How to Move Around a Cross Stitch Pattern

As with so many things in crafting and in life, there’s no right way to cross stitch. You can work all of one color in a project, skipping around the fabric as you do, or you can work stitch by stitch across the fabric, changing colors as you go. Or something in between!

But if you’re new to cross stitch and can’t figure out how to go about stitching a project, this post from Bobo Stitch might help. It talks about where to start and how to get from there to the next place you should stitch and so on around the project.

I’m not the best at doing things in a way that makes sense, but I will say that for me, the most important thing is to find the center of the fabric and the center of the pattern and start there.

This way you know your pattern is oriented properly on the fabric, meaning hopefully you won’t run out of fabric and your project will be centered for easier finishing.

From there I usually will try to work all the nearby stitches in the same color I started with, but admittedly it gets pretty chaotic pretty fast.

This post shows you exactly on the chart where you are and what you might want to stitch next to keep in the same color on the project and looks at how to skip stitches as you move from one place to another filling in with one color. Whether you start with the background color or another color is somewhat up to you or what color happens to be in the middle, but this is a good overview of how and where to get started stitching on a project.

Read all about it over at Bobo Stitch.

I’d love to know how you move around on a cross stitch project. Do you try to work all of one color at a time or work from the center out, or something else?

[Photo: Bobo Stitch]

I was recently approached by Alyssa, the cross stitcher behind the Etsy shop Stitchonomy, to take a look at her cross stitch pattern subscription club, known as The Pattern Club.

I took a look around and there’s a lot of cute stuff and fun options you’ll want to check out, especially if you love themed patterns that are small, easy to stitch and fun to combine.

The Pattern Club combines cross stitching with a social network. When you open the site you’ll see a news feed and have the ability to share updates much like you would on Facebook. You can see who is online, have buddies and post your own updates and photos. The community aspect is a little sparse right now but that should only grow.

The stitch along hub is the place to find the most recent patterns and information on the current stitchalong. As of this writing the Book Lover’s stitchalong was happening, with little designs like Peter Rabbit, a skull for Hamlet and keys for Jane Eyre as well as authors including Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.

Other pattern collections include European designs, Halloween, ocean life, an allotment garden and more. Alyssa tells me there’s a new theme every month that either she picks or members in the community suggest. You can stitch just the patterns you want or put them together to make a larger collage.

The Stitchanomini vault gives you access to all of the previous patterns, and new patterns are released daily through the stitchalong. You can download individual patterns (most of them are 19 by 19 stitches) as PDFs or Pattern Keeper files. The PDFs include a color and black and white chart as well as a floss list.

Another cool thing you can do is build your own pattern collages from all of the squares that have been released. The collage configurator allows you to add patterns of your choosing to a grid ranging from 2×2 patterns up to 4×4. You can scroll through all the current patterns or search by theme and size to make a project that suits your needs. (Above is an example I made kind of at random but you get the idea.)

If you want to check it out, you can grab a three-day free trial and see all the pattern options. Membership is $7.99 a month, or if you pay for a year at a time you’ll get two months free. In addition to the patterns in the club, members receive discounts on patterns and supplies purchased through the shop within the club. Annual members get access to three paid/retired stitchalongs and lifetime members receive all retired patterns.

If you check it out I’d love to hear what you think!

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