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.
The other day I shared some cross stitch patterns with ornaments on them, so this time around I wanted to share cross stitch patterns that you can use as ornaments. It would be fun to do a whole tree in your craft room with cross stitch ornaments, or just add a few to your tree or give them as gifts.
These little quilt inspired cross stitch patterns from Flamingo Toes look like ornaments and fit in 3-inch hoops, which are perfect for hanging on the tree or using to decorate a gift. I love the pastel colors on these but you can use more traditional Christmas colors if you like.
This cute Christmas tree from Lagodargetoshop uses a single color and fits in a 4-inch hoop, but you could make it smaller if you wanted by trimming the last ornaments and gifts from the sides, or just stitch the tree without any other embellishments. Either way it’s a cute addition to your holiday tree.
Stitched Modern has a super cute collection of retro Christmas ornament cross stitch patterns from designer Gera. This is a printed pattern that will be shipped to you. Each pattern is about 40 by 56 stitches, or 2.9 by 4 inches/7.4 by 10 cm on 14 count fabric. To work the whole set you’ll need 20 colors of floss.
These snowflake ornaments from Our Little Handmade Home are each about 2.5 inches/6.4 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric, and they use a single color of floss. They are pretty in red but you could also do white on a blue or black background, or whatever suits your other Christmas tree decorations!
From the description it sounds like this set of vintage style cross stitch characters is presented as one large chart, but the photo from Sampler Antique Stitch shows each of them stitched up as their own little ornament, so it gets included here. You’ll find Santa and snowmen in different poses in this cute collection.
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.