Favorite Finds Product Reviews
Product Reviews
Linen—check. Floss—check. Needle—check. Chart—check. These are the necessities for any cross-stitch project. Beyond these central elements are other items that, once you have used them, you don’t think you can live without.
You’ll notice that I didn’t include hoops, Q-snaps or scroll bars in my must-haves. Some stitchers find these unnecessary, and that’s a discussion for another day.
Three luxuries that make stitching easier are a light/magnifier, beading-needle threader and a twisted-cord maker that takes only one person to operate.
LC-15 LumiCraft™ by Carson
Suggested Retail Price: $15 I was recently in a doctor’s office waiting room and a fellow cold sufferer admired my needlework. “I used to cross stitch,” she said, “but my eyes can’t take it anymore.” I suggested she try using a magnifier.
There are many different types and sizes of magnifiers, including visors and desktop varieties. I like the LC-15 LumiCraft™, which has a lightweight acrylic lens and an adjustable neck strap. By moving the neck strap, I can adjust the angle of the lens, which is particularly useful when I have a cat on my lap who can’t decide which side of my lap to sit on. The lens has double magnification in the large part of the lens, and there is an inner circle that magnifies by four. I find this feature particularly useful when stitching over one thread on 40-count linen. You can learn more about this magnifier and find retailers by going to www.carson.com.
Bee Micro Needle Threader by Puffin & Company
Suggested Retail Price: $8.50 Beads add dimension and sparkle to cross stitch, but they also add gray hairs and frown lines if you don’t have a sense of humor about turning your hardwood floors into a slip-and-slide or your carpet into a sparkly mess. The only thing more annoying than spilling your beads is being unable to thread your beading needle.
Imagine how happy I was to discover a micro needle threader! The tiny hook is perfect for nabbing beading wire and pulling it through the beading needle’s small eye. The needle threader includes a magnet, so you can place it on your fabric in the same way you would a needle minder (put the magnet on the reverse side of your fabric and the needle threader on top of the fabric).
Puffin & Company offers many cute styles, including birds, butterflies, kitties, mittens and more. My favorite is the bee, which has a smiling face that cheers me up after spending precious minutes chasing beads around the floor. You can purchase one at your local needlework shop or at www.puffinco.com.
Sizzix Accessory: Twist & Style Craft Tool #661113
Suggested Retail Price: $16.99 The first thing I learned to make on a sewing machine was a throw pillow, and my favorite way to dress one up was to add store-bought piping or twisted cording. I didn’t like being limited to the colors in the store, so I began buying ribbon or embroidery floss to match the pillow cover and making my own cording. Not being well coordinated, I always needed a helper to hold one end of the floss.
Thanks to Sizzix, now I can make the cording by myself. The tool has two parts: a suction cup with a pin and a hand crank with a metal hook. All you need to do is to tie a knot in your floss, loop one end around the pin on the suction cup and the other end on the hook attached to the hand crank. Then crank, crank, crank, and when you’re satisfied with the tightness, bring the two ends together. Pull the floss off the pin and watch it all twist together into a beautiful piece of cord that you can use on a pillow or ornament. You can purchase one at your local needlework shop or at www.sizzix.com.