One thing in life is certain: If you never try something, you’ll never become good at it. If there’s something you want to do, please try to do it! If it’s cross stitching you want to try, you don’t have to order a ton of supplies . . just order a kit that includes everything you need and try it. The kit may have not so great fabric and the colors may not be your favorite but it will give you an idea if cross stitching is something you really like. Just like gardening – if you think you’d like to grow a garden, you don’t have to buy a garden tiller and put in an irrigation system . . buy a few grow bags, a few bags of garden soil, a few plants, dump the soil in the bags, add the plants, water, fertilize and if you love playing in the dirt and growing some of your own food, next year build a few raised beds or buy a few raised beds or have someone with a tiller come out and plow you up a spot. Don’t keep saying “I’d like to do this or that!” Life is too short. Do it!
For the rest of this post, I’ll talk about the basics of cross stitching.
The Chart:
Once you’ve stitching something small, for the next project, I would start with a chart. Choose one that you love and looks easy enough to hold your interest, something you could see on your wall or as a small pillow used as decoration. Don’t choose something just because it looks simple . . unless you love it. Make sure there are no specialty stitches. Get something that has basic cross stitches only for your first piece.
There are a lot of freebies out there that can be downloaded and stitched.
Once you’ve stitched your first piece, and are ready to move on to something else, think about the size and the colors used and is that something you would use in your home or would it be a great gift for a friend or family member? Think about the size of it. Will you get bored before you finish?
Think about aspects of larger pieces. If you see a sampler that has a verse you aren’t crazy about but you love the border and the colors and the top half, then plan on stitching only the top half and leave off the verse.
The Fabric:
I love stitching on linen but when I see what others have stitched, even after looking at it closely, I usually don’t even notice if it was stitched on aida, linen or something else. There will be a “count” for each piece of fabric. This is the number of holes per inch. It was all very confusing for me at first so, if it is for you also, just get advice from a stitching friend until you’re comfortable figuring it out on your own. It really isn’t hard . . I’m not sure why I was so confused. There are different “base” linens. Zwiegart is the one I like. When looking for linens, they will almost always say they are a Zwiegart base if they are.
The Floss:
Try as much as you can. I’ll always recommend starting with DMC. It’s easy to find and it’s inexpensive and there’s nothing wrong with DMC.
Love is the Key by Teresa Kogut that I’m working on now is stitched on DMC. I would say 90% of what I’ve stitched so far has been with DMC. Try a few silks once you feel comfortable with your stitching.
There are many different weights of silk floss with some being very fine and recommended for 56 count (and above) and some that are thicker and result in better coverage on 32 to 40 count linens.
Needles:
We all have our favorite brands but I think most cross stitchers use tapestry needles. When I first started out, I bought a few packs of many different brands of needles. I have two close cross stitching friends and one likes John James and the other loves Sullivans Easy Gui de. I love Piecemakers and I mostly use size 28. Every now and then, I’ll grab a pack of John James needles from my stash and think . . I bought them, I need to use them but after a few minutes, I go back to Piecemakers. Try as many as you can and find what you like. Don’t be surprised if you like one for a few months, then go to another before you finally decide on your favorite.
Stitching in Hand, in Hoops or in Frames:
I don’t even know what to say here. The problem I ran into is that I couldn’t really try stitching in a frame til I bought a frame. I like it ok but I mostly stitch in hand. At least with a hoop, they aren’t terribly expensive and you might could borrow one from a friend to try. I wish I liked stitching in a frame more. I believe it would be easier on my hands.
Finishing:
We’re all familiar with have our pieces framed or framing them ourselves but there are so many ways to finish cross stitching.
Vonna Pfeiffer is the queen of finishing! She does it professionally for others but she also has a youtube channel and shares her knowledge and gives great instructions. I love watching her videos. She has such a calming demeanor and she really is amazing.
I think I’ve covered about everything I can share. You know I love cross stitching. Some days I look at what I’m doing and I think . . you sit here and make crosses with thread all day. But, it makes me happy and I love the end result. It’s hard to believe I did some amount of cross stitching almost 40 years ago and now I’m back to doing it again.