Stitching Friends Forever

April week one

Spring is here!

Welcome to our new blog Stitching Friends Forever.  We are two friends, Mary and RJ, that love to cross stitch.  Having followed so many stitching blogs the last few years we have been inspired by your stitches, finishes and techniques.   We thought it would be fun to have our own blog and share our stitching projects with others and hopefully encourage newcomers to take up cross stitching.

It will be our goal to have a weekly post.   Monthly themes and weekly projects will be listed on the sidebar.   We have plans to add a monthly stitching party so we can have a sharing community of stitchers in the very near future.  And there will be fun surprises along the way.   We hope you will enjoy our ideas and become a stitching friend too. 

Styling With Stitches

The first week of each month we will feature one of many ways to use and display cross stitches.  This month's project is stitched candle banners that will look great as your Spring centerpiece or anywhere you might use a candle in your home.

We have two stitched candle banners for you to see below:

RJ's candle banner -   I chose the pattern A Spring Day by Heart in Hand.  I stitched it on white linen and used over dyed threads that I had on hand.  I changed the words A Spring Day to Printemps because of my love for French things.  A small bee button was added to the stitch instead of stitching it.  I sewed the banner with green polka dot fabric, rick rack trim, ribbon ties and flower buttons added to the back.   This was a fun, easy and colorful stitch just like a pretty Spring day.  

Here are some closeups of the candle banner:

Now you can see that adorable little bee button below.

I used my candle banner as a centerpiece for a luncheon with my girlfriends. Fresh cut daffodils, flower pots of malt ball eggs, bunny plates, Majolica style accessories from Homegoods, vintage French seed packets and flower frogs all say Spring to me.

A Spring Day
by Heart in Hand
32ct. white linen
over dyed threads

Mary's candle banner- My candle banner was stitched from a free chart that you can find here.  I prefer to use variegated threads so I substituted GA Grasshopper for leaves and stems, GA Cidermill Brown for the bunnies' bodies, CC Honeycomb and DMC white for the large flowers.  French knots for the bunnies' tails were done in Whisper-color W89.   If your not familiar with Whisper thread it's great for beards and animals, especially sheep.   

The trim separating the linen from the fabric was a find in Michael's $1.50 bins.  I always do a quick check of the bins for cross stitch embellishments.

This was a fun project to do and can be adapted for any season or holiday.

My Spring tablecloth was embroidered by my sister and myself many years ago for my Mom.  I hope someday it will be considered a family heirloom.  The bunny napkin fold is easy to do.   I followed this video.  

Here's a closeup of the pretty trim on the banner.   I like the way the trim echoes the design of the bunny's tail.

nspruance.com
free bunny pattern
32 ct. white linen
threads listed above

                     We hope you all have a wonderful week and lots of stitching hours.  

                                                                    Mary and RJ 

                                              A kind word is like a spring day 

                                                                 author unknown