We all have our views about what we enjoy in the cross stitching world. Some ideas really inspire us – and others leave us feeling deflated. I wonder what your views are. Here are mine:

What’s Hot!

1. Beautiful threads… satin threads, silks, metallics and blending filaments. Anything that gives us the choice of making our projects different and special gets my vote.

2. Great inventions that make stitching easier. Soluble Waste Canvas and ready-gridded fabric… need I say more! These new products allow us to enjoy our stitching, rather than spend time unpicking mistakes!

3. New stitches! Let’s conquer our fears of French knots, Colonial knots and Algerian eyes etc. They are fun, and you can do them!

4. Patterns Patch Club. As a member, you can download hundreds of patterns free of charge, as well as access articles and tips, and much more.

What’s Definitely Not!

1. Cheap threads. They are dull, lacking in sheen, and also non-colourfast, meaning that the colour runs if they get damp. They are a false economy.

2. Free kits from magazines. Is it my imagination, or are these kits getting smaller and more tatty as time goes on? Why not give readers something more substantial?

3. Quick-kits. Why does everything have to be completed so quickly? One of the pleasures of cross stitching is the joy of stitching; this does not mean that everything has to be finished in two hours.

4. A cross stitch website (you know who you are) that offers the service of making you a wish list that you can email to your friends and family, so that they can buy you the kits (from their site) for Christmas. What happened to the notion that it’s the thought that counts? This seems greedy and unpleasant to me.

Do you have pet loves and hates? Do share them with us.

Happy Stitching!

Iona

I almost used the title for this blog entry : ‘Cross  Stitch Projects to Complete Before You Die’, but that didn’t sound very inviting – so I’ll just stick with suggesting that here are the projects that could bring you the best sense of achievement in life:, even if you only do them once:

1. Family sampler. This is a must. You can make it so personal to you own life, and it will bring so pleasure to stitch and to look at for years ahead. The best way to start is to buy a copy of the wonderful (late) Jo Verso’s book: ‘Picture Your Life in Cross Stitch.’ She describes each stage painstakingly. You can do it!

2. Afghan Blanket. Is there a young baby somewhere in your life? If so, an Afghan blanket – great fabric that contains squares for cross stitched motifs - is a wonderful present for mother and baby.  Get stitching!

3. Celebration of a hobby. What is your passion in life (-besides cross stitching, of course)? If you love birds, then a beautiful bird picture with your favourite birds will bring you joy every time you lift your needle. Perhaps you are a fan of a particular breed of cat or dog – or maybe trains or cars are your addiction. Whatever you love, immortalise it in a cross stitched picture.

4. Stitch for a good cause. Do you know an elderly person, or someone who is ill, or who has special needs? Even if you don’t, there are many charities that focus on stitching for good causes.  See my blog last week, where I listed some of them.

5. A Welcome Picture for the entrance to your home. How better to greet your visitors than to have a warm greeting in the form of a cross stitched picture. A favourite of mine is from Scottish Needlework, and has a Gaelic welcome:

6. An event that is special made into cross stitch. A wedding, young baby, favourite pet… there are so many really special photographs that can be transformed into a cross stitched picture. Members of Patterns Patch club may have this transition from photo to chart (pattern) for no charge.

What a lot of stitching lies ahead for us all. Have a great  time stitching your favourite designs, and do share any other ideas you have for must-do projects.

Happy Stitching!

Iona

I’m always looking for threads that can add an extra dimension to my cross stitched projects. I use the usual stranded cotton threads for most of my work, but I am always interested to see how I can make additional changes to my stitched projects. The most obvious extras involve the range of metallic threads and blending filaments that can be bought. These give a brilliant sheen to the picture, drawing attention to the sparkling quality of the threads. These are eye catching and beautiful, undoubtedly.

However, I’ve recently tried – and become hooked on satin threads. Satin thread is a six-stranded divisible thread which gives a more natural brightness and shimmer to your cross stitch and embroidery creations. It is very similar in feel to rayon. However, it is easier to use than rayon, holding itself together better.

In traditional embroidery, the longer the stitch the more the satin thread will capture the light and brightness. But in counted cross stitch, and other counted thread work, satin thread can be used solely or mixed with other stranded threads to create fantastic effects.

The most interesting effects can be produced when you are wishing to create a shiny surface; this includes the wings of a butterfly, the reflections on the surface of a pool of water or the light of the sunset on the surface of the sea. The effects, although shining, are natural, just as the surfaces of delicate items are affected by the rays of light that fall onto them.

DMC produces a lustrous palette of 36 beautiful shades in eight metre skeins – so there are many possibilities to create a shining colour combination.

I’ve decided that I shall use satin threads more in the future. The sheen they provide gives that extra beauty to a project.

Happy Stitching!

Iona

Unless you choose to work on single-colour projects such as blackwork, it is likely that when you stitch a project, the completed design will contain a number of colours, harmonising to produce a palette of mixed effects that can provide great pleasure along with other aspects of the design, such as shape and texture.

It is interesting to keep in mind how the eye and the mind perceive certain colours and the colour meanings we associate with them. Sometimes, colours create a physical reaction (red has been shown to raise blood pressure) and at other times it is a cultural reaction (in the UK, white is for weddings, but in some Eastern cultures, white is the colour for mourning and funerals).

Here are some of the main meanings associated with colours commonly used:

Red
Red brings your stitches to the foreground. It is the colour of fire and blood, and produces thoughts of energy, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. It is an emotionally intense colour, and can increase the human respiration rate, and blood pressure. It has very high visibility, so it is chosen for ‘stop’ signs.

Orange
Orange also has very high visibility, so you can use it to draw attention to an important area of your stitching. It contains the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and tropical regions. It represents enthusiasm, happiness, creativity, attraction, success and stimulation, and gives the sensation of heat.

Yellow
Yellow is very effective for attracting attention, so you may use it to highlight the most important elements of your design. Yellow is seen before other colours when placed against a dark background in stitching. Yellow reminds us of sunshine. It also symbolises joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Light yellow tends to disappear into white, so it usually needs a dark colour to highlight it.

Green
Green is the colour of nature, so very popular to use for floral designs. It symbolizes harmony, freshness, and peace, and suggests stability and endurance. It has healing power. It is the most restful colour for the human eye.

Blue
Blue is the colour of the sky and sea. When used together with warm colours like yellow or red, blue can create high-impact, vibrant cross stitch designs. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolises trust, loyalty, wisdom, intelligence, truth, and has a calming effect. Blue is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, power and stability.

Purple
Purple mixes the stability of blue and the energy of red. It symbolises power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. You may consider this colour for stitching designs for children. According to surveys, almost 75 percent of pre-adolescent children prefer purple to all other colours.  It also conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.

White
White means safety, purity, faith, cleanliness and perfection. In advertising, white is associated with coolness and cleanliness because it’s the colour of snow. You can use white to suggest simplicity in cross stitched designs.

Black
Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. When designing cross stitch, you can use a black or grey background to make the other colours stand out. Black contrasts well with bright colours. This background gives the feeling of perspective and depth. However, combined with red or orange – other very powerful colours – black can produce a very aggressive colour scheme.

Next time you choose a colour design for a cross stitch project, you may decide to consider the colours and their impact on the human eye.

Happy Stitching!

Iona

It can sometimes be difficult to choose what to stitch as gifts for our friends and family. Children are especially challenging, and cannot be expected to know just how much love and effort has gone into producing a small stitched picture! So stitching for them needs extra care in order to that the gift is appreciated and cherished. Here are some tips:

1. Be aware of the passing fashions in childhood. Do you remember the Ninja Turtles, and the Pokemon heroes?  These characters were favourites of children – and now, new personalities have taken their place. Make sure that the characters you stitch have a long life ahead!

2. Do not stitch buttons, charms, sequins and embellishments onto items that will be handled by small children. These could end up being sucked or swallowed – with terrible results.

3. Consider stitching a motif onto a piece of clothing such as a t-shirt or top. Make sure you use good quality threads by DMC, Anchor or Madeira. These are colour-fast – so the colour will not run when the clothing is being washed.

4. Try stitching motifs onto items such as bags or pencil cases. Research carefully into what is liked by the child. Stitching the crest of a rival football team to the one the child supports will never be forgiven!

Here is a popular kit available from SewandSo:

5. If you are unsure as to which motif to choose, try stitching the child’s name. That’s bound to be appreciated.

6. Sometimes, it may be a good idea to resign yourself to the fact that some children will not like to receive a stitched gift. Save your stitching energies for the children who will love your work.

7. Lastly, perhaps the best present you can ultimately give is the gift of learning how to stitch. However, this should never be forced. If a child sees you enjoying your stitching and admires your finished project, this may be just what he or she needs to start this hobby. There are lots of starter kits to choose from. Let the child choose the kit – and be on hand to help the young stitcher! 

 Happy Stitching!

 Iona 
 

Are you in a stitching rut? Sometimes it’s easy to stick with what is familiar. Every now and again though, it’s great to broaden our stitching horizons and try something new!

Here are a few ideas to get your creativity flowing:

1. Rather than keep to framed pictures, why not try stitching coasters, bookmarks, bell-pulls, trinket pots, pencil cases, handbag mirror-backs etc.  There’s a huge range of products available.

2. Experiment with new colours when you select your fabric. Try stitching single coloured designs onto bright, vibrant fabrics for high-impact results.

3. Learn some new stitches. These can enhance your designs – and the process of learning need not be difficult. Start off by stitching a traditional band sampler to improve your stitching repertoire.

4. Join a stitching club. By doing so, you’ll meet new friends and also learn and share your ideas for stitching.

5. Try some new types of thread. Metallics, blending filaments, satin threads and light effects are just a few of the many unusual threads that you can buy. Each has its own special characteristic that can add a new look to your projects.

6. Instead of confining yourself to using seed beads as embellishments, be a bit more adventurous. Triangular beads and bugle beads can add to new dimension to your work – and buttons and charms can add even more to get a magical three dimensional effect. Here are some bugle beads from Debbie Cripps.

7. Stitch onto a different fabric. Swap aida for evenweave or linen. Try using waste canvas (soluble) in order to stitch designs onto clothing. You can change that dull t-shirt into a wonderful evening top with just a few hours’ work. Soluble waste canvas is an amazing product. It allows you to cross stitch on any fabric from bedding to clothing using this special canvas as a grid. Once the stitching is complete, simply wash away the canvas – leaving a wonderful cross-stitched design.

Happy Stitching!

Iona

As we know, charity begins at home – but it need not end there too. With Christmas approaching, many stitchers’ minds turn to giving to good causes. With the current financial gloom continuing, we may not be in a position to give a lot of money, but there are many ways in which we can use our cross stitching skills to makes other people’s lives happier. Here are just a few. Just click on the links to find out more about these good causes:

Stitches of Love and Kindness (SOLAK) – Stitchers create cushions and quilts for children and adults with long-term illnesses.

World of Charity Stitching – a worldwide stitching community that make quilts, crochet/knitted blankets and other stitching crafts to give to the elderly and to children who have life-long illnesses and spend a lot of time in hospital.

Friends2Seniors (F2S) – stitchers create lap quilts, blankets and cushions, to be donated to residential homes or individuals who live alone.

Quilts For Kids - a group of stitchers from all over the world who cross stitch squares for Australian children, under the age of nineteen, who have life threatening or life long illnesses.

Cuddle Cushions - a charity group that is sewing cuddle cushions for kids aged between 4 – 16 year who are in hospital.

Operation Elderly Charity Stitchers - a non-profit Organisation that makes Lap Quilts and blankets for the elderly residents in nursing homes around the UK.

If you are considering buying your stitching friends a small present this Christmas, you may consider treating them (and yourself too!) to a Pink Lady cameo magnetic needle keep and a pair of pink ribbon scissors to help raise money for breast cancer charities. This in available from Kelmscott Designs, a Canadian company who have distributors in the UK as well as the USA too. The pink snips have smooth well-shaped finger holes and precision blades, ideal for your stitching workbox.

Happy Stitching!

Iona

Cross stitchers – whether experienced or new to the hobby – spend a lot of time choosing designs for their projects. But how many of us actually consider the fabrics that can bring additional delight to our completed projects? I am not referring to the perennial aida- vs. evenweave dilemma. Of course, that is a major decision in itself. Here, I’m thinking about the many patterned fabrics that are available for you to stitch your designs onto.

Most designs tend to be stitched onto white or cream aida, but if you are adventurous and try some of the more unusual fabrics available, you’ll be amazed at how a patterned background can transform your work into an extra-special masterpiece.

Using hand-dyed fabrics is another way to bring an added dimension to a design – and they can also bring subtle differences to backgrounds – such as skies or seas.

Here are a few suggestions:

Fantasy designs can be enhanced by using a shimmering background. You may be interested in trying Enchanted Fabric’s Wizard’s Magic which has an iridescent fleck running through it.

Baby Designs: There’s now a great number of impressions fabrics from DMC. These include a pretty pink hearts fabric and gingham aida.

Sky and Sea Effects can be achieved by using fabrics from Sassy Fabbys – or the ocean dreams range from Enchanted Fabrics.

Antique looks can be enhanced by an ‘aged’ looking aida. DMC’s marble aida can give the impression of timeworn look.

Additional tips for using patterned fabrics include the following:

1. Avoid stitching complex designs onto busy-looking fabrics. The background should enhance – and not take over – your stitching.

2. Highly coloured fabrics may need to be stitched with three strands of thread, instead of the usual two. Three strands will cover the fabric more, which helps you to make a colour statement with your threads.

3. When working on stronger-coloured fabric, try using a laplight to illuminate your work, or place a lamp below your work, so that light shines through the holes in the fabric.

Happy Stitching!

Iona

As we all try to make an extra effort to add shimmer and style to our Christmas stitching projects, there are many challenges that may arise.

We know how great speciality threads are – and what they can add to the finished results of our sparkling projects. Metallic or rayon/viscose threads can make the difference between a good project and an extra-special one. However, these threads can be difficult to work with, and it can be tempting to lose patience with them when they tangle, break, fray and do not lie flat on the fabric as other cotton or silk-based threads do.

Here are some tips that may help you to make friends with these difficult but beautiful threads. First of all, here are some definitions:

Metallic Threads
Metallic threads are basic fibres coated with aluminium or made out of plastic to look golden or silvery. You can get these in a wide range of colours. They usually  are produced as one ply thread wound on a spool, or as a stranded skein which you may separate. Sometimes a cotton ply is twisted around the metallic ply to add strength to the thread. Some metallic threads are relatively thick and therefore need to be couched to the fabric.  Some may be cross stitched as they are,  and others should be mixed with another thread – these are called blending filaments. (See my recent Blog article from last week on  using blending filaments.)

Many effects can be created with these threads – shimmering leaves and waterfalls to holographic images. The artificial fibres that create the shining metallic look also produce a less flexible and more difficult thread to stitch with. They also are prone to fray at the ends, and also twist, tangle  and knot while stitching, and may bulge from the fabric once the stitches are in place.

Rayon/Viscose Threads
Rayon threads are artificially-produced thread that is soft and lustrous with lots of shine. They are found in a wide range of colours as skeins with separable plies. They look impressive because they reflect the light so well, but they are very slippery.

These can be difficult to work with on account of their slippery feel. The plies can slip apart, become frayed and slip off the needle during the stitching process. They may  also be difficult to lay flat on the fabric once they are stitched.

Other Speciality Threads
It is now possible to buy many different types of thread which can create different textures and visual effects in embroidery. One popular type is the fluffy thread. Firstly, you stitch the thread, then fluff it up with a soft baby’s toothbrush to create the look of fur, hair, moustaches and beards.

Now – for the tips to make these potentially difficult threads much easier to work with:

1. Use the right length of thread
Most stitchers find that using a shorter length of thread reduces the number of problems encountered. Therefore, use thread lengths of no more than 12-15 inches (30-40 cm). This prevents stress and friction on the thread – so less fraying, tangles and knots.

2. Control the thread
This is best achieved by running the thread through wax before stitching. This smooths and straightens the thread. A good product that I’ve mentioned before is called Thread Heaven. This is a wax substance that comes in a little blue box. You place the thread under your finger on top of the wax, and pull for the length of the thread.

Another method is moistening the thread by running it gently over a sponge or wet towel.  Also, placing the threads in the fridge or freezer overnight can make it easier to work with. (Beware: your family may doubt your sanity unless you can explain this.)

3. Use the right needle
Using a needle with a larger eye can be very helpful. This will definitely help with threading a thicker speciality thread. It will also help to open the holes of the fabric so when the needle goes through it, there is less friction on the thread.

4. Use special stitching techniques
Stitch more slowly. Speciality threads, especially metallic threads, need a lot of patience and precision. They will not behave like cotton threads, so extra time will bring you better results. Some stitchers claim that completing every cross stitch before going onto the next one gives a much neater finish with speciality threads. Also, these threads are prone to twist more than cottons. So every few stitches, allow your needle drop downwards and untwist any threads that are starting to twist.

When stitching, pull the thread straight up or down through the fabric and not sideways, thus creating less stress on the thread. As soon as your thread starts fraying, stop, and use a new thread.

Speciality threads are worth the effort for the results they produce! Try them and see for yourself.

Happy stitching!

Iona

In my last blog entry, I wrote about storing your threads (floss) in such a way that they would remain easy to find, store and identify – to spare the frustrations of losing important shades of thread just as you needed them.

DMC threads

Today, I’m going to focus on another challenge relating to threads – that is: how to prevent and deal with tangles and knots.

Even the most experienced stitcher will occasionally feel the thread starting to tangle. It can seem that the best way of releasing the tangle is to pull at the thread, hoping that the knot will loosen before the thread breaks… this is a gamble that may or may not work. Even if the knot releases itself, it is likely that the thread will be tightened and that the fabric will pucker under the strain of the frustrated tugging. The thread will be damaged and frayed if a lot of effort is required to pull the knot out.

Here are some tips that will prevent these tangles and knots from forming:

1. All stitchers have their own preferred length of thread that they feel comfortable stitching with. If the thread is too long, the thread may tangle or fray. 18 inches is a recommended length. Some inexperienced stitchers use longer strands in their needles, thinking this will save the time it takes to rethread the needle, but this can actually cause tangling instead.

2. Most cross stitch patterns (charts) call for two strands of a single colour or a blend of two different colours in the needle. Before you start stitching, check the instructions for the number of strands to use. Pull each strand from the cut length separately, and then re-position the strands together. This will help to prevent tangling.

3. If you leave thread ends hanging, they are almost certain to get tangled up on the back of your project as you stitch. It’s not just that this makes the wrong side of your work look untidy, but after your piece is finished and framed, those tangles and knots will give a lumpy appearance on the right side too.

4. Thread is often likely to become twisted as you stitch. Avoid this by holding up your project after every seven or eight stitches, letting the needle dangle to take out any twisting. Experienced stitchers also remember to twist the needle a half-turn as they bring it up in the fabric. This will help to prevent tangles from forming.

5.  A well-tried way to prevent thread from tangling is to use beeswax to soften the thread; more recently, ‘Thread Heaven’ is a product that helps the thread to glide smoothly through the fabric. Running your thread through a folded piece of a tumble dryer sheet can prevent any static build up too.

6. As for knot removal, try just placing your needle in the middle of the loop, and pull up on the loop and then pull down on one end of the floss. If this doesn’t work, then pull down on the other end of floss. That should loosen the knot. Be careful not to use a lot of force.

Happy – and tangle-free – Stitching!

Iona