizer keeps the fabric from being pulled too much during the stitching. Cross Stitch designs are stitched in two steps. In our designs, all of the cross stitches are completed first, then the Back Stitch outlining is stitched. Our outlines line up perfectly with iron on stabilizer.

MACHINE SPEED
While our machines just get faster and faster with each new model, Cross Stitch designs do not necessarily benefit from that incredible speed. In fact, they can suffer. For the Cross Stitch portion of the design,  I always lower the speed of my machine a notch, to slow down the stitching. The stitches are better formed with a slower speed and the thread is not pulled as tightly as with a higher speed, thereby distorting the fabric less. Once the Back Stitch portion of the design is reached, I lower the speed one notch more so that the outlining stitches are formed correctly and line up perfectly.

UPPER TENSION ON MACHINE
Lowering the upper tension on your machine allows each stitch to lay nicely on top of the fabric, rather than pulling tightly. On my machine, I lower it from 2.8 to 2.4 for the cross stitches, which is two notches from the normal tension. This step also prevents the fabric from becoming too distorted. Ironically, I go back up from 2.8 to 2.4 for the Back Stitching portion of the design. Normal tension seems to work best for the outlining stitches.

One additional thing you might want to do…if your stitched piece highlights the needle holes at the corners of the stitches is to use a smaller eyed needle. The standard embroidery needle, size90/14 is usually appropriate, especially if the hints above are used.

Hand Cross Stitches pretty much cover the fabric, with little definition between stitches. The difference in machine Cross Stitches is that they are more clearly separated from each other.

Hand Cross Stitches - detail

The desired result of Machine Cross Stitch is that the stitches sit nicely right next to each other, with minimal needle holes showing.  Note below, that the threads go into the corner holes without pulling the hole “open”. This is the look that most closely resembles hand cross stitches.

Machine Cross Stitches - detail

I hope these simple hints will help you achieve Perfect Cross Stitch results!

If you haven't tried before, why not give cross stitch a try. I've asked AnnTheGran to take 10% off Vermillion Stitchery downloadable designs as a thank you for reading my post, so I hope you'll click through here and take a look.

With so many gorgeous designs available in machine embroidery, why choose Cross Stitch?  Don’t Cross Stitch designs take forever to stitch? What about all those thread changes and jump stitches that need to be clipped? These are all legitimate questions for machine embroiderers.

My name is Donna Vermillion Giampa and I have a small Cross Stitch design business called The Vermillion Stitchery. I have been designing Cross Stitch since the 1980’s. Our company, The Vermillion Stitchery, began when we offered needlework kits in Cross Stitch, as well as Silk & Metal Thread Embroidery, of all things!

Since our incredible embroidery machines were not yet in existence at that time, I obviously worked all of my designs by hand. My method of designing was filling in a design grid of printed paper with colored pencil squares and entering a tiny symbol with a tiny pointed technical pen that always clogged up. No computers then either. Each chart though was a masterpiece in its own right!

 In those early days, the stitching took even longer to complete than the designing. I loved the feel of the wonderful threads and linens. Color has always been my special thing, and the cotton floss or silk threads available allowed me full rein in creating my designs.

At left, Four Bears machine embroidery design 

 When computers came in and charting software became available, I resisted its use at first, but finally gave in. I had my twin sister, Diana, there to encourage me to get into computers. She was a CPA for many years, right there when the personal computer came in. She also shared my love of Cross Stitch and we spent hours together stitching. She also was my partner when we started the Vermillion Stitchery, offering hand-stitched charts. I lost her on Christmas Day in 2004. I miss her every single day, but our connection with Cross Stitch keeps her with me in my heart.

Diana’s expertise with computers led me to some charting software for the computer. I was astounded to see how quickly I could chart a design on the computer. My design output increased radically, due to the computer. I still considered myself a Cross Stitch purist though, both in the designs I created and the quality of stitching I did with my hands. I “test-stitched” small portions of every design, checking out the colors I had chosen and how they worked together. I was frustrated though because I did not have the time required to stitch whole pieces.

Then machine embroidery came in and wow, what a crazy thing—having a machine stitch my designs for me? The very thought was absurd! A machine could never put the love and care into what I stitched so patiently and lovingly by hand…never…until I saw a Cross Stitch design stitched on a machine. I was astounded and speechless. The design was wonderfully detailed and so “real” looking, that I had to give it a try. I was so impressed with the quality of the stitched piece, I found myself enter the machine embroidery world, almost against my long-held purist beliefs!

Shown below are similar areas of the hand-stitched Bears Bell Pull and the Four Bears Machine Embroidery Designs...On left is the detail from the hand Cross Stitch chart. On the right is the detail from the Machine Embroidery design, Four Bears.  

Again, Why Cross Stitch? The answers lie in the actual contents of the design, as well as in the process of stitching…the experience of seeing a wondrous design take shape before your very eyes. Cross Stitches, a series of tiny “X’s”, while all the same exact stitch, can form a visual image, rich in detail and color shading.

You can create amazingly realistic images using those tiny “X’s”. The machine-stitched quality is a bit more perfect than Cross Stitch done by hand, but that very perfection is a wonder to behold! As a former hand cross stitcher, I was used to it taking forever to get something stitched. With the machine, it might feel like it’s taking forever, but take my word for it, it isn’t!

Those stitchers who have tried Cross Stitch on their embroidery machines are delighted with the incredible results. Many former hand stitchers have said how grateful they are to be able to Cross Stitch on their machines. They are willing to spend a bit more time to stitch a design that they know would have taken many more hours to do by hand. That extra effort is worth it to them. The results are what count!

I'd love to hear any comments you would like to share about anything and everything Cross Stitch!
Donna Vermillion Giampa
The Vermillion Stitchery