- To place a motif on the canvas:
Choose a point of reference among the motifs already cross stitched. The closest from the motif you want to stitch the better.
From this point of reference do a straigh stitch with a lenght of 2 threads (warp or woof). That way you can mark each space (or cross) you need to count.
You are free to count with length of 2 crosses, 5 crosses, etc.
(In the left picture I counted 17 spaces)
- At the spot where you need to start your motif, you pull the thread leaving enough length to stop the thread on the back of your work.
When you cross stitch on a dark linen, it is difficult to count the crosses. One easy solution is to put a white piece of cloth on your lap.
YOUR SCISSORS ARE FRAGILE!
It is always unpleasent to cross stitch with scissors that fray the floss or with blunt scissors (because they felt on a hard floor). For cross stitchers that let scissors fall down why not wearing them around the neck using a cheap but nice ribbon? But above all, only cut your floss with them, nothing else!
CUT A CANVAS
- Choose the thread nearest the mark where you want to cut the canvas.
- Pull out the thread from weaving.
- Cut with scissors along the missing thread (not your embroidery's scissors but the kitchen's ones!).
- You will get a straight cut.
You have to take special care when you cross stitch with metalic or jewel effect floss. Thread your needle with short strands. About 12" will be sufficient for a single strand (cut 24" for a doubled strand). Use a noose so that the strand does not slip around the eye of the needle. The idea that guide this way of threading the needle is to reduce as much as you can the frictions on the strand and therefore preserve it from wearing.
I am not sure of the term but it is a floss with blended colours such as colors variation embroidery floss. The gradation effect will work better if you stitch your crosses one by one and not by row. You also need to work with two different strands. If you take one strand and fold it around the eye of the needle you will loose the colour variation effect.
Embroider with a short floss, a thin needle number 26 or 28, and without a noose so that the canvas is not put out of shape when going through the holes. If you are not keen about French Knot you can replace it with a cross or a half cross stitched with one strand and over one linen thread. Some people advice as an alternative the Colonial knot. ( shortly we should put on line a page about knots but days have only 24 hours. Please be patient!).
- The noose for threading a needle keeps the floss steady in the eye of the needle and therefore the floss is not wearing as much.
- When your floss warps you can just let the needle hang down and the floss will unwarps itself.
- With the same length of floss threaded on the needle you will get more floss to stitch with (equivalent to the return strand on a classical threaded needle).
- Fold the strand to obtain one small end and a long one.
- Thread the loop in the eye of the needle.
(on the picture I used a Lamé (jewel effect). This way of threading the floss preserves the floss from wearing. Cut about 12" for this type of floss
- Put the needle through the loop.
- Tighten the noose.
Simply catch the loop with the point of the scissors, pull, put the needle through the loop and that's it. Now you can undo the crosses that you stitched at the wrong place without cutting the floss.
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READING THE CHART WHILE YOU ARE SITTED IN A SOFA
Sofa is not always a very comfortable place to cross stitch! You eye badly on your chart if you put it aside, you twist your neck towards the armrest where you put your chart... My trick ... is to put a small cushion on my lap so that the chart is closer. That way I keep in my field of vision both my work and the chart. I switch from one to another without losing my crosses. This is something really simple.
The only thing is that, if during winter season the cushion keeps you warm, in the summer you better live near the north pole! But I have more than one tricks in my bag and my laptop comes to the rescue. I put the laptop on a coffee table in front of me and I read easily the zoomed in chart. More expensive, but so convenient!
The only concern is that when I travel I'd rather take a cushion! See, I don't have all the answers!
Stop the floss on the back of your work by going through the strand with the needle while doing the first cross or knot. Do the motif (a straw, a snow flake...).
Stop the floss when you finish the motif by going through the embroidered floss- If the starting floss was not caught in the motif, it is time to fold it back with the stoped floss.
When you have to cross stitch a big shunk with the same colour you might get lost. Then you should cross stitch by row. For example "Under the fir trees" was done filling up the rows along the trunk up to the top and by crossing out each finished row on the chart. Doing it by rows also gives you a more regular work, and the method by row makes it easier. The model dictate the method and with other models I cross stitched cross by cross, by rows and by zones. Please read the next trick.
In models such as "Under the cherry tree" the monochromatic foliage makes it difficult to count. To embroider the model more easily I define zones on the chart. Use the 10 x 10 grid to define squares. Cross stitch each row of a square by crossing out each finished line. When the square is finished cross out also the square. I cross stitched cross by cross because the foliage is kind of irregular.
In the case of "Under the oak", I cross stiched the tree by row and by zone because the foliage is less random than the cherry tree.
