Every month we showcase the latest high street trends, new ideas and inspiring personalities for today’s stylish cross stitcher
Bag It Up!
Check out the limited-edition Bothy Sew-cial club project bags! Three bright and bold designs which are great for keeping your projects, accessories, and crafty bits and bobs safe whilst travelling or simply when you have a WIP. You even get an eco-friendly 2024 Bothy Sew-cial club badge! Each bag measures 28x31cm and has a coordinating coloured zip. £1 from the sale of each project bag will be donated to the Bothy Threads 2024 charity of the year – The Calvert Trust, Lake District. They are available to order exclusively from www.bothythreads.com.
FIRM FAVOURITES: NIA RHIND
Designers share with us their top stitching essentials
THREAD BOXES
Although I’ve used bobbins to keep my threads organised in the past, for quite a while now, I prefer to keep my threads in little numbered ‘floss bags’. A whole skein of thread fits into one of the bags and is a great solution to keep the length which has been cut off to use, plus any leftover bits of thread. I keep my floss bags in two tin boxes which were biscuit tins at one time, again repurposing. One has all the blues, pinks, purples and reds, and the other has the yellows, greens, oranges and browns. I love being able to see all the lovely thread colours running into each other from light to dark.
EMBROIDERY HOOP
I always use a hoop when I’m cross stitching my designs. I find that a hoop is nice and light to hold in your hand and helps to keep the fabric taut, which gives your stitches a lovely even appearance. Sometimes I use a hoop in a seat stand, which is quite good too, as it frees up one of your hands. It’s important to remove the hoop from your fabric when you leave your stitching, as this gives the fabric time to relax again. I like to press the reverse of my stitching so that the fabric is nice and fresh, ready for me to pick up again next time.Below you can see my top 5 favourites when I’m cross stitching and creating my designs for www.nia-crossstitch.com…
PROJECT WORK BOX
I keep all the necessary elements for my current cross stitch project all in one box when I’m stitching up my design. I love it when I’m able to re-use a sadly empty box of Continental chocolates which is large enough and sturdy enough to serve this alternative purpose, keeping everything together – hoop, fabric, threads, pattern, needle and the a
