Now that Summer is well and truly over, we’re being reminded that it’s never too early to start stitching our Christmas projects.

This can be tricky. Concentrating on icicles, snow scenes and Santa Claus when the sun is shining outside can seem unappealing.

I always resolve to make my family and friends cross stitched cards, but as Christmas looms nearer and nearer, my plans become less ambitious. I think this is because I always overestimate the amount of free time I shall have. Is it the same for you?

Furthermore, I am reading in magazines and on websites that this or that card ‘can easily be stitched in an evening’. This makes life seem uncomplicated. Let’s be realistic here. How many uninterrupted evenings do you have? With meals to cook, telephones ringing, TV programmes to lure you away from your stitching, one evening’s stitching can drift into three evenings. So that’s why I’m starting early.

As for my plans, this year, I resolve to choose a few simple motives, stitch them on some coloured aida and place them into home-made specially shaped aperture cards that can be turned into bookmarks.

I also plan to use motives that include: robins, hearts, angels, Hellebore (a flower) and stars.  I intend to exclude the obvious Christmas themes because I want these cards (bookmarks) to last longer than the Christmas season. Santa Claus looks rather tired by the first week of January, so although I want to extend my Christmas wishes to my family and friends, I like to choose a more enduring set of themes for my Christmas stitching so that my tokens of friendship are taken into the next year.

We’re never too far away from the thought that the credit crunch has dictated that we all have to be more frugal, and for stitchers, this may cause a great deal of frustration as we plan our Christmas purchases. We all know that it is the thought that counts when we give presents or cards, so cross stitch is a wonderful way to demonstrate loving thoughts without spending a fortune.

You can economise with your stitching in the following ways, in the countdown to Christmas:

1. Go through your stitching paraphernalia and see what fabrics, threads and other accessories you have stored away that you may have forgotten about. It’s surprising what may lurk in the bottom of that box! You may have lots of stitchery that you can make into cards, bookmarks or Christmas ornaments with a bit of ingenuity.

2. Swap any excess stitching possessions with those of stitching friends. Everyone can end up with something new – with no money spent.

3. Be realistic about how much you can achieve in pre-Christmas stitching. Buy accordingly, and look out for bargains along the way.

4. Christmas themes are, by definition, perennial. Check out motifs used last year, or in books/magazines stored away rather than splurging on new ones.

5. Buying fabric in large quantities is one way of getting more for your money. So get together with some stitching buddies and buy in bulk.

If you have any other tips for fellow stitchers, please don’t hesitate to share them with us.

Happy Planning – and Stitching!

Iona

I’ve often felt so happy cross stitching that time has passed by without my being aware of it. That is one of the pleasures of cross stitch, as we all know.

Have ever felt as if your eyes were burning or aching after a stitching session? Perhaps you have a stitching deadline to meet and needed to finish a project by the end of the evening – or maybe you just got so carried away that you continued stitching into the night?

We know that looking after our eyes is very important. Eyestrain can produce painful headaches and stress. There are some tips, however, that can help us to look after that most precious stitching tool – eyesight – and save us from pain and tired eyes.

1. Eye Tests. Yes – you guessed this one! But just because it is obvious, that doesn’t mean that you can disregard it. As adults, our eyesight is likely to deteriorate over time, and we need to keep aware of other eye conditions that may affect out ability to see. Go for regular tests, and take advice from your eye specialist. A new eye-glasses prescription can work wonders for your stitching pleasure.

2. Light up your work. Either work in good daylight where that is possible, or invest in a daylight lamp. This is so much better than traditional home lighting. Daylight lamps are designed to reduce eyestrain and allow you to see the colours clearly, which is perfect for stitchers who need to see subtle differences between colours.

Now for two great exercises to soothe your eyes:

1. Far Distance Focus. Every few minutes, get up and move away from your stitching. Do some stretches, and make yourself a drink. Sit quietly, and look at four points in the farthest part of the room, or out of a window. Gaze softly, shifting from one point to the next. Avoid jerking your focus from one point to the next one; move your focus slowly and gently for a few minutes. Relax and enjoy these moments.

2. Palming. This is very relaxing. Sit at a table and prop up your elbows on cushions to relax your shoulders. Rub your hands together to warm them. Then place your palms on your cheekbones and put your hands over your eye orbits, placing the pressure on your elbows. This prevents the light from entering your eyes. Open your eyes into the darkness made by your cupped palms over them, and relax. Breathe deeply, and feel the tension go from your eyes.

These exercises are easy to incorporate into stitching sessions – and also for computer use, reading and other close craft work too. I hope you’ll find them helpful.

Happy Stitching!

Iona

Here’s a question: If you could only have one book on Cross Stitch, which one would you choose?

I have an entire shelf of books about cross stitch. Some have been presents to me; some were bought on impulse, and others have been swapped with friends. Although I would never get rid of any of them, I confess that I do not open some of them from one month to the next. Are you similar to me in that respect? There are a precious few that I read and refer to, time and time again. These favourites include those written by Shirley Watts, Julie Hasler, Jane Greenoff and (the late) Jo Verso.

So – to answer my original question myself: after much thought, I have concluded that I would choose ‘The New Cross Stitcher’s Bible: The Definitive Manual of Essential Cross Stitch and Counted Thread Techniques’ (David & Charles) by Jane Greenoff.

This is a completely new and revised edition of the original best-seller, ‘Cross Stitcher’s Bible’, from the stitching guru and popular cross stitch designer, Jane Greenoff. It successfully serves the needs and interests of newbies and experienced stitchers alike.
 
Her down to earth words are supported by beautiful pictures on every page – from essential equipment to charts, a stitch library, inspiring projects, and techniques. From cards to cushions, there’s something for every stitcher here. This is a must-have reference for all cross stitchers to bring them up-to-date with the latest trends, materials and techniques.

As for inspiration, Jane has never forgotten her stitching roots. We are definitely not born as experts, and the hard work that she has invested is clear to see. She reflects on her first attempt to cross stitch: ‘Looking at blank fabric and not knowing what to do next was a bit scary – the secret is to take it in easy, bite-size pieces.’ When I first read that, I felt inspired to raise my stitching game. If she could be a great stitching expert, then so could I.

If you have any great favourites,  do share your favourite book ideas with us.

Happy Stitching!

Iona

Have you noticed that when you are a newcomer to a club, a community or a hobby, everyone speaks in a special language – using words and expressions that take time to understand?

Cross stitching is no different. Check out chat forums, magazines and books, and there will be a selection of mumbo-jumbo that you will eventually come to understand the more time you invest. Once you tune into the language, then you start using that secret language yourself.

A friend of mine stated that she spent ages thinking that Aida was an opera by Verdi. Well, yes, it is… and I cannot think why the fabric that we’re all familiar with, has been given the same name.

For new stitchers, Patterns Patch has a full glossary of terms to access that will help you to understand the special vocabulary that comes with the hobby. This will save you a lot of worry, and help you to communicate with other stitchers.

I have put together a small list of stitching acronyms that can help newbies in the world of stitching. I bet you can think of more! Here is my list for starters:

WIP
Work In Progress. That refers to the stitching project you’re working on at this moment.

WISP
Work in Slow Progress
This means what it says, with the implication that the project has been worked on, on and off. Perhaps a newer project has taken over, and the WISP is placed – temporaily – to the bottom of your cupboard.

OAAT
One at a Time. This refers to projects being started and finished, in order. This flies in the face of stitchers having many projects on the go at any one time.

UFO
This means an UnFinished Object. We all have these lurking in our cupboards, and occasionaly these make us feel guilty.  

Of course, there are always the ‘American English’ versus ‘UK English’ confusions. For newbies, floss is the same as thread, the former being the American version of the word. Again, patterns are equal to charts, although these words are more often used interchangeably.

I would guess that you have some additional cross stitching terms that are familiar to those who  have stitched for a long time – but a complete mystery to newcomers. Let’s share these words and welcome new cross stitchers from everywhere in the world.

Happy Stitching!

Iona

We are all familiar with ‘Forever Friends’ – a selection of little bears that appeal to the child in us all, whatever our ages. This Bear Collection yesterday celebrated its 21st birthday.

Since the 1980s, a lot has happened to this group of bears, probably reflecting the changing tastes of the public who fell in love with them originally.

After the little bears first appeared on artist Deborah Jones’s sketch pad in 1987, they were published in the very popular ‘Forever Friends’ greeting card range. The brand’s distinctive look soon became synonymous with giving a friend ‘a hug in an envelope’.

In 1997,  a special new range was launched called ‘Between Friends’ focusing on the closeness of friendship for younger people. For others, another range hit the shops, this time called ‘Blanc’ where the bears were painted with only a a hint of pastel colour, on heavier paper. While lots of popular trends emerged, the Forever Friends bears stayed as adorable as ever.

The year 2005 saw the relaunch of the Forever Friends bears – this time making their activities and surroundings more up to date. They found themselves as cross stitch charts and kits – and even on computer desktops.

The Forever Friends website includes games, polls (currently: What makes a good friend?), competitions,  treats for mobiles, gifts and wallpapers.

If you want to give someone special in your life a big bear hug, why not consider a Forever Friends kit or pattern?

Happy Stitching!

Iona

Today is the last official day of Summer. If you live in the UK, you may well be asking, ‘What Summer?’ The weather has broken records for being wet and cold  – and many people’s holidays have been ruined by floods and airlines suddenly going bankrupt. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, it’s the hurricane season. Of course, if you have managed to enjoy a summer outdoors in beautiful conditions, then that is great!

For the time being, you can clear away those summertime blues by counting your stitching blessings.  We all have our own personal reasons for cross stitching.  Here are just a few reasons to be a cheerful stitcher:

1. Unlike many hobbies, cross stitching is a – mostly – indoor activity, so when the weather gets bad, you can enjoy a creative evening indoors, stitching the hours away.

2. The many designs available to stitch means that you will never be short of ideas of projects to stitch. Patterns Patch Club members have hundreds of free designs to choose from.

3. Cross stitching is a relatively inexpensive  hobby. Once you have a few basic essential tools, you are all set to go.

4. The pleasure you can get from the completion of a project is immeasurable. To look at a picture and think, ‘I did that’ is the best feeling.

5. You don’t have to be an expert to get great results. Anyone can learn how to cross stitch. Yes – there are some advanced stitches and techniques, but you can get a great sense of achievement from basic techniques alone.

6. Once involved with your stitchery, many people say that their worries seem to float away. It is relaxing, can give you confidence and quickly builds up to a great result.

7. Stitch for some supreme time by yourself – or make friends.  The choice is yours! Stitchers are a wonderfully friendly group of people – and you can meet up with fellow stitchers online, or join your local club. Options can be found at your local needlecraft shop.

8. You can become involved in your own particular choice of designs. Cute cartoons, traditional floral designs, samplers, abstract art or landscapes… the choice is yours to enjoy; to reproduce your artistic tastes onto fabric gives you a great buzz.

9. Are you feeling tired after a long day? Cross stitch is relaxing – not only because it demands little energy, but also because you can lose yourself in every stitch.

10. Habit-busting! Are you trying to diet, or stop smoking? Cross stitch can be helpful here. Busy fingers are not delving in the biscuit tin or cigarette packet. You soon lose your obsession with bad habits when you are focusing on the cross-stitched design that is growing before your eyes.

Whatever the reasons you started to cross-stitch, you are sure to discover new benefits of this hobby.

Happy stitching!

Iona

We’re all familiar with short cuts when we are cooking – instant sauces, microwavable mashed potato, finely-chopped onions and ready-to-cook meals are familiar sights on supermarket shelves.  Sometimes these items make their way onto our kitchen shelves too. We are busy, stressful people, so it seems, with too much to do, so cutting corners is acceptable. Even top chefs do it. Delia Smith’s latest and bestselling cookbook is defiantly called ‘How to Cheat at Cooking’.

So what has this to do with Cross Stitch?  Well, I’m wondering if we can or should cut corners with our stitching? Do we stitch because we want the finished item – or is it the process of stitching that we enjoy?

I’ve been thinking about ways we can speed things up if we need to:

1. Choose small projects that take less time. Stitch motifs on a plain background rather than filled in landscapes. Omit some parts of the design, perhaps (for example, the occasional leaf on a plant). I have seen kits  that have a printed picture on the fabric. You only need to add some stitches over part of the picture, and you do not need to count stitches either, as you just match the colour of the thread to the background.

2. Keep to what you know. It’s less challenging, and there is less unpicking to do. For example, some experts tell you to give up learning and remembering how to do French Knots, and use a bead instead.

3. Ask other people finish your projects for you. You could even pay them to do the whole thing. Whether you claim the finished project is all your own work is up to your conscience.
 
Does all this sound miserable? It does to me. I think we enjoy doing our hobby, not merely completing things as quickly as possible. Of course the finished item is a joy to see – or to give away. But the wonderful ritual of sitting down, surrounded with our stitching stash and being creative is an unbeatable feeling. It’s one of the few areas in our lives when we can relax and savour every small part of what we do, rather than rushing along to see how fast we can achieve the finished product.

Do you agree with this? Or do you feel that stitching should be streamlined along with the other tasks we perform?

Happy Stitching!

Iona 

There is not much to cheer us up when we watch the News these  days. It is clear that financial markets are in great difficulty, and worldwide trends suggest we shall all be pulling in our belts, financially.

Fortunately, cross stitching is not only a great pastime – it is also a hobby that is relatively inexpensive.

We all have to consider the costs of our hobby, nevertheless. What happens when we have friends’ birthdays coming up? Or the prospect of Christmas presents too?  This can be very challenging when we have to consider our financial outgoings.

I’ve been doing some research – and I hope the following ideas may give you some interesting and top-quality gifts – at a budget price…

1. Easy Cross Stitch Pattern-A-Day Calendar
I consider this is a high quality bargain. Not only that, but it’s a delightfully useful and pleasing calendar that can prop up on your desk. You will have a new cross stitched design every day of the year – and also the place to have your commitments listed for each day. The Calendar also has a DMC Floss Colour Chart and a monthly to-do list. At a little over five pounds from Amazon, (UK, and the equivalent everywhere else) I think this makes a great present and it is much better quality than your average calendar.

2. Open-Sided Thimble
Many stitchers prefer not to use thimbles, and often this can be because they can soon make your fingers feel uncomfortable.  This thimble is designed with an open top to keep your finger from perspiring and it is great for people with long finger nails too. It’s dimpled for easy use on needles and adjustable so that it fits your finger comfortably. This sells for under eight pounds from Stitch Direct.com.

3. DMC Ring Binder
You can take your needlework with you anywhere, if you have a DMC Ring binder and transparent inserts. The binder costs under four pounds and inserts are under one pound.

I think the best present you can buy for friends – or more importantly, yourself! – is membership of Patterns Patch.  You’ll get so many goodies throughout the year. These include hundreds of freely downloadable patterns, articles, forum, advice and personalised patterns – and much more!

Perhaps you’ve come across some high-quality, low-cost bargains. If you have, please share them with us.

Happy Stitching!

Iona
 

I do not routinely wash my completed cross stitched projects, although I have noticed that some books recommend that we do so.  Do you? Your work should remain clean if you keep your stitching in a safe, clean place, away from the paws of pets and the hands of young children – and worst of all – food, drink and tobacco. Of course, it is important to remember to stitch with clean hands at all times so that no stains are transferred onto the fabric.

Even the most careful person may have the occasional accident, nevertheless, and if you have ever spilled something on your work, or allowed cigarette ash to drop onto your project, you will have experienced great frustration. It may be necessary to wash some of your work.

Here are some general tips for you – if you decide to clean your project.

If you use any of the major brands of threads (flosses) – Anchor, DMC, Madeira – your thread will be colour-fast; this means that the colours will not run onto the fabric, making a stain, if it gets wet. If you think you may have used non-colour-fast threads in your project, it is worthwhile to experiment with some thread and an off-cut of fabric, to see if the colour remains fast when moistened. Another way of testing this is to place your work face-down on a clean surface and using a damp, white tissue, gently press the back of the stitches. Any trace of colour on the tissue will indicate that the colour of the thread will run. You therefore should not wash this piece. Perhaps there is something you can do to hide the stain. A friend of mine once added a butterfly motif to her flower design, so that she could cover a stain. It worked well – but of course, you would have to choose to stitch something appropriate onto your design. If it looked odd, it would draw attention to itself!

To wash your work, follow these steps:

1. Fill a tray with lukewarm water and add a small amount of gentle detergent. Place your stitching carefully on the water’s surface, and then immerse your stitching.

2. Leave this to soak for about half an hour, and then agitate it gently in the tray.

3. For stubborn stains, place the stitching again in the tray, face-up, and then carefully dab the stained area with a sponge. Do not rub or twist the fabric – this can leave the stitches looking fluffy. Also,  be careful not to dislodge or distort any of the stitches.

4. Rinse under warm water and then place it onto a towel to remove excess water. Leave it to dry naturally. (Never place your work in a dryer, nor put in front of a fire to dry.) Now place your work, face-down on a towel, and put another towel on top. To remove any wrinkling, press it with a warm iron, being careful not to flatten the stitches as you go.

Lastly, if you have a chemical stain on your work, and you are unsure as to whether washing is a good idea, it is best to seek advice of a specialised nature. This will depend on the nature of the stain. Your first port of call may be the internet where you could search via ‘Google’ for the name of the substance and add ‘stain’ to it.

Good luck for stain-free stitching!

Iona

When I look at beautiful paintings, I am frequently disappointed to see the artists’ scrawled signatures in the corners of their work, distracting me from the content of the pictures.  I can acknowledge that artists wish to claim ownership of their masterpieces. Nevertheless, I think an untidy signature can spoil a picture.

As for cross stitched pictures, how can we add our special details to the design that looks pleasing to the eye? Many patterns and kits – especially samplers – include somewhere to add the name of the stitcher and the date of completion of the project. This is particularly important if we are going to leave our project as an heirloom – to outlive us.

If there is no such natural place in the design to include your own name, there other ways that you can leave your personal marks on your stitchery.

1. You may wish to add your initials and date of completion on the edge of the work, out of sight and inside the frame.

2. You could place a label on the back of the framed work, adding the details you wish to include. You could even add a paragraph about the project itself – how long it took, why you chose it, and about the recipient.

3. You could choose your own stitched logo. Someone I know always stitches a simple paw-print in the corner of every design.

4. This is my favourite! You can take a photograph of every finished design (before it is framed, but after it is ironed). Keep your pictures in a special album, so that you can look at your achievements for years to come.

5. You can design your own monogram. Copy the letters you require on two pieces of squared paper. Place one on a light box, or on a window, then add the other over the top of it, so that you can see both letters. Rearrange the letters until you are happy with the results, and then copy these letters onto one sheet of squared paper, using a different coloured pen for each letter. Experiment with intertwining the letters. And there  you have your personalised monogram.

Happy Stitching

Iona