When you are looking forward to a new arrival in the family it is nice to have something personal and special to celebrate the occasion. Maybe you are expecting a baby and looking for a relaxing hobby and creative hobby, then cross stitch is ideal. Any cross stitch design takes some hours to complete and when given as a gift shows your love for the family or individual and its special new arrival.

There are many birth samplers available, from traditional designs including alphabet and number lines to ones including popular well-loved characters to nursery themes, so there are many options to allow you to match your stitching design to the nursery theme. Where the design is pink or blue themed most kits come complete with both colours of thread allowing you to stitch the majority of the design before baby is born, adding in the finishing details including the name, date and weight once the baby is born.

Most birth samplers also come with an alphabet and number chart to allow you to personalise the design with the baby’s name, date of birth and weight. Use a pencil to carefully mark on the chart where these details will go to check you have the spacing correct.

If you can’t find a birth sampler design that you like, you could convert a photo to cross stitch using a stitch a photo service or have a go at designing your own sampler. When designing your own sampler you could use a computer drawing package, specialist cross stitch software or crayons, pencils and graph paper. First choose your colour scheme and decide the size you would like the finished design. Sketch the outline of the design roughly and carefully shade or mark the squares on the paper with the colour you will use for the stitches. Think carefully too about the design and the colour of the fabric you choose, for example if there is a lot of white or similar light colour in the design you may be best stitching on a cream or pale blue, pink or yellow coloured fabric.

Once your stitching is complete and framed it will make a gift to treasure and keep and be enjoyed for many years.