These wood embroidery hoops hold great tension, look nice, and are easy to stain if you want a darker color.

Having a great pair of small thread scissors makes embroidery a lot easier and more portable.

I prefer heat erasable Frixion pens to water soluble ink pens, because the ink doesn't bleed. You can just blast your piece with a hairdryer to erase the lines quickly!

DMC brand embroidery floss is the only brand I use! They've got threads in hundreds of colors and styles. Their threads glide more easily through fabric than other brands I've tried.

I like to use 100% cotton quilting fabric. Lots of people like Kona cotton because of its heavier weight, so I linked that here.