Cross-Stitch

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Tips for New Cross Stitchers

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beginner cross stitch tips

If you are new to the craft of cross stitching or just want to improve your skills and have better results and more enjoyment in your projects, check out this list of 7 things I wish I knew before I started cross stitching from Hannah Hand Makes.

Some of these are really solid, such as understanding that there are different sizes of Aida cloth and how to best work with colored cloth. I’m not sure about the one about cutting the skein of thread before you get started so you have pieces of uniform length to work with as you stitch. Have you ever tried that?

Do you have something you wish you knew when you were starting out? I’d love to hear your tips!

[Photo: Hannah Hand Makes.]

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Comments

  1. Not so much a tip, but I find it helpful to always leave my needle threaded and ready so it is easy to pick up my project again.

  2. For as long as I’ve been stitching, since about 1976 or so, I have always cut my floss to about 12″-16″ inch lengths. That way I don’t need to stop and keep cutting it. With some of the newer flosses, like the metallic, light effects, etc. I cut my floss in shorter lengths to keep it from fraying. This also makes it much easier to keep on my floss card for each WIP.

Have you read?

Cross Stitch Patterns for Fall

Through the years I’ve shared plenty of fall and especially Halloween themed cross stitch patterns, but today I wanted to look at fall projects that don’t have anything to do with spooky season. Here’s proof that pumpkins are an all fall thing, along with leaves, acorns and sunflowers. 

The Pumpkin Season cross stitch pattern from the appropriately names Autumn Andrea has lots of pumpkins as well as fall flowers and leaves. The project is 280 by 235 stitches, which comes out to 20 by 16.79 inches (that’s 50.8 by 42.6 cm). If I can count properly it uses 51 colors. 

Teeny Weeny X Stitch has a set of 20 fall landscape cross stitch patterns, and you can stitch up one, some or the whole bunch. There are lots of trees, a couple of streams and a could of houses out in the woods, among other views. The designs vary in size a little bit but they’re all around 40 by 44 stitches (smaller than 3.3 inches/8.3 cm) when worked on 14 count fabric. If you were to stitch all of them you would need 25 colors. 

This collection of fall leaves and acorns from Box and Fox looks really familiar to me but I can’t find that I’ve shared it before so here it is. I love the graphic quality of the leaves on this one and how it feels like you could display it all the way through Thanksgiving. It is 100 by 100 stitches, or about 7.1 inches/18.14 cm square on 14 count fabric, and it uses 10 colors. 

A more rustic look comes from Blueberry Ridge Design with this Autumn Gathers pattern. It’s shown on 36 count linen and has a stitch count of 145 by 125. That comes out to 8.1 by 6.9 inches, or 20.5 by 17.5 cm. 

Probably my favorite of this whole bunch is the autumn bookshelf from Patterns by Rybka Stitch. This sweet shelf has fall-colored books as well as pumpkins, leaves and flowers. This one uses 27 colors as well as blends, and the design measures 88 by 81 stitches, which on 14 count fabric is 6.3 by 5.8 inches, or 16 by 15 cm.