• Beginners may want to use an embroidery hoop to help regulate the tension of your stitches. However, at any level of experience, if you find your cloth pulling in one direction, an embroidery hoop is a must.
• Wash your hands before starting to work to remove natural oils.
• Good light and a comfortable chair will make your work more pleasant.

Kits by Foxberry Cottage Crafts contain 14- or 18-count Aida cloth, meaning the fabric is woven in a grid-like pattern with 14 or 18 pattern blocks to the inch.

• Sort floss by colour. Natural daylight is best, especially for differentiating similar colours.
• Check colours and quantities with the legend.
• You may want to tape a clipping of each colour of floss next to its symbol on the legend for easy reference.

• Work from a photocopy enlargement - easier on the eyes.
• Never mark up your original chart. Use a photocopy for the following tips.
• Match coloured pencils or felt pens to floss and colour in over the symbols. Be careful with felt pens - you will want the symbols to show through.
• Mark your progress with a straight pin, or with a felt pen or pencil.
• Never use ballpoint pens when working around fabric as ink "blobs" can tranfer from the page to the cloth.

• Baste a 10 x 10 (stitch count) grid right on the cloth. You then have a background that matches the heavier lines of grid on the chart.
• When your cross-stitched piece is complete, remove the basting threads.

• Baste a rough outline. Mainly you just want to mark corners and changes in direction, etc. to help with the counting.
• Use for tartan maps or any irregular outlines.
• Use a single strand of floss or regular sewing thread in a light or neutral shade.
• Remove basting threads after cross-stitch is complete.

Do not skip this important step.
Only by correctly positioning your first stitch can you ensure that you do not work yourself off the edge of your fabric.

• Measure and mark the centre point of your cloth.
• Take note of centre marks on pattern, indicated by triangles at the borders.
• You may want to mark the pattern centre as well.

• Select a larger area of a single colour. It can be anywhere on the chart.
• If, like many stitchers, you prefer to work more methodically, say from top left to lower right of the fabric, do try to start with a larger area of one colour.
• By starting with a larger area of colour, it gives a backing for anchoring threads and a better base for counting and locating adjacent colours.
• On the pattern, count the squares from the horizontal centre mark to the first symbol to be stitched (the top left block of the selected area). Jot the number down. Repeat, couting from the vertical centre mark.
• Refer to the numbers you noted to count out from the marked centre of your cloth. This is your starting position.

• Separate a single strand from a 6-ply length of floss. Bring together the free ends (shown here as a single line) to form a double strand with a loop at one end.
• Thread the free ends through the needle.
• The starting position for your first stitch will be at the lower left corner of the grid block.
• Pass the needle through the cloth from back to front at this position, leaving a few inches of loose floss on reverse side.
• On right side make a single diagonal stitch. (See Cross-stitch Basics below)
• Pass the needle through to the back, threading it through the loop. (See Figure 2)

• Anchor ends of floss by passing the needle under 4-6 existing stitches on the reverse side.
• Clip off excess floss close to cloth.
• Never use knots to tie off ends.

1. Make rows of diagonal stitches, working from lower left to upper right of each "square."
2. Cross with a row of opposite diagonals, working from lower right to upper left. (Figure 3)
3. Make your stitches taut, flat against cloth, but never tight.
4. Start a new row by bringing the needle down to the lower left of the next row. (Figure 4)

Figure 4

• Break up long rows by working them in 'boxes' of more comfortable lengths.
• Do not trail floss haphazardly over the back of your work, or over blank areas.
• To carry floss short distances from one area to another without clipping: anchor the floss under finished stitches in vertical and horizontal directions to bring it to the new starting position.
• Start each section with the largest solid area of a single colour. This gives you a better base for anchoring ends, and for counting.
• A customer suggests: try threading several needles, one for each colour floss used in the area in which you are working. Work in uninterrupted rows by changing needles as required. This may be helpful, in particular, when stitching tartans.

• When working partial stitches, the direction of the short diagonal is always toward the opposite corner, as indicated by the dotted extension of the line in the diagrams.
• You may create a guide for partial stitches by basting the outline in a single strand of same colour floss, or in a light neutral colour.
• OR...you may avoid partial stitches by working the 1/2 and 3/4 stitches as full stitches, and omitting 1/4 stitches. If the outline is to be backstitched, do not follow the chart. Backstitch along the outline of the actual stitches, using the colour changes as a guide, where necessary. Note that the resulting design will have a less refined appearance.

1. Make the short stitch from the lower left corner to the centre of the block, in other words 1/2 the length of the diagonal to the opposite corner.
2. Cross the diagonal with a normal crossing stitch.
3. Where two colours are stitched in a single block, make the crossing stitch in the colour of the more predominant object in the design, unless the instructions direct otherwise.
4. Although a backstitched outline is usually worked over it, do not omit the crossing stitch. Without it, especially if a dark colour, there will be a white gap left in the design.

1. Make the short diagonal stitch approx. 2/3 the full diagonal length to the opposite corner.
2. Make the crossing stitch as usual.

1. Make the short diagonal stitch approx. 1/3 the full diagonal length to the opposite corner.
2. Do not make a crossing stitch.
3. The 1/4 stitch is generally used to refine an outline. In this case the backstitched outline ismade across both the 3/4 and 1/4 stitches.

• Finish all cross-stitching before outlining unless noted otherwise on instructions.
• Work outlines in back-stitch as shown.
• You will work outlines of most prominent objects or detailing last. Where this is the case, the instructions wil provide details.

• no knots
• short clipped ends
• no zig-zagging floss, especially over unworked fabric
• all floss tacked neatly under stitches in vertical and horizontal directions only.

• uniform tension - cloth must not be pulled out of shape by the stitching
• all top stitches crossed in the same direction
• uniform appearance of stitches
• no missed stitches
• even outline stitches overlaying the cross-stitching.

• Even if the finished work appears to be clean, hand wash or dry clean to remove hidden dirt and natural body oils from materials.
• Dampen and stretch the finished piece into shape using a straight edge to align blocks on each side.
• Foxberry Cottage Crafts takes no responsibility for color-fastness. We highly recommend test washing a swatch of floss.

1. Stretching over foamblock
   This is the preferrable method for maintaining what may one day be an "heirloom" piece. The cloth does not come into contact with adhesives, and the "lay" of the floss is not altered.

2. Dry-mounting
   This is what my framer does (easier for him). However, it does press the stitches nearly flat so that some of the 3-dimensional quality is lost.

3. Self-adhesive mounting board
   From personal experience, the mounting board will not hold in damp conditions, even under glass.

4. Regardless of mounting method, the mats should be acid-free.

• Take a deep breath. Focus. Keep a positive attitude
• Remember: it's just one stitch at a time.
• Be patient with yourself.
• Accept that you will make errors. Everyone slips up sometimes.

• Count carefully - every time.
• RECOUNT and COUNT AGAIN!
• Make it a habit to monitor your stitching position often using finished areas as checkpoints, especially
  • after you make the first diagonal in a new area.
  • at the end of the underlying row of diagonals.
  • and any time at all.
• Work areas adjacent to those already finished using existing rows as a reference point.
• Use one of our suggestions above. See:
  • Stitch a Grid
  • Baste an outline Guide
• Work from a photocopy (Never mark up your original chart)

• Awful Truth No.1:
  No matter how small the mistake, you might as well resign yourself. You're probably going to have to remove the entire strand.
• Awful Truth No. 2:
  It can take as much time to remove the work than to do the stitching.

• Remove stitches in the opposite order to which they were stitched.
• Be prepared to snip your way through snags where other stitches have caught the floss.

• Small errors can sometimes be salvaged. Be brave. And rely on your own ingenuity.
• For example, an error on a free-form object like a leaf or flower may not seriously affect the appearance, and may be ignored. Consider it your own artistic contribution! But you will have to compensate - see below.
• On well-defined shapes like buildings errors may be compensated for by adding a row or column to the entire building. Just watch for any features like a roof peak that must be centred.

Let's use The Foxberry Cottage kit "Company Houses" as an example.

• SCENARIO 1 - ROOF STITCHED TOO WIDE
  • When you come to the row where the peak starts, make sure the peak is in the centre. This might actually involve adding another column to the roof. Let's say you have added 2 extra stitches to the width. Then you can add one extra stitch either between the outside wall and the window, or between the window and the doors - as long as you do the same on both sides, keeping everythign centred.
  • If it's a house with a tree in front, you could compensate with the free-form object - the tree.

• SCENARIO 2 - HOUSES STITCHED TOO CLOSE TOGETHER
  • Very simple - Stitch the clothes on the line until you come to the house. If you are short a block or two - just stop. Is it really going to matter if the shirt is closer to the house or you see less of the barn??

• SCENARIO 3 - HOUSES STITCHED TOO FAR APART
  • Another simple fix - Fill in the extra row(s) of grass, hedge, or whatever with the appropriate colours.

• SCENARIO 4 - BUSH STITCHED TOO FAR RIGHT
  You have started the house on the left. You stitch the lilac bush too far to the right. There is no need to change this. BUT when you are stitching the window, you must count from the edge of the house wall, and not from the lilac bush. This might mean that the lilac bush actually hides part of the window - but who's going to know it's different from the chart?

• Mostly it's just common sense.
• On a pattern copy - NEVER (!) on the original - mark small errors as they were stitched. Use this for reference as you continue to work.
• After you have discovered an error, use the following types of object as a countng reference to get you back on track.
  • structured objects - like buildings or geometric forms
  • objects with a pre-determined shape - like humans or animals
  • dominant objects, usually in the foreground
  In other words, the spacing between these objects should be maintained if possible. Then the changes will occur in the "background" or on a less important object where it isn't likely to matter.
• Okay, I admit it. I cheat sometimes - by stitching the correct colour over the error. Do this only when
  • the underlying colour is fairly light
  • when the two colours are similar in tone
  • and only for individual stitches or very small areas