Cross Stitch Bookmark and Other Small Gifts
A bookmark is 651 stitches and about an hour of stitching: the cheapest gift in the craft and the one project people actually finish. With how to back it.
The counting part, written down
How a counted chart works and where to put the first stitch, what a skein of DMC actually covers, how fabric count decides the size before anything else does, how long a piece takes once you count the threading as well as the stitching, and how waste canvas lets you work on a shirt. Numbers here come from the same model the app runs on.
Cross Stitch Christmas Stocking, Finished in Time
A stocking is a big piece with a hard deadline. What one really costs in stitches and hours, and the date you have to start to hang it on Christmas Eve.
Cross Stitch Wedding Sampler, Sized by the Names
A wedding sampler is under two hours of stitching and one hard decision: the border has to be sized to the longest name before anything else happens.
How to Print a Cross Stitch Pattern at Home
A readable square is 4 mm, which decides everything else: how many sheets, where the seams fall, and why shrinking the chart to one page never works.
Aida Cloth Count and What the Number Means
Count is stitches per inch, and it decides the finished size before anything else does. What 11, 14, 16 and 18 count really change, and which to buy.
Cross Stitch Birth Sampler, Planned Before the Birth
A birth sampler is mostly lettering you cannot write yet. How to size it to a frame, what the data line costs, and what to stitch while you wait.
Cross Stitch Confetti and How to Get Rid of It
Why a chart fills with single stitches stranded on their own, what actually causes them, and what the colour limit does to the count. Measured, not guessed.
Cross Stitch for Beginners: Your First Hour
What a first hour of cross stitch actually contains: the one stitch, where it goes, how many you get done, and how big a first project should be.
Cross Stitch Patterns or Kits: What You Actually Buy
A kit contains thread for one design. Skeins are bought whole and the rest stays yours. The arithmetic of both, and where a kit is honestly better.
How to Cross Stitch on Clothes with Waste Canvas
Waste canvas gives you a grid on fabric that has none, then comes away thread by thread. How it works, what size the stitches end up, and where it goes wrong.
Making a Cross Stitch Pattern From a Photo
What decides whether a photo makes a stitchable chart: how many colours you allow, how big the grid is, and how much detail the picture has per stitch.
Cross Stitch Pet Portrait: Where the Colours Go
One dog photo turned into a chart and measured region by region. The two eyes are 2 percent of the squares and take seven of the twelve threads.
Cross Stitch vs Embroidery vs Needlepoint
Three crafts that use the same thread and get confused constantly. What actually separates them: the grid, the stitch, the cloth and the hours.
How Long Does a Cross Stitch Piece Take?
A working estimate: stitches per minute, the time lost rethreading, and why some stitch types cost twice what others do. With the arithmetic shown.
How Much DMC Floss Do You Need for a Piece
What a skein of DMC actually covers, why every colour costs you a whole one, and how fabric count and strand count change the answer.
How to Cross Stitch Letters, Counted by the Square
Charting a name square by square: how many stitches a letter costs, how tall the alphabet has to be to stay readable, and what a whole name comes to.
How to Design a Cross Stitch Pattern of Your Own
The three decisions that make a chart: the subject, the size and the palette. What each one costs in stitches, skeins and evenings, with the arithmetic shown.
How to Fix a Cross Stitch Mistake
Unpicking without wrecking the cloth, deciding whether to bother, and what a miscount actually costs in stitches and hours once you notice it late.
How to Read a Cross Stitch Pattern
What the grid, the bold lines, the symbols and the legend are telling you, how to find the centre, and where to put the very first stitch.
How to Start Cross Stitch Without a Knot
The loop start, the away knot and the weave-in finish, drawn in cross section. Which to use with an odd number of strands, and what thread starts cost.
How to Separate, Wind and Store Cross Stitch Floss
Pulling one strand out of six without tangling it, how long to cut, whether bobbins are worth it, and why a stash is mostly made of nearly full skeins.
How to Wash, Press and Frame a Cross Stitch
Finishing a piece without wrecking it: a hand wash, an iron used from the back, and lacing over a board. Plus how much margin the frame actually needs.
What Cross Stitch Fabric to Use: Aida or Linen
Aida, evenweave and linen, and the over-two rule that makes 28 count linen behave like 14 count aida. Which to buy, and how much of it to cut.
What Is a Cross Stitch Sampler, and How to Make One
Samplers began as reference sheets, which is why they carry alphabets. What goes in one, how the bands are built, and what a whole sampler costs in stitches.
What to Buy to Start Cross Stitch, and What Not To
The five things a first project actually needs, what they cost, which needle goes with which count, and the kit items that sit in a drawer forever.