Birth Announcement Cross Stitch

One of the nursery projects I was looking forward to the most was Miles' birth announcement cross stitch! I had made one for my niece last year as a baby shower gift and couldn't wait to make my own child one.

Laura Hanks (PineconeMcGee) on Etsy is once of my favorite cross stitch pattern makers. I love the designs she has for birth announcements! I used Gold Star Birth for Miles' announcement and Jungle Pretty Baby for Avery's. Both patterns I modified slightly to better accommodate the child I was creating them for (and to compensate for some mistakes that I made).

For Miles' BA piece, I used some leftover 14 Aida cross stitch fabric that I had, and DMC embroidery floss in 3820, 729, 798, 824, 413, 3024, 317, and 415. For larger pieces like this, I highly recommend using a Q-frame like this one to work with. It makes using larger pieces much easier to stitch.

I used 3 strands of floss for the design and names, and 2 strands of floss for the info content. I probably should have only used 1, but I really wanted the text to pop. Looking back, I could have achieved this better with one strand and the text would have been more legible. For best design looks, I recommend stitching the design in one direction first and going back the other way. I went from top-left to bottom-right for all my stitches and bottom-left to top-right going back. I knew this design wasn't going to kill my thread supply, so I didn't really worry too much about wasting if I had to.

Because of my miscalculations, I ended up with too big of a gap at the bottom and an off-centered middle name. Since Miles' nursery design is stars based, I used DMC 415 to stitch an extra star under the city and state line, and the Pisces constellation below the 'M' in his name. Using the lighter gray floss filled up the space nicely without making the overall design feel cluttered and the mistakes too obvious.

If you can do basic cross stitch and have $10 to spend, I highly recommend picking up the needle and making this wonderful craft. It works really nicely as a present for a baby shower, and makes for a great keepsake. I think a lot of people think of cross stitching as this very old, traditional design work that doesn't mesh well with today's designs. Laura's patterns really makes for clean designs that can coordinate in any space.

Have you ever cross stitched before? It's such as great, low cost hobby to get into if you're looking for something that's very calming, doesn't require a lot of store, and doesn't cost a lot to get into. Here's a link to a special Amazon shopping guide I've curated especially for you! What's a design you'd love to see as a cross stitch? Let me know in the comments below!