Cross Stitch Basics: How to Read a Chart and Keep Your Place

This time of year is ripe for starting new projects, and possibly new hobbies, or even just for trying new methods of doing things you’ve been doing with less success in the past.

I am the worst, for example, when it comes to properly reading and following cross-stitch charts. I know that it’s totally basic and I should be able to pay more attention to where I am in a cross-stitch pattern, but I always seem to mess it up a little bit.

Oh well, that makes my project unique, right?

If you’d rather stitch the project the way it was intended, this advice from Funk & Weber about keeping your place in a cross-stitch pattern should be helpful.

They recommend enlarging and magnifying patterns and using highlighters or other tools to mark the row you’re on.

Again, pretty basic stuff, but a good reminder that we could probably all stand to follow a little more closely.

How do you keep track of where you are in a chart? I’d love to hear your tips.

[Photo via Funk & Weber.]

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I was trying to think of some different Christmas cross stitch pattern themes that I could share with you and I came up with wanting to do a post of patterns with ornaments on them that aren’t necessarily ornaments themselves.

This is a really hard term to search for, so I’m sure there is more than what I was able to find. But I love the idea of stitching up some ornaments if you don’t have space for a tree or want to send a little holiday cheer from afar. Let’s take a look at these cross stitch patterns featuring Christmas ornaments.

The bold baubles sampler from xCounting the Starsx is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. This set of 16 little ornaments would be cute propped up on a mantle or bookshelf, and of course you could stitch them individually and turn them into ornaments, too, if you wanted. The full design is 165 by 186 stitches and uses 30 colors.

If you want even more baubles that you can mix and match into your own sampler project, check out this collection from Mason Art Maison. It includes a whopping 140 cross stitch Christmas ornaments that you can combine or use on individual projects. I love the hand drawn and painted look of these. There are seven pages or ornaments, each of which is around 300 by 300 stitches, with the individual ornaments running around 70 by 70 stitches.

Looking for something smaller? This little branch with three ball ornaments from Wild Bluebell Patterns is super cute and just 59 by 43 stitches. It comes out to 4.2 by 3.1 inches (or 10.7 by 7.8 cm).

Or try this little bundle of three baubles from Ecliptica Design. They’re shown in individual frames but you could also line them up into one project. Each is 34 by 38 stitches, or 2.4 by 2.7 inches/6.2 by 6.9 cm. They use five colors and two blends each.

Snail Fishes Stitches also has a cute Christmas ornament cross stitch pattern with a variety of little ornaments. This one uses just three colors and is 63 by 64 stitches. It’s perfect for a 5 or 6 inch hoop if you stitch it on 14 count fabric.

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