Have You Worked a Stamped Cross Stitch Project?

When I was first learning to cross stitch as a teen in the 1990s, I remember there being a lot of beginner kits available where the cross stitch pattern was stamped onto the fabric for you to stitch. This process eliminates the need for a printed pattern because you just stitch the colors as you see them printed on the fabric.

It’s a fun way to get started stitching, but I hadn’t really thought about stamped cross stitch in a while before I came upon this article from Caterpillar Cross Stitch talking about the differences between stamped cross stitch project and regular counted cross stitch patterns and why you might choose one over the other.

It mentions that stamped cross stitch isn’t just for beginners any more. There are actually a lot of designers that do stamped cross stitch with varying degrees of difficulty (and I found this cool tree of life project on Amazon as an example).

One benefit of these kinds of projects is that all the supplies you need are also included, so it can be a good way to build up your thread stash if you don’t use all of the supplies on the project included in the kit.

Of course when it comes to counted cross stitch projects with printed patterns you stitch onto fabric without guidance, there is a lot more variety in the kinds of projects and the skill level involved. Almost anything you are interested in you can find a printed pattern for, which is certainly not the case when it comes to stamped cross stitch patterns.

Still, stamped cross stitch patterns give you a great extra bit of guidance that can help build your confidence, regardless of your skill level.

Have you ever worked a stamped cross stitch pattern? I’d love to know what you think.

[Photo: Fred’s Haberdashery via Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

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I have not done a lot of big cross stitch projects, but sometimes even with small projects it can be hard to decide exactly where to begin and how to work through the chart if you’re working with multiple colors. The general categories for the possible methods are known as cross country and parking.

Cross country means that you’re working one color at a time, moving around the chart (or the section of the chart you’re working on) until you’re done with that color. Parking means you’re working in a smaller section and doing all the colors in that area, “parking” the threads by leaving them attached to the canvas but out of the way while you finish each section.

Royal Rows is a specific way of parking named by Alison Royal, which is explored in detail on a post on Stitching Daily.

The idea is that you’re working one “tower” of stitches at a time (she uses a section of 10 stitches across by 20 down, but you can do whatever makes sense to you). You work all the stitches of a color at a time, starting at the top left and working your way down. When you’re done with a color you can park it where needed in the section below your current tower (known as the dungeon) or in the “east tower,” which is the section to the right.

There’s also a specific way of dealing with thread ends when you’re done with a color. This is a super simplified version (head to the blog post at Stitching Daily to get all the details) but the basic idea is that you’re working from left to right and top to bottom across the work, parking the threads in the next section when you’re done with them and systematically choosing which color to work with next.

The whole idea of parking is kind of overwhelming to me though I will admit that it makes a lot of sense. I guess I need to try it on a smallish big project and see how it goes. Do you use the parking method of cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Stitching Daily]

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