Table of Contents Introduction Threads Tip How to Fit the Cloth in Your Hoop Choosing Your Project Cashmere Stitch Tent Stitch Continental stitch Basket weave Stitch Half Cross Stitch Making Your Charts DIY Elephant Project Butterfly Quilt Design Pillow Blocking your canvas Lily Project Parrot Project Making Your Graph in an Excel Worksheet Conclusion Author Bio Publisher Introduction Cross stitch is one of the easiest and most elegant embroidery arts, known to man, for millenniums. In ancient times, it was used, to make needlework designs, which were beautiful, imaginative and creative. All one needed was plenty of time, and the will to make something beautiful which would be passed on in the family as an heirloom. And that is why, when I was at school, it was necessary for all of us students to learn how to embroider a fine seam, do crusted samplers, and learn other engine needlework arts and crafts, like lace making, which were traditionally taught to the nuns in their convents. As they were our teachers, we learned how to make Irish lace, and other needlepoint projects, using a large number of stitches like Florentine stitch, basket weave stitch, Cashmere stitch, chain stitch, Continental stitch, diamond eyelet stitch, cross stitch, French knots, cross stitch trame, reverse basket weave stitch, mosaic stitch, slanting goblin stitch, Smyrna stitch, straight goblin stitch, tent stitch, upright cross stitch, triple cross stitch, tent stitch, etc. Many of these stitches are traditional and many of them have been forgotten, because people really do not have the time, energy, or the inclination to sit for hours, doing embroidery on a hoop, like a lady of leisure or like Mary Queen of Scots, with her 4 Mary's, her ladies in waiting, who were her constant companions at court and during her long years of imprisonment, where they just sat quietly, throughout the day, embroidering pieces of fine art. Needlepoint is normally done on canvas, which is a sturdy fabric built to last. It is an open weave fabric. It is used as a basic framework for the stitches that you are going to work into it. It is available in a large number of weaves, and the sizes are arranged according to the number of threads present vertically per inch.