Back when I cross stitched years and years ago, we basically had a choice of white or black Aida. Today there are so many choices nowadays. As we all know from years of ordering online, it’s often hard to judge colors online. The little fat quarters of fabric are fairly inexpensive. The lugana is $3 to $4 for a fat quarter and the linen starts at about $5 for a fat quarter and goes up.
123Stich charges $3.49 for shipping so any time I’ve ordered a pattern or floss, I add a few fat quarters just to have a bit of a stash for reference. I may use the fat quarters if I need them and if I don’t have enough left over to keep for a swatch, I’ll order another fat quarter once I use what I have here.
When I start to stitch, I’ll toss the floss out on a piece of fabric or two and see which ones I like better and then, I’ll probably have to order a larger piece of it. I wish it wasn’t so expensive and I could keep a nice stash of one yard pieces.
Here are some of the pieces I’ve collected so far. All of these are at quarters except for a couple that are larger that were ordered for specific projects. I tried to photograph them so you can see the color names if you’re interested.
One thing I’ve come to realize is that there is a lot of difference in tans. There are grayish tans, brownish tans, pinkish tans . . they all seem to have an underlying tone.
These are a few whites . . or off whites, or at least whiter than the tans.
I like this one – it’s a peachy white. I bought it for one of the Halloween charts.
Several charts I bought were shown on blue so I added a few blues.
And last, my favorites of all.
Going from front to back:
- 36 Count Vintage Country Mocha Edinburgh Linen
- 28 Count Smokey White Cashel Linen
- 40 Count Ancient Newcastle Linen
- 28 Count Murky Lugana
I think those last two fabric, the mottled ones, are going to be the ones I enjoy stitching on the most, though it will have to be the right project for them.
Carol Victory says
Jennifer and I did some fabric dyeing last month. Wait until you try that – another rabbit hold for you to go down.
Judy Laquidara says
When Chad was about 6 or 7, I did a good bit of fabric dying. In fact, he helped pick colors for a quilt I made him.
Susan Nixon says
You are diving in with both feet! It’s what I’d expect of you, though.
Carolyn says
Guess I should throw out my old Aida cloth then…looks like it’s worthless now! 🙂 I think I have a very old piece of linen that I purchased to do an old fashioned Santa picture on since I collect Santas. Maybe I can work on that instead of the stitch along that you’re doing…who am I kidding, I won’t do any of it! Think I’ll go cast on a super bulky hat. That’s something I might could finish!
Judy Laquidara says
Oh, goodness . . I wouldn’t throw it out. I bought some at Hobby Lobby not too long ago. Work on anything you want to work on and still check in with us.