Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

How to Move Around a Cross Stitch Pattern

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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]

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Have you read?

Cross Stitch Ice Cream and Frozen Treats

Summer is the time for sweet treats, whether eating them or stitching them. This collection of patterns is full of designs that are good enough to eat. Almost. 

This year of ice creams from Simone Balman Art is lots of fun, and you could also stitch up these treats individually if you’d rather. The full piece is 210 by 300 stitches, though it’s not full coverage. It uses 25 colors and comes out to 13.6 by 20.1 inches, or 34.5 by 51.2 cm, as shown on 14 count fabric. 

These mini Popsicles from Mariana Gonclaves ART as super sweet and quick to stitch. These would also be a fun border to another summer project. The full design is 43 by 46 stitches, which is 3.1 by 3.3 inches, or 7.8 by 8.3 cm, on 14 count fabric. 

Sam X Stitch has this fun sweet treat sampler, which again would be fun to stitch as individual pieces (maybe on napkins?). In all it calls for 18 colors and measures 153 by 153 stitches. That comes out to 10.93 inches or 27.75 cm on 14 count fabric. 

Another great sampler is this one with ice cream and other sweet treats from Cute Patterns by Maria. At 119 by 132 stitches total, working the full pattern would be about 8.6 by 9.4 inches, or 22 by 24 cm on 14 count fabric, and it uses 33 colors. You can also stitch individual designs, which range in height from 35 to 45 stitches, and in width from 11 to 28. 

This collection of four sundae patterns from Stichrovia would be fun to make for a kitchen or a teen’s room. Each pattern is around 40 by 50 stitches, so they should fit in a four or five inch hoop if worked on 14 count fabric. 

Or stitch up one of the treats from Stitch Chart Studio‘s collection of seven ice cream cross stitch patterns. These range in size and in number of colors needed, but most would fit in a five or six in hoop (and one in a four inch hoop).