A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Hobbies, Crafts and Creativity Anyone do cross stitch?

I found a cross stitch that I really like and decided that it was time for me to get into a more crafty hobby. Trouble is I haven't done any needle work in 12 plus years and after looking through the instructions I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'm sure I'm going to have questions and was wondering if anyone on here does cross stitch so I know where to direct my questions. Of course I didn't get one of the easier ones with printed fabric, I got a counted cross stitch that is going to end up to be 14" by 11". I've done them in the past and thought, no problem I did this before it should be easy. Now I'm not so sure. Anyway, wish me luck, I'm going to need it.

Loz cross stitches, her work is beautiful.

Thanks Tamara.....I love cross stitching!

Always fold your fabric in half both ways and find the center point and start from the center.

I have a few pics in my photobucket, let me see if I can find them.

Cheryl, you'll do it! It's like riding a bike! Although I'm not a good one to say that, I can't ride a bike!

Just a few of the ones I've done....I can finish a small one in a day. The bigger ones like the one I did for mom and dad can take me a few weeks on and off. The bird and lighthouse probably took me about a week and a half each. Lots of outlining and that takes a while.

BTW, my first ones I ever did looked okay on the front, but the backs were a lumpy bumpy mess..... I've come a long way since those days. Cheryl what design are you doing?

It's a company called dimensions and it's called I love my garden. I'll take a pic of the cover and upload it when I get home from work to show you if you'd like.

i CAN HELP i CAN HELP! :GRIN:
oops cap locks :LOL:

see

I'm hoping to start it tonight and I'll see how that goes. I would start it now because I'm not really working (even though I'm at work) but I didn't bring the hoop with me. I wanted to go over the directions 1st before I dive in.

That's pretty! I'm hoping to be able to get the hang of it and I hope that I will enjoy this because I was thinking of making little cross stitch christmas ornaments to send in my cards this year.

I've made lots of little cross stitch ornaments. Then use the little 3 inch hoops for the frame. Add lace or something around the outer back edge.
I think I gave Erica all my ornament pattern pamphlets. I do have a great book of patterns I can copy if you want. I'll look what other patterns I have left when I go home.

PS theres also tons of free patterns online...

Thanks, I'll look into that.

pb was having issues last night but it worked this morning so here is the pic of what I am working on. I did get started on it last night and so far I've had to take out 2 rows because I counted wrong. You see that blue sky area by the trellis next to the chair? That's where I started. I can't wait until I can see it start to look like the pattern.

pretty!
I count the # of stitches, do the first 1/2 of th stitch across, double check the pattern , re count, then do the second 1/2 of the stitch back down the row.

I had counted the stitches correctly on the pattern but somehow managed to add one extra stitch and didn't realize until I had gotten done with the second row and saw that something was off. At least it was easy to take apart. I'm sure there will be a few more of these little mistakes but I'll get there. I am double checking my count as a go now though.

Wow, I LOVE that pattern! Glad you were able to catch the mistake early....Although I've made them before and worked it into the pattern. Like the top lighthouse I posted, I made a lot on there---but you'd never know to look at it. Sometimes you can just work around a mistake.

Few years ago I made little cute hanging Christmas ornament ones and put them in cards to a few people on here. Once I get moving I can finish one a day.

That is a very pretty pattern! I used to cross stitch a lot but haven't done it for a while! I will have to pick up a pattern some time here and get started on it again!

I have an aunt who does a lot of crossstitch and here is her method:

She uses a 6 inch hoop so she can easily keep the fabric taut. She does all of the pattern in the hoop then moves to the next section and does all of that.

Sometimes she has a lot of color changes in her 6 inch hoop but she believes that doing small sections makes the whole project easier to do.

I do it just like that too! A hoop is a must!

I'm new. I love to cross stitch. I have just started getting the floss picked out for my next project. A Winnie the Pooh picture for our expected grandchild. Our son's first! The garden picture looks great. A big job, but cross stitch is a small section at a time. I love seeing the picture "come alive" so to speak.

So I think I made a big mistake and I'm not sure if I can fix it without taking everything out and starting over, and I'm concerned that if I do that I'll run out of thread. Anyway, somehow I mis-counted big time and I'm off a whole row. I had decided to just try to fill it in and make it look un-noticable but then it dawned on me that the whole thing would now be off. Is that right? Can I continue with it a row off in one spot or do I need to start over? I knew I had gotten in over my head but now that's it's starting to come back to me I now know what to do to avoid making the same mistake again.

I always have a TON of leftover thread in those kits....

Shoot, if it were me I'd try to work a way around it so it didn't look bad with that row missing....nobody knows the exact pattern except you, so things that aren't right to you won't look bad to others if you can make it looke "right".

Hi Cheryl,

I dearly love cross stitching. Sorry to hear of your difficulties! Happens to the best of us.

Of course, it depends on what the picture is of, whether or not you can continue or you should start over. Some things will be more noticeable that others. You could try stitching a bit more and see how it looks. If it's horribly noticeable, you can still rip it out to where the mistake is and then continue. Loz is right: you're the only one who knows the exact pattern!

Hi Tori and Tammie, nice to meet you!

So far it's not noticable but I'm worried about how to continue to "fix" the rest of the pattern up and down from that point. Since everyone is saying that there is usually a lot of thread left over I think I will just pull it out and start again. I'm thinking that will save me the headache of trying to figure out another way and messing up even more. I'm glad I read the part in the directions about no knots, at least I can take it apart and reuse some of the thread. Thanks for the help so far!

Where in the pattern is the boo-boo?

Towards the middle. I missed counted the stitches in the sky I think and somehow moved everything over a row. Oh well, I spent about an hour last night taking apart where I knew the mistake occured. I didn't end up having to take apart all of it, but I did do most of it and now I'm penciling out the stitches I have done on the pattern, I think that's what helped me mess up.

the friend who taught me how to cross stitch used to make a copy of her chart and use a highlighter

I always scratch out what I've stitched on the pattern. Much easier to keep track of where you are that way.

So I got the booboo taken out, and then I went and lost my needle. It has completely vanished into thin air. I can't find it anywhere, so I stopped at the craft store tonight and got a pack of them. At the rate I'm going I might get this thing finished by christmas of 2010. I'm determined though.

good luck Cheryl:

I have only done cross stitching one time in my life--but it was great fun and quite relaxing. Keep us posted on the progress of your project.

After all the trouble that I've gone through so far, I'm finally making progress and really getting the hang of this again. Now that I've got it all fixed and am doing well and can see some the pattern coming to life I'm really enjoying this. I'll have to remember to buy more for when I'm sitting at home recover. It's the perfect thing for sitting with your feet propped up. When I get home tonight I'll take a picture of my progress so far. I haven't made it really far but after having to take apart almost all of what I had done I didn't touch it for at least a week. Now I'm zipping right through it!

cant wait to see a picture.

Okay, as promised, here is a pic of my progress so far. It seems like I've done a lot been when I look at the whole pattern I still have a looooonnng way to go.

nice work

The only large cross stitch kits that I have finished are ones similar to this one, where there are lots of little seperate pictures within the large one. I have one that I did that I had custom framed. I hung it in my bedroom for years, then I passed it on to my mom, who had a nice one that was very similar. It's in her bedroom now.

Good luck! It will be beautiful when you're done!

I love to cross-stitch. I even bought a computer program called PC-Stitch so I could design some of my own. You take a picture that you like and scan it in and it puts the symbols in and tells you what colors to buy and everything. I used it once and my scanner quit, so now I can't use it,lol. But I rarely have the time to cross-stitch anymore. I too have several unfinished projects in my sewing kit. That is looking great, can't wait to see some more.

Uni

I'm discovering that I'm really enjoying cross stitch and I'm glad I got it. It seems like it's taking forever but it is a big one. I'm hoping I'll get it finished while I'm sitting at home recovering from my surgery but I don't know if that's possible or wishful thinking. I'll post another pic soon.