Confessions of a Cross Stitcher

[Inkysloth]

I also tend to leave & adjust the pattern rather than unpick mistakes, unless I'm working on a small / simple design where mistakes do affect the end result.

I have a long term stitch on the go - I adapted the Geological Map of the British Isles using the Pattern Wizard tool, and it's very slow going, but I keep doing small quick stitches instead, because they take less concentration. (The map is 1 over 1 on 28ct). With the amount of quick stitches I've now done, I could have been through a good chunk of the map. But I still keep doing instant gratification stitches.

[CatDetective]

Just call me Area 51, because look at all these UFOs! There's one I'll definitely finish (someday), a couple I probably won't... and at least one that I've forgotten what I was doing, since I didn't store the project with the magazine the chart was in. Yet the number of projects un-done has yet to stop me from buying a new magazine or kit...


It's not that I don't care what the back looks like, but oh man, it seems like no matter how careful I am when I start, I wind up with a great big mess back there.


I don't actually LIKE half the patterns I put on my various wishlists... I just think that loved ones would like them. I'd still enjoy the work even when it's not something I'd want on my wall, though, so I save them all to the wishlist anyway. (Same with charts saves to my hard drive-- just saved a bunch of free charts I don't really care for in the hopes that they might make for good future gifts)

[Lulu22]

Just call me Area 51, because look at all these UFOs!

That is just so funny! I know the feeling well!

[Twistedmaiden]

For me,
1. I NEVER do french knots (I hate them)
2. I have only finished two actual projects, including small projects because I'm constantly switching between projects.
3. I like to repeatedly iron my projects
4. I either hem or I use masking/scotch tape on my edges.
5. I always forget to remove my projects from my hoops leading to rings and then ironing.
6. If I make a mistake I have to point it out to anyone that looks at it.
7. Sometimes I spend more looking at patterns than stitching.
8. I stick needles in my clothes to hold them and forget about them, I'm constantly dropping needles off of me.

[Roland]

I did something yesterday that I feel the need to confess. (Must be that Catholic upbringing. )

I'm working on an area that has large blocks of an individual colour. As I was about to start an area with 3855 I realized I had about a yard left. It was possible I would have to start a new skein within this block. I checked my new skein and it looks the same shade. Sometimes they are very different. So, I threw away about a yard of thread and just started the new one.

I know this was the right thing to do....yet I feel guilty.

[PRW]

1. I absolutely HATE half stitches and quarter stitches!
2. If I make a slight error, I do not worry much. The old time quilters often left a small error on the quilt since only God is perfect.

[mysterystitcher]

I am always giving away my finished projects as gifts. It's so much more personal than a gift card or some random thing I could pick up at the store.

Yup! That's me indeed. If someone is going to say "I do", or if a couple is going to have a little one, I may stitch something for them.
Yes, and then...one more. If someone has lost someone dear, I will stitch them 'my condolences' present. This year I have stitched one already. Yesterday I started another one such. I mean 'my condolences' present. As sad as it is, I want the receiver to be surprised. It's not a happy surprise, no. It's 'your grief is not a shrug of shoulders kind of thing to me' kind of surprise.

[kobeat]

I love these but just realized I've never posted here.

1. I am incapable of having a messy back.
2. Seriously, I can only stitch neatly.
3. I get twitchy if I need to use an uneven number of threads and can’t use the loop start method.
4. Oddly I don’t mind mistakes, frogging and fixing only if it affects the final picture.
5. I really want all the new DMC Coloris colors to add to my extensive DMC floss collection.
6. But I really hate using variegated floss.
7. I decluttered most of my patterns & fabric two years ago.
8. New fabric & patterns keep magically appearing in my home .
9. Yes, I am aware there isn’t really any magic.
10. I have no other explanation though .

[Mabel Figworthy]

8. New fabric & patterns keep magically appearing in my home .
9. Yes, I am aware there isn’t really any magic.
10. I have no other explanation though .

Funny, that happens in my house as well, only with me it's threads. Can't think where they come from

[rcperryls]

Magic happens

[DisneyStitcher]

1. I can only work on one project at a time. Seriously, starting another pattern before the one I'm working on is finished produces a psychotic reaction.
2. I don't give a rat's tushie what the back of my project looks like. I'll always choose to travel if the space I'm traveling across is shorter than the amount of thread I'd use going under 3-4 stitches both stopping and starting.
3. Parking makes my head explode - I can never figure out where I stopped and am constantly convinced I've picked up the wrong color to continue with.
4. I use masking tape to bind the edges - I figure I always give myself a 4" border so the framer can just cut it off and sew their own edging if it bothers them so much.
5. I wash my pieces with Woolite. I've done it for 30 years and never had a piece develop mystery stains, discolor, or fall apart.
6. I will die with an ungodly number of patterns, kits, and skeins of floss that I never got around to using and my daughter will curse my bones when she has to clean out my house.

[sarclanat]

I did something yesterday that I feel the need to confess. (Must be that Catholic upbringing. )

I'm working on an area that has large blocks of an individual colour. As I was about to start an area with 3855 I realized I had about a yard left. It was possible I would have to start a new skein within this block. I checked my new skein and it looks the same shade. Sometimes they are very different. So, I threw away about a yard of thread and just started the new one.

I know this was the right thing to do....yet I feel guilty.

I know that feeling only to well, i have done the same myself before now, and yes, i am also catholic

[JenniferT]

1. I can only work on one project at a time. Seriously, starting another pattern before the one I'm working on is finished produces a psychotic reaction.
2. I don't give a rat's tushie what the back of my project looks like. I'll always choose to travel if the space I'm traveling across is shorter than the amount of thread I'd use going under 3-4 stitches both stopping and starting.
3. Parking makes my head explode - I can never figure out where I stopped and am constantly convinced I've picked up the wrong color to continue with.
4. I use masking tape to bind the edges - I figure I always give myself a 4" border so the framer can just cut it off and sew their own edging if it bothers them so much.
5. I wash my pieces with Woolite. I've done it for 30 years and never had a piece develop mystery stains, discolor, or fall apart.
6. I will die with an ungodly number of patterns, kits, and skeins of floss that I never got around to using and my daughter will curse my bones when she has to clean out my house.

You sound like my mom. Her fabric stash is astonishing.

I can't talk about anyone. I have various creative endeavor hoards in my house.

-I serge or overlock the edges of my work so they don't unravel.

-I have floss I bought for projects 10 years ago that I never started.

-I have yet to finish anything other than itty bitty xstitch projects and most of them were done when I was a teenager.

[Minnie Kassovitz]

Y'all are gonna hate me, but I'm (almost) the exact opposite of most of you...

• Fellow committed thread-licker here. I wash and iron all of my pieces, though, so it's fine.
• I don't use any hoops or frames to stitch; I roll my aida up like a papyrus and unroll it as needed. I don't stitch while eating, never stitch with dirty hands, and since the piece gets washed anyway it isn't at much danger to get dirty. I use the sewing method to stitch, it's the fastest for me.
• I would love to start on some HAED pattern as my next long-term piece, but I can't afford them.
• While we're at it, I also can't afford to buy thread, but my dad's grand aunt left him her kit of 130+ colours in her will that sat untouched for decades, so I just supplement similar colours from that. The brand was Czechoslovakian and doesn't exist anymore, the colour numbers are long rubbed off, but the quality is equal to Anchor's (I have a grey colour that I couldn't find in the kit, so I know how their threads feel), and the colours are still bright and vivid.
• I alter designs I bought or recreated from pictures to fit my liking, and mix up elements from different patterns to create a something new. I also alter the pattern if I made a mistake that is too far back to correct, if it isn't too obvious.
• I recreate patterns of small and easy pieces that I found on the Internet (don't bother asking, I don't know whether or not they are copyrighted so I can't share). These are usually used as gifts, or to supply motifs that I can mix and match and fit into other patterns.
• I try to keep my backs as tidy as possible with as little effort as possible. The only thing I really don't like in backsides is when I do a small piece for gifting that leaves lots of aida exposed, and there are travelling threads visible from the front.
• I'm very disciplined about finishing one project before starting another, which I attribute to my hatred of having too many things going on at once. I usually have one huge long-term piece (currently "Stitchers Retreat" from HAED; it's the only one of their free patterns that doesn't have any faeries or religious motifs, both of which I hate), while simultaneously stitching small pieces for birthdays, etc.
• My pattern collection is 100% digital so I don't have boxes upon boxes of never-stitched patterns. I also don't buy magazines because I think they tend to be 97% kitsch and maybe one or two useful alphabets or border patterns.
• I have stitched 80% of my collection, and the rest are staple pieces like alphabets and borders.

[probablynot]

I love HaED because their charts don't involve back-stitching.
I hate HaED because the best ones all involve HORDES of confetti-stitches.
I love HaED because the pictures are - mostly - so good.
I hate HaED because the pictures can mislead you into thinking that the stitched work will look as clean and clear and sharp as the pictures.
I love HaED for providing their charts as PDF files, so I can print off a working copy AND a 'real' copy that won't be obliterated with 'do these ones' and 'these ones are done' marks.
I hate it when HaED don't pre-warn you about charts that have to be stitched with two different colours on the same needle, because if (eg) you choose to stitch 1 over 1 on 28-count, you just can't.
But all in all ...
I love HaED!

[Purple Patsy]

I have yet to find a HaED with blended threads I thought they were all only single colour needed at a time. Can you give me an example of how they show it so I know what to look out for.

I totally agree that their mock up pictures are very misleading as I've seen some that are the original are with huge crosses superimposed over the image. So a piece with 6 or 7 hundred stitches across the image looks to have about 20 stitches. very accurate representation. NOT

[isaacson72]

I just love this thread, and I love all of you, even though I don't know any of you. I've said it before but I'm just so thrilled to know there's a whole community of cross-stitch people out there in the world, just like me! I could have written half of these confessions myself.

[Podolyanka]

What an interesting thread!

Well, will add my twopence.


I dont care about the wrong side as long as it does not look like fleece, but I do make sure all the threads are secured- with tablecloths being washed often, it is very important.

I prefer to frog when it comes to mistakes.

All my works go as presents to family, friends, colleagues, pensfriends as presents.

I can stitch the same project twice if I love it- like Sandy Littlejohns' "Victorian Christmas Street Scene"(38x94 cm)- one was for my friend , the other for my daughter.

I never use hoops or any other "equipment", and parking drives me crazy, so I tried it once and said , "never again".

I never grid the fabric and never make any marks on the chart.

If I don't have to start in the centre, I prefer to begin in the right bottom corner.

I stitch by whole "crosses" one by one, never by halves when the stitches are completed on the way back.

And a most important confession: all the words and expressions connected with cross- stitching, embroidery, knitting and crochetting I know from my English-speaking friends. The only word I had known since school was "embroidery".

I always wash my projects immediately after having completed the last stitch even if they don't need washing at all.

Having finished a project(usually they are large), I spend that day looking through my charts, sorting out the threads for the next design, but never can start anything new at once.

[Grammyof4girls]

Oh my, confessions that I do have:
First I have realized over the years that I have never ever stitched a piece without at least ONE MISTAKE in it. Of course I know it is a mistake but no one else usually can see it.

I do care about the back of the piece. I used to not care, but I have a good friend who stitches and the back of her pieces look like the front, so I have put more care into stitching the back as well as the front. NO more dragging the thread across other color stitches. etc.

I have a stash like you wouldn't believe. I told my husband that I was hoarding up for when I get to retire, because I know that I won't have the extra money to purchase my supplies. ( 6 and 1/2 years to go). I save up my money and when we would go on vacation to Gatlinburg TN they have a great cross stitch shop in Pigeon Forge, TN and I usually spend anywhere from $100-200 each visit. I definitely got my stash going on!

Stitching is my therapy and my husband has finally realized that. Thank God!

[Grammyof4girls]

Sorry, also forgot to say that I never mark on my original pattern. I always make a copy for myself of course and mark off with either a pencil or a highlighter which areas I have stitched. This helps me with keeping up where I have stopped without have to make a big deal out of it.