Hi friends— I thought it was time to offer you another free cross stitch pattern, and this design came into my mind and sat there quietly until I made it happen. And now- I’m sharing it with you.

Over the past few weeks our country has been rocked as we grapple with the murder of George Floyd and the anguish that it has unleashed in our nation and across the globe. As the days and nights of protests have passed, we have seen not only terrible dark moments that cause us to weep, but also so many moments of unity, peace and momentum for change. So many others have been able to capture the spirit of this moment in our history much better than I, and I have spent the last several days listening and reading and trying to expand my mind and heart. I am also one who likes to work with her hands as I think and grapple and pray. My processing of these events in our nation, where past collides with present, led me to making this little stitching pattern, and I would be happy to share it with you. Perhaps like me, you process things best in quietness and busyness with your hands. With this in mind, I offer for your stitching– “Justice For All.” A phrase most of us have said by heart since we were so very little. May we endeavor with each passing day to make it a reality.

I am offering you the chart for this stitching below. It was created on 14 count cream colored Aida cloth and has been dyed with coffee. You are welcome to use this stitching for your own personal enjoyment— frame it, stitch it into a pillow, or make a little fabric banner like I did above. To save this chart, right click on the image and save to your computer.

Floss Needed:

DMC 3777 Terra Cotta vy dk

DMC 435 Brown vy lt

The finished size of the stitching will be approximately 6×4″

If you’d like to make a small banner like shown here, this is how I put it together:

For the banner body, I cut a piece of blue cotton fabric that measures approximately 7×6″ when folded in two. I pinned my stitching to one side of the folded fabric and zig-zag stitched it to the front of it.

Then I folded the fabric rectangle in half so that the pattern sides faced each other, and stitched the right and left sides. I then flipped the fabric back to being right-sides-out. This gives me a square with the stitching on one side. The banner is now closed on three sides and open on the bottom.

With an iron, I pressed the raw edges of the open end into the interior of the banner. I then cut a length of lace and pinned it inside the open end of the banner and sewed the banner end shut, with the lace coming out of the bottom. I added another strip of lace on top top of the lacey bottom for a layered effect.

For the top of the banner, I sewed two vintage buttons on the right and left corners.

I used cotton yarn to make the tie of the banner, simply tying the ends of the cotton yarn behind each button.

Tip– I tied one end of the string behind the first button, wove it through my basket and then out to tie it to the other button. That way it will hold in place on the basket, until I untie it and remove the banner.

Coffee Staining:

If you follow me on instagram, I have a video in my pinned stories where I show you how to coffee stain and use your oven dry your fabric. Of course, now that we are entering the heat of the summer— my stitching dries just as quickly hanging on a clothes line in the back yard!

Coffee staining your stitching is very simple— just put your stitching in a bowl and let it soak in about half a cup of coffee for a few minutes. Then you can either hang it on a clothes line to dry in the sun, OR use your oven to dry it.

To use your oven to dry your coffee stained stitches, set the oven VERY LOW– about 200 degrees. Spread your coffee soaked stitching on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and place in the low heat oven. Set your oven timer for 10 minutes, and keep checking it. In total you’ll probably need about 30 minutes of baking time, but its good to check so that you don’t singe anything!

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I’d love to see how you decide to display your stitching if you decide to use this project! You can tag me @sleightholmfolk on instagram.

Stitchers, unite!

~H