Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

How to Keep Your Place in a Cross Stitch Chart

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I love to help my fellow cross stitchers to make this craft easier and more enjoyable, so I love sharing tips when I come across them that will make it easier to have success.

When you’re working a small project, it’s generally pretty easy to keep track of where you are in the project relative to the chart. I usually stitch something small from one side across (or up or down) rather than from the middle out, because it’s just easier to follow the chart that way.

But when you’re working on a big project and you need it to fit exactly, starting from the center is the way to go, which can also make it harder to keep track of where you are in the pattern. Add in working in a lot of different colors, and it’s a potential recipe for confusion.

These tips on how to keep track of where you are in a cross stitch pattern from Stitched Modern are super helpful. The idea of having a working copy of you pattern that you can mark up and make notes on is a great one, so if you ever want to stitch it again you’ll have a clean copy.

I have learned through the years doing a lot more knitting than cross stitch that the more notes I can leave myself the better, and the same applies to working big cross stitch projects. Especially if there’s any possibility you might stop working on it for a short (or a long!) time, you want to make it as easy on yourself as possible when you come back to it.

Check out the tips from Stitched Modern, maybe go buy some highlighter tape, and let me know if you have any other tips for keeping your place in a cross stitch pattern.

[Photo: Stitched Modern]

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Strawberry Cross Stitch Patterns

My favorite thing about mid to late spring is local strawberries. Strawberries are fun as a graphic element, too, because they’re an interesting shape and cheerful color. Let’s stitch some strawberry cross stitch patterns.

Craft Club Co AU has this cute kind of retro strawberry pattern with a pink checkerboard background. The pattern pages doesn’t give a lot of details but it looks like is uses at least 7 colors and it says it will fit in an 8 by 10 frame when stitched on 14 count fabric.

For a classic farmhouse look, check out the strawberry pattern from Largodargento Shop. This one reminds me of little wild strawberries, and it has a bit of a mandala design with other geometric shapes.

Speaking of classics, you can also stitch a strawberry alphabet sampler from Curious Carrie Designs. It is 54 stitches square, which comes out to 3.86 inches or 9.8 cm square. It calls for 8 colors and was stitched on 32-count linen. Keep it flat or turn it into a biscornu stitched with flowers and bees.

This strawberry pincushion from The SubRosa Design is super sweet and of course could be framed instead of using it as a pincushion if you’d rather. This one is 93 stitches square, or about 5.3 inches/13.5 cm square stitched on 36 count linen as shown.

This graphic, slightly abstract strawberry design from Box and Fox is so much fun and would be great to have on your kitchen wall or in your breakfast area. It measures 98 by 141 stitches, which comes out to 7 by 10 inches or 17.78 by 25.58 cm on 14 count fabric. The design uses 6 colors.

Don’t let the mice get your strawberries! This oddly cute design from Tourmaline Pattern measures 95 by 94 stitches and uses 16 colors. I love the look of it on black fabric, because it really makes the mice and the flowers pop. On 14 count fabric this comes out to 6.7 inches or about 17 cm square.