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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Thursday, July 01, 2004 - 12:31 pm
Decided to get back into cross stitching, but I am such a newbie that I have to do the ones with the design drawn in. I bought a beautiful one to do for my mother in law, but it's counted cross stich. How in the world do you do it?
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Luvmyjrt
Member
09-18-2003
| Thursday, July 01, 2004 - 6:34 pm
Texannie, I've moved from counted cross stitch to quilting. I bought my first pattern when I was about 13 and my mother said "you'll never finish that".........well, that's about all it took. I finished it and finished it well. As for how to do it, I recommend putting your printed pattern on a cookie sheet with some magnets to hold it is place. A magnet that can act as a ruler is also a good idea. Basically, sort your thread by number and punch a hole in some cardboard to thread it through. Mark it with the number and color stated in the pattern. Find the center of the aida cloth (fold it in fourths and iron it with some starch). The center will be where the creases intersect. Start in the center and work your way out, counting the number of stitches per particular color. Do as much of that color within a close area as you can, leaving spaces for the number of "x"'s that are of another color. You'll get the hang of it very quickly. My RA doesn't allow me to do that so much anymore, so quilting was my next step. But I do remember it being very enjoyable and "zen" like. When you finish with a particular color, just take your needle and slide it under stitches of the same color, snip the ends and begin another color. Did that help, or just confuse you more?
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Friday, July 02, 2004 - 8:59 am
ACK!!! you explained it great, but I think that is way above my ability!!!
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Luvmyjrt
Member
09-18-2003
| Friday, July 02, 2004 - 9:39 am
Absolutely not, Tex......it's really very simple. Dive in -- you'll do great! (And I believe I read in another thread you stated you needed a hobby ---- walks away whistling!
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Lumbele
Member
07-12-2002
| Friday, July 02, 2004 - 9:54 am
Annie, a good photocopy of the pattern helps, so you can mark off what you have done so far without messing up the original.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Friday, July 02, 2004 - 10:08 am
whining she says...I do need a hobby, but not a hard one
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Luvmyjrt
Member
09-18-2003
| Friday, July 02, 2004 - 10:25 am
Great suggestion Lumbele.......and I swear Annie, its not hard!
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Sbw
Member
08-09-2000
| Friday, July 02, 2004 - 10:35 am
Texannie, it is not hard. It is fun. This would be something great to do while watching/listening fo the BB hamsters on the feeds. I am going to look for a piece I want to do. Thanks for the idea.
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Lumbele
Member
07-12-2002
| Friday, July 02, 2004 - 3:15 pm
Texannie, I bet several of us here have some smaller easy counted patterns to cut your teeth on so to speak. Thank goodness for husbands and sons that know how to scan. So let me know if there is something in particular you are looking for.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Friday, July 02, 2004 - 3:33 pm
What attracted me to this one was that it was hummingbirds, my mil loves hummingbirds. Just frustrates me cause I went through tons of patterns to make sure I got one with the design on it!
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Lumbele
Member
07-12-2002
| Friday, July 02, 2004 - 4:00 pm
Annie, a friend and I decided to get domestic and mail ordered what we thought were printed patterns. The orders weren't in the mailbox 5 minutes when someone enlightened us as to what "counted" meant. When mine arrived there were 37 different colours/combinations of colours. Let me tell you doing that thing I atoned for 30+ years of sins and then some. But every time I look at the result on my mother's dining room wall, I am glad I didn't send it back. How many different colours do your hummingbirds come in?
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Friday, July 02, 2004 - 10:40 pm
Atoning for sin????? LOL I will count them tomorrow. I am doing such a pitiful job on the "easy" one I started, I am getting very discouraged!
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Lumbele
Member
07-12-2002
| Monday, July 05, 2004 - 9:06 am
Annie, since you obviously have nothing to atone for, you may consider building yourself a credit, just in case. Don't get discouraged. Consider this first piece a practice run. What aspect(s) is giving a hard time?
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Monday, July 05, 2004 - 9:41 am
I was just flumoxed when I saw a blank canvas! LOL I am practicing on a little cosmetic bag that has the design on it right now to get up my courage.
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Lumbele
Member
07-12-2002
| Monday, July 05, 2004 - 12:18 pm
You can do it, Annie! We have faith in you.
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Monday, July 05, 2004 - 2:14 pm
You can do it, Annie, honest!
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Kappy
Member
06-29-2002
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 12:17 pm
Annie ~ About.com has some good links for all things cross stitch. Try various links they give for 'tutorials' until you find one that makes the most sense to you. http://crossstitch.about.com/ In the left column, under "essentials", you'll see a link for beginner's basics. When you go there, skip the first link given (cross stitch tutorial) as I found it useless. The second link down looks promising although I didn't really go into it. And if you don't like any of those links, there are some really good articles down below including one on learning to cross stitch in 5 minutes. I'm trying to picture the difficulty level of yours. I've seen some beautiful hummingbird designs out there that are quite difficult and then some that are fairly easy. So what I'm wondering is if you've bought a 'kit' with all the thread already there? Or if you bought the pattern all by itself and had to purchase the supplies seperately? Are there any instructions of any kind with it because I know sometimes, the directions are so sparse that they only tell you what threads are needed. As Lumbele said, make a xerox copy of it if you don't want to mark the original up. Then what I do is use a highlighter to mark which squares I have stitched in. That way when I come back to it, I know what part of the pattern is done and which colors in-between haven't been done. Trust me that getting started is the hardest part of it all so do hang in there and let us help through it!
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Melfie1222
Member
07-29-2002
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 7:10 pm
Just found this thread - I love cross-stitch! I've only done the counted, I haven't tried the pre-printed ones. How is your project coming, Annie? Are you having fun with it? I've tried a few different helper things I've found in craft stores - one that comes in handy for me is a little flexi-ruler that has four different measurements for the four most common thread counts - along with inch measurements on each edge, the marks are for each square for 14 count, 18 count, etc. I'll use it to help find the center of a piece of fabric, or to double check that my count in an area is correct. I have one of those metal board and magnetic strip combos (sort of like a cookbook holder, or a document holder you have next to your computer?) that I use when I'm working at the table to hold a pattern up and in place, the magnetic strips you can move around to keep track of where you are on the pattern. But I'm usually working on the couch, so I usually use those small Post-its for the same thing, to underline where I am on the pattern so I don't lose my place, and just move it around as I go until it loses its stickie-ness and I grab a new one. I usually have several projects going at the same time so when I get tired of one I can go to another, or if I don't feel like concentrating I'll work on one of the easier ones. Right now I am mostly doing the Lizzie*Kate flip-it blocks - one little square for each month of the year, really cute simple patterns easy enough to do while you are watching tv.
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Melfie1222
Member
07-29-2002
| Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 7:25 pm
tried to edit but too late... the little post-its also help me keep track of the pattern on a smaller scale of say 10-20 squares at a time - on the line in the pattern I am working on, I'll count off however many of those squares are the color thread I'm working with right now, and then I'll sort of say to myself "stitch five, skip two, stitch one, skip one" - so that I can do several squares in a row without having to look back and forth from the pattern to the fabric as often. Not sure if that makes sense or not, but it works for me. 
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Sunday, August 08, 2004 - 4:52 pm
Counted cross stitch can be very addicting!!! I have three framed needlework pieces hanging on one wall. One is a counted cross stitch that I did. Another is a stamped cross stitch that my mother did when she was 21. And the third is a crocheted piece my mother's mother did of her daughter's (my mother) name. Three generations of needlework.
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Egbok
Member
07-13-2000
| Sunday, August 08, 2004 - 8:49 pm
I needed this thread!! Yay!! I'm glad that Annie is trying something new!! I started the following Counted Cross Stitch about 4 years ago...with really good intentions..LOL!! This was the first time I had attempted to do such a project and now I'm hoping that by telling on myself in this thread, I'll get it completed. Here's a pic of the cover picture from the kit: Here's a pic of where I left off 4 years ago....
I'll post my progress to help keep me going until I get it finished!!
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Bbyluv76
Member
08-04-2004
| Thursday, September 16, 2004 - 7:59 am
Annie, Don't worry about the counted XStitch. It is really easy once you get that first stitch in and used to a groove. And don't worry about your printed XStitch looking pitiful. They all do. I have yet to see one that looks nice. Not to say that they don't exist, just that I haven't seen one. Take it slow, Take it 1 X at a time. There are some GREAT groups out there for stitching.
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Sia
Member
03-11-2002
| Friday, September 17, 2004 - 3:14 pm
I love counted cross stitch, but I haven't done any for a while. I will post a picture or two if you want to see some of my projects. This is the ring-bearer's pillow I designed, stitched, sewed and embellished for my own wedding. The back is white satin. I didn't have any plans or patterns from which to draw; I just made up my own pattern for the church and created my own alphabet based on calligraphy (which I also can do) and wrote out the words on graph-paper before stitching them.

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Sia
Member
03-11-2002
| Friday, September 17, 2004 - 3:29 pm
Here's a ring-bearer's pillow I designed, stitched and sewed for my husband's cousin's wedding:

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Sia
Member
03-11-2002
| Friday, September 17, 2004 - 3:31 pm
Cross-stitched the rooster and hen for my best friend:

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