Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint
What count fabric do you prefer? I usually prefer stitching on 28-count evenweave and 18-count Aida
myself. The older I get, the more I am liking 14-count Aida though! Let us know what count you prefer in the comments section below. Has it changed over the years?
The fabric show here is Light Plum Hand Dyed 22-count fabric from Stitchnmomma’s shop in Etsy.
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.
I used to only use 14ct Aida, but then I stopped stitching for many years. Now I am trying to sort out what is what – If I am going to take the time to stitch, I want it to look nice, last a long time, and not look like I did a dot-to-dot, or color-by-number. I’d really like to use linen but it seems really expensive, and I don’t really know exactly what to look for.
When I first started stitching as a child/young adult I only used 14 ct Aida and kits. Then after I graduated from high school in 1985, I started using charts from Joann’s or the magazines, but still used Aida. Now that I’ve come back to stitching in the past few years and found evenweave I find that I love stitching 2 over 28ct on either Jobelan or Lugana as my favorites.
28 count linen (I especially like the slubby look of natural linens) and 32 ct jobelan and lugana are my favorites (I love the “feel” of these cotton/rayon hybrid evenweaves), but I’ll stitch on anything if it fits the project concept!
Like everyone else, I started my stitching “career” on AIDA but learned to love the flexibility the evenweaves give for things like half and quarter stitches, etc.
I really enjoy stitching on 36ct evenweave and linen. I’m currently stitching on a piece of 30ct hand-dyed linen and that’s pretty nice as well.
I stitch on a variety of fabric counts but I have to say one of my favorites is 28 count over one. I like Lugana or glenshee linen but my current favorite is the lambswool linen from Wichelt-Permin. Honestly, it depends on the chart!
14 for me! Haven’t done as much cross-stitch as I used to but my eyes aren’t getting any better. (I’m in my 60’s) 14 is fairly comfortable so I’ll stick with that & will try to do more cross-stitch!
Thanx for sharing a great experience.For a better result you may try Cross Stitch Fabric also.