Lessons Learned

I wanted to share some of my mistakes on my first cross stitch project. Hopefully I can help someone out there avoid the same mistakes.

• I used a piece of fabric that was too small. The design does barely fit but there is no room for mounting/framing or fraying of the ends. Also using a hoop is much harder close to the edges. In the future I will have at least 4 extra inches of extra material on each side.
• I jumped too far with my stitches. This left threads that can show through and made the back a mess. In addition it made it difficult to stitch between long rows of one color. I don't jump more than one stitch and I definitely don't jump over the same area repeatedly.
• I didn't have all my stitches go the same direction. Looks bad (enough said)
• Stitches too tight. This stretched some of the fabric and compressed other areas leading to gaps between the stitches.
• I used thread that was too long (36 inches plus). For reasons I don't completely understand, when I started with a long piece of thread, the ending stitches didn't look good. Also I seem to get more knots and snags. 20-24 inches is what I have been using lately.
• I think I will use a frame on my next project. The hoops are a pain and I don't like tightening down the hoop over my completed stitches.

I hope this is of help to someone :-)

Chris