Cross Stitch and Quilting

Quilting and cross stitch seem to compete for our free time on many days, yet they compliment each other well.  For years I have been fortunate to have an office with many wall surfaces to hang quilts for each season.  I have three wall hangings that I enjoy daily, and two of them combine cross stitch and quilting.  In the header it shows four snowmen who have been buttonholded onto fabric that looks slightly like snowflakes.  

The snowmen featured in the second hanging is just a basic backstitch or outline stitch with embroidery floss.  They were stitched on the same background fabric and surrounded with a matching border so that they would be finished easily into the completed monthly wall hanging.  This could be displayed all year since each month is represented, but who wants to look at snowmen in July?!

This last example is a little name plate/wall hanging just makes me smile because it was for a cutie little boy who is now two.  We worked with his mom before he was born to coordinate the fabric with other special elements in his room.  This is a great example of how the letters have been buttonholed on to the fabric.  In this case it was done by hand but it can also be done on the sewing machine with a zig-zag or buttonhole stitch.  Once that step was complete we squared off the background fabric, added borders to all four sides, layered it just like a quilt, did some light quilting and then finished it off with hanger tabs and a binding.

If you’re interested, I can provide you with some tips for buttonholing and also a few more examples from the archives.  I am also working on project #400 (kidding, slightly) of an ABC sampler/wall hanging for Etsy.  Let me know if you’d like to hear more!

P.S.  I think it’s way past time to take down the snowmen!