resources

supplies

I recommend 123Stitch.com for fabric, needles, Q-Snaps, and more. They’ve been both fast and reliable in getting me the materials I need.

I personally prefer using a Q-Snap rather than a standard embroidery hoop. (The 6″x6″ size is ideal for stitching a lot of the patterns I offer on 20ct fabric.) I typically frame my finished pieces in standard picture frames, with my more professional pieces being mounted and framed by companies that specialize in framing for fiber arts.

I also recommend a water soluble pen from DMC (or 123Stitch) for gridding patterns.

All of my patterns are created with DMC thread, and anywhere that sells them is fine to purchase from.

I highly recommend purchasing a needle minder. It’s essentially two magnets that go on either side of your fabric that you can use to set your needle on (and not lose it).

learning to stitch

Peacock and Fig offers some great tutorial videos. There are plenty of other resources online as well.

DMC also has a good basic guide.

This video from stitch people shows how to do the 2:1 ratio diagonal stitch used in some of my patterns.

pattern apps

For iOS, I’ve had a good experience using Markup R-XP. They offer a free two week trial, after which it seems to offer either a one-time payment of $9 or a yearly subscription of $18, but I haven’t been able to verify this yet.

For Android, Pattern Keeper is highly recommended by many. I don’t have personal experience with it, but it does seem to be the best of the available options. It also has a free 30-day trial followed by a one time $9 payment.

If you’d like to try creating your own patterns, I’ve success with Stitch Fiddle (free with paid subscription option). I also loved using Stitchly for iOS (free with one time payment option for more features), as it provides a really great way to track patterns within the app. WinStitch/MacStitch and PCStitch are both highly rated and are incredibly similar, however the latter hasn’t been updated in six years. This article from Lord Libidan gives a good comparison between them (with coupon codes) as well as some other options for software.