Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Autumn Leaves Cross Stitch Pattern

by 2 Comments

I was mowing the grass today – yes, a little late for my part of the world, but we let it go to seed to save on supplies (that’s our story every year and we stick to it religiously). It was nice and cool and I thought that before I know it I will be chopping up leaves with the mower. It’s so much easier than raking!

Autumn is my favorite season. I love watching the leaves turn brilliant shades of red, orange, yellow and even the lovely browns mixed in. Then the trees are bare through winter and we wait for the buds to come back in spring. This free autumn sampler catches the spirit of the season perfectly!

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Comments

  2. I love this leaf pattern but when I went to the French site that has the chart I was appalled at the pornographic advertising on the right sidebar. My 4yr old granddaughter even noticed it and knew it was something that shouldn’t be seen. I think the sites that you direct people to should be screened better.

Have you read?

Finish Your Cross Stitch with Washing and Pressing

I’ll admit to not taking as much care as I should when finishing cross stitch projects. Just like blocking in knitting or crochet, taking the time to finish a cross stitch project right means it will look its best, whether you’re making it as a gift or to keep.

And when it comes to cross stitch, the best method for finishing is washing and pressing.

Kat and Catkin and Lillie makes the argument that you should always press your finished pieces, and wash them the vast majority of the time as well.

Washing of course will help if there is any visible dirt that got on the project while stitching, but it also helps remove oils and skin cells you can’t see but that can speed up damage to your project in the long run.

Washing and pressing also help remove creases from the hoop or from storing the project, and if you use heat-erasable marking pens to grid your fabric, this will remove any visible marks.

So we’ve got the why down, but what about the how?

Kat has a great step by step tutorial on how to wash your cross stitch projects and how to iron them safely.  You probably have everything you need to do this, it just takes a bit of time to go through the process. It’s certainly worth it, though, if you’ve spent a lot of time on a project and are gifting it or framing it and want to show it off to its best.

Click over to the post at Catkin and Lillie for all the details, plus some really good thoughts on times when you might not want to wash a project and how to test the colorfastness of your threads so you’ll know if a project is safe to wash.

Do you wash and press your finished cross stitch projects? I’d love to hear all about your process!

[Photo: Catkin and Lillie]

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