. . . more Tips

I love to cross stitch at night during the news segment.  I always enlarge my charts and use highliter to color the rows/column I’ve finished.  To make a large project manageable, I make a goal of 10X10 stitches per session.  Audrey Lee

I have a chronic illness which requires that I take many prescription
medicines.  The pills come in see-through amber plastic bottles of various
sizes, which I recycle in my stitching supplies.  After prewashing floss or
pressing silk ribbons, I wrap them around the outside of the bottles to keep
them wrinkle-free.  Inside I store charms and decorative buttons, needles,
tatting shuttles, thread, and other supplies.  I can see what I’m looking for,
and my supplies are protected.  If I have several bottles of ribbons or
thread, a zip-top plastic bag keeps everything together and handy.
Kristina Plaas

When stitching with very slippery fibers, such as metallics or silks, it can be difficult to start a thread without having it slip out again.  I run the needle and the thread under 5 or 6 stitches on the back AWAY from where I plan to begin stitching, then make a U-turn over the last stitch and under the first 4 or 5 back to where I intend to begin stitching.  This anchors the fibers so they are less likely to work their way out again.  Maria Maddox.

Sometimes I find it hard to keep track of my embroidery scissors as I sew.  I found the solution!  I tie a length of ribbon through the finger hole of the scissors - long enough to hang around my neck.  This time, since I was working with metallic thread, I also added a two hole needle threader.  I haven’t lost either the scissors or the needle threader since.  Sandy Tabor

Because of arthritis, I find it difficult to stitch in hand.  For small designs which need small amount of fabric,that are too small to put into a hoop, I baste or machine stitch the linen/aida to a spare piece of fabric (such as piece of shirt tail or old pillow slip).  Then carefully cut away the spare fabric from the stitching area.  This makes it possible to fix the small design into a hoop or frame.  Gay Yeo, Maidenhead, England.

If you use many needles all threaded at the same time, use a piece of high density foam or polystyrene, park your needles in that until you need them again.  Write the number/symbol on a piece of tape so you know which colors are which.  Haidee.

Use blank 3" x 5" record cards, which you can buy from any stationers to make thread holding cards.  Punch, using a single-hole puncher, eight holes in the card (four each side) then write the symbol and the shade colour beside each hole.  Once a project is finished, you can strike out the symbol and shade colour and use the back of the card for the next one.  If you use Tippex, the card has a Very long life!!  Amanda Hodgkinson.

Instead of oversewing the edges on a large project, use something like "Fray-check" run along the raw edges of a piece of material.  This can be easily washed out once your have finished.  Amanda Hodgkinson.

Introduce a whole new generation to Cross stitch.  Not only give a kit as a present, but also your time, expertise and patience to get them started.  Emma Kenmore (Mrs) Northants, England.

When stitching I use a brightly coloured highlighter pen to mark off the squares and then use a different colour to go back and mark off the backstitching.  Lisa-Marie Mackie, Tasmania, Australia

If you are using a number of different beads, store them in the plastic
containers that come with photographic films.  These are just thrown away when you take the film for developing, so do not be concerned about asking for them back!  Margaret Haigh

When working a very complicated cross stitch pattern I find it helpful to cut a window the size of one 10sq x 10sq block in a piece of paper and, using a lightly sticking masking (not Scotch) tape, move the window so that only one block is visible at a time.  Check and recheck alignment carefully when moving the window to the next block.  Jinjur Frost

When stitching using a wooden hoop, to avoid hoop marks on my work I have discovered that the best thing to use to wrap my hoop is a veterinary product called Vetwrap which comes in some really great colours and is soft, adheres to itself without sticky adhesive and can be removed easily as well.  Lisa-Marie Mackie, Tasmania, Australia

My 3yr old toddler wants to "help" mommy and do what I do, so I bought him a beginner’s needlepoint kit.  Easier at his age than cross-stitch.  I threaded the yarn onto his plastic needle and made the first few stitches for him, to start the yarn.  Gently knot the yarn at the end after it is threaded, that way it will still pass through the canvas but you won't have to keep rethreading it as your toddler helps.  He can now pass the needle through the canvas on his own to make his own stitches.  (Not that he makes them properly but that will come as he gets older, he just turned 3).  But this way he can do what I do and feel good.  Kate Acosta,Wichita, Kansas.