I remember I was at the airport, this lady had a huge cross stitch she was doing, it was a good 5 ft tall probably 3 ft across. She said she'd been working on it for 20 years. She was almost done. It was beautiful. It was a medieval unicorn tapestry with a beautiful ornate border. She said she wanted to have it done to give to her son before she passed away.
My son married a lovely Chinese woman while working in China. As one of their wedding gifts, I wanted to celebrate her heritage. I found an exquisite xstitch pattern of the Great Wall of China. It was more of a xstitch mural at 6’ wide and 24” tall. I knew that was too massive, there wasn’t a wall wide enough to accommodate it! I solved the issue by choosing a quarter of a panel. The panel was ~18” across and 2’ tall. I kept a diary while I worked. It took a little over 9 months of 4-5 hours a day to complete. I needed to have it finished by the time her spousal visa was approved. It became a daily routine. I purchased longer wooden dowels to fit on my wooden floor mounted frame. I had a floor light/magnifier to help me with the stitches. Then I just began. The color instructions were a must. My panel had 16 full pages. I started at the center right top, then left top, then right bottom, then left bottom…. And just kept going one stitch, one section, one page at a time. I began the fall of 2019 (COVID in China) and completed it in the late spring of 2020 (COVID in USA). COVID, embassies closings and the incredibly inefficient (legal) immigration system delayed their arrival till summer of 2021. The Wall was professionally framed and they both loved it! Hope you enjoyed my own LARGE xstitch project story!! Dianne NY
I store all my floss in numerical order in several of the plastic cases like yours. When I’m starting a new project, I use another plastic storage case that not only holds the floss bobbins, but has a long slot to hold my scissors. I go thru the other cases and pull out the colors I need. This way I can carry my scissors, needles and floss and whatever else I need in what I call my project case. When I’ve completed my project, I return the bobbins to the other cases and prepare to pull out the colors needed for the next project!
For my third-ever cross-stitching project I've decided to do a huge poster-size full-coverage pattern. Not sure if this is confidence or just hubris. Either way, this video was super helpful, and I'm very glad I watched it before buying my supplies! Thanks for the encouragement and great advice!!
I LOVE HAED!!! I have done several - I just wanted to share another way to set up the floss for a big project - or any project. I have a large lazy Susan I use and the little ziplock floss bags on a metal ring - I put them in numerical order and place on top of the lazy Susan - it’s so easy to find the threads I need when I’m switching them so much. If I knew how to post a pic I would show you!! Thank you so very much for this video!! God bless and happy stitching!!
I know I am several years late for this video, but I loved it. Especially about the cost savings of larger pieces. I am about to start my first large piece and it is mainly because I enjoy stitching, but I don't want to keep storing or finding places to put all the smaller/ couple of weeks projects. With a big one I can keep stitching and I won't have this build up of smaller pieces I don't know what to do with. 😊
I am glad that the point of choosing the pattern was discussed. I find it very hard to do embroidery on request and now stopped taking requests. I am about to embark on a major project which will take a couple of years to complete and can only do it because the image is that of my beloved doggie.. I came across this video because I am researching info in prep of it and I am very grateful to the author of it :)
This video is amazing. The naturalness with which you spoke made me feel like you're talking to me in real life. Your information was so so so good you really helped me understand so so much. This was very engaging. Thank you very very much for sharing this, it really helped💕
About to start a 30in. By 30in. Tapestry soon and wow. I need to grid, I’m so bad at counting and paying attention bc of my adhd and i think it will help me MASSIVELY! Thank you, this is a great video full of valuable information!
Thanks, Jules. I love this video. I am preparing to start my first “full coverage” project and needed your enthusiasm and hints to confidently move forward. It will be a Christmas present for my son and his fiancé that is a copy of a photo of their beloved puppy. One thing I wanted to mention is that I organized my floss into the little plastic bags with the name, number and symbol on them and then hooked them together with two large rings through the holes in the bags.
I have a tip that changed my life: I get a rectangular piece of styrofoam....I wrap it in plastic wrap...I use a sharpie to draw circles and label each color number and symbol on the wrapped styrofoam...I thread every color on the pattern, and stick the treaded needle in the circle on the styrofoam accordingly. When you change colors, you simply pull a threaded needle from your styrofoam pin cushion. I make several threaded needles for large color areas, like sky. I only do full cross stitch patterns. I also use a pencil to shade each 10 x 10 section as I go. My aunt actually cuts it out an tosses it. That’s extreme!
Man...THANK YOU! . cross stitched for years but never wanted to tackle the REALLY big projects I had in my stash. The worry amd anxiety I.would get took all the fun away. So thank you so much for all of this knowledge amd for.sharing it with us. You really are helping people, seriously, you really helped me get over that crap and back into doing something that IS FUN AGAIN...NOT WORRYSOME. This and your other video, how to set up and start a cross stitch project, have absolutely been invaluable tools and helped me get back at it again...FINALLY!!!! Its been too long. Way way WAY too long!! So..I just wanted to say thank you. THANK YOU. THANK YOU! You have helped me overcome, and way WAY more than u could ever know. 🥰🥰😘😘Love ya lady! YOURE AWESOME.
I love this tutorial and will be checking out more of yours very soon. I too love large projects, with as much detail as possible, and I am so blessed to have a floor frame that my husband made for me years and years ago to use with scroll rods, which are absolutely awesome. I, too, have had repetitive strain injuries to my hands, wrists, elbows and neck, none of which were operable, so I have had to find a way to live with them and still enjoy my favourite hobby - needlework. Scroll rods on a floor frame are amazing, because I don't have to hold the fabric and/or hoop, and it saves me from aggravating my injuries. I will be 70 in 2 months time, and just can't live without my embroidery, especially since my husband passed away 12 months ago from lung cancer. I actually gave up embroidery for many years because of my husbands ill health, but after he passed, of course I still had all my supplies (and I'm a hoarder of the worst kind), and when I started to look at what was available online in the way of patterns, etc, I was flabbergasted. I am working on a Z'AnnaCrossStitch design which I found on Etsy, and have several more of her designs, which are HUGE. I have a Noah's Ark design that I want to do for myself which is 900 x 700 stitches using 240 colours, and I'm going to work it 1 strand of floss over 1 thread of 32 count fabric, and it will be close to 3 ft wide when it is finished. Looking forward to see some of your other work, and thank you so much for sharing your ideas, most of which are exactly the same as mine. HUGS!!!!
Absolutely love your personality. Thank you for helping me understand better, and yes, I'm crazy too! I'm old now, hahaha, and need to see better and this will really help. Stay safe.
Hi there Jules, I started a large project this Christmas for the first time. Followed all your logic and organisation tips, but on top of all of them, I have a notebook in my project bag. I have a notebook because I bought myself a Stopwatch! Every time I sit down for a sewing session, I click it on and at the end I click it to stop! Every time it crosses the 24 hours point, it restarts itself and I enter the date and the 24 hours on my book. It is amazing at the end to add up and see how many hours you have spent sewing your piece. At a £ or a $ an hour for our labour, nobody could afford us! We have very valuable pieces of work. Lorna x x x x
I just LOVE that video. I have started cross stitch about two months ago. Sadly, I had to frog many times and I almost abandonned the idea of cross stitching. Then with U Tube, I have discoverd griding and on top of line crossing at each 10th line, I also mark the center of that square. It has greatly helped. I also am trying to work with parking threads. A bit hard for me, but I guess I'll get better with time. Q Snap have been a challenge with me since I have arthritis and could get my embroidery off the QSnap. Someone told me to insert a strong ribbon before snapping your fabric so it is easier to just pull on ribbon to get your stuff out. I am now a follower's of your channel.
I just recently got back into cross stitching from years of not doing it! I’m kicking myself... Past years I have started two large beautiful cross stitch projects and each time I ended up donating to good will! Now I wish I kept them... I thought I would never finish them since it took me years to just get them half done! Now I want to get another to prove to myself I can do it! 😄😂🤪
You and I do so many things the same..the whole time you were explaining I was nodding my head. Love your videos, I have subscribed and look forward to watching more to come. I have been stitching for almost 50 years, I started when I was 12 and just turned 60, but I feel your never to old to learn some tricks,tips others may have. I have done large pieces in the past and though finished swore never again!..lol hence my next project is 25 x 36! They say never say never..lol I'm still not sure if I want to tackle it in 18 or keep with the 14. I need magnifying glasses with 14 so 18 might be a stretch.? Thanks for the video.
As usual, great video, Jules! I hope you have given reluctant stitchers the confidence they need to work on larger, full coverage pieces, because there really is nothing that compares to the feeling of completing one. The only thing I might hazard to add is to try ALL the things! Try parking, and railroading, and all the different ways of storage, and different needles, hoops, fabrics, and threads. Try counting pins! (Ok, maybe my age is showing a bit with that one.) My point is there are so many ways to do any single thing, that it's not hard to find someone who already has a solution for you to take out and test drive - and you never know, you might be inspired to come up with something new that we all need to know about. Just enjoy it. If you're trying something and it's not fun, don't do it anymore. There are no CS police, and no judgments. Just hours of joy.
I started cross stitching this past Christmas. I'm working on a Dimensions pattern, that's 14x11. I am gathering supplies to make my favorite album cover, which will be full coverage. I cant wait to start it.
I am so happy I found you!!!! I myself am a self taught crosstitcher and I just learned today that the crosstitch I love to do is called full coverage crosstitch!! Yes I have alot to learn in terms of technical crosstitch words like frogging lol
Love your ideas. In order to keep cost down I use ziploc snack bags instead of the floss away bags. I clip the floss number off the skein of thread and tape it on the inside of the bag. Just finished a 15 year project. Bunch of lilacs by scarlet quince. The challenge of a lifetime. Love a lot of they patterns but not sure I want to tackle another. It did turn out beautiful!
Your work is exceptional, and you pretty much got me to start cross stitching! Thank you so much for all of the time you put into your love of cross stitch, it's so inspiring!
I love the time you take to explain the cost effectiveness of larger projects, definitely not something I considered! Also the encouragement, you are like the girls basketball coach of cross stitching!
That was the best video I've watched out FC cross stitch, many that I've watched have almost in a round-about way said that if you're not using a high count evenweave you're not really a cross stitcher. It's a little bit like knitters who say you're not really a knitter unless you knit continental style. So heart-warming to hear you use a lot of 14 count Aida. I probably wouldn't do a FC but maybe just a bigger size cross stitch than I normally would have done, at 68 my eyesight isn't that great either. Also that you use a smaller hoop and move it around! I'm in Australia floss here is $1.10 a skein at the moment and that's good, everything here costs more but then our wages are higher.
I stumbled across your video doing research on a very major project of mine. Long story short my mother in law is amazing, and her dog daisy was the best dog, she was her emotial support animal and sadly we had to put her down last month. I found a site to make a pattern from a picture. So I took a photo of daisy and made a pattern. I'm planning to cross stich that picture and frame it and give it to her as a gift. But I'm nervous because this would be the biggest cross stitch project I would attempt and I want it to be perfect. I'm I'm excited to start gathering the supplies and start working on it. I need to print out the pattern still to see just how big it would be but I'm just so excited to start this. Thank you for this video. It was amazing and filled with useful tips.
Really love your viendo you speak up and are very clear in your opinions and directions. First time watching you looking forward for more information. Thank you Sue
Holy mac & chz! You do the grid likes like that! That is amazing! I lose count and always get something wrong. I will be looking into doing this. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I know that cross-stitching isn't a big thing right now but I enjoy it and this video really helped me with a big pattern I was going to work on. thank you.
Thanks - especially the remarks about patterns - I agree it is so important to choose the correct one. Love your large project bag which I suspect is more easily available in the US. One small correction which I am sure won't bother most of your watchers that was the Houses of Parliament (in the foreground) not Westminster Abbey which is the grey building in the background!
I started putting my current project in a book sleeve if it’s not too big with the floss in the little floss bags hooked onto a carabiner clip and a little case for the scissors and needles. It keeps it pretty safe when I travel with it.
Thank you so much for making this video. I am a newbie and learning how to cross-stitch from RUclips tutorials. This was a great tutorial. I feel very overwhelmed with cross-stitching especially with the large projects and the different cloths. After watching this I feel confident that I can take on a large project.
Thank you so much for the advice Jules, I am just waiting till I get all my threads for my project before I start it. This is the 1st big project I am starting. I have really learnt a lot from the videos Keep them coming PLEASE XXXX
Thank you for making this video. I have not seen it before. I have just bought myself a heaven and earth design and, like most, I am hoping it will go well. This will be a first really large project for me. I'm glad that so far I have done everything on your suggested list. I think what I really like is motivation , or is it that that is being replaced by fear ( lots of money spent and fear of a horrible or abandoned end result). You know what they say about the road to hell...
thank you so much! I learnt to cross stitch when I was a child, about 7-8 years old, and didnt get back to it until this year, 29 years old and I was quick to pick it back up but was focusing on kits where everything just comes as is and no need to worry. But my latest project is a PDF pattern so it was a whole new world for me, not having a pattern printed onto the canvas, not having everything provided BUT its turning out beautifully and I'm very happy with it. It's a smaller piece (I'm using a 25cm hoop to give context, it all fits inside of that) so I dont feel too overwhelmed. But I've just found my next project and I'm excited but scared about it! It's a free PDF but doesn't give a whole lot of details about what to actually do, basically just the pattern and colours. All it says is 300x180 but now I'm looking at it and I have no idea what size that is, what count canvas I should use or how many strands 😱 I am thinking of doing 18 count because that is the most common I can find where I live, do I just do 300/18 and 180/18 to get the size canvas I need in inches? and 2 strands sounds about right for 18 count?
hI JULES , I FOUND YOUR STICING BASICS GOOD. I AM A BEGINNER AT THE HOBBY, AND WHEN I MEAN A BEGINNER, I MEAN I HAVEN'T EVEN BOUGHT ANYTHING IN THE WAY OF A PATTERN, AND / OR ANY OTHER ITEM , SUCH AS FLOSS, HOOP, ETC. I AM SOMEONE THAT REALLY NEEDS TO BE HELD BY THE HAND, SO TO SPEAK, IN ORDER TO FOLLOW , AND REALLY GRASP THE IDEA, TILL I GET THE HANG OF WHAT I WANT, AND NEED TO DO. SO I HOPE I CAN COUNT ON YOU FOR HELP. THANKS FOR THE INFO I ALREADY RECEIVED.
I love your video and personality! You truest love cross stitching and it’s fabulous! As a beginner, I found your video extremely helpful. I would love to know more about loading your Aida fabric on a hoop, making your fabric more manageable as when you first buy Aida, it is very stiff, and also watch you as you organize your threads on the bobbins i.e separating your threads, winding them, etc. You definitely have me as a subscriber and thank you for your video!
OMG! I've always marked the grid by sewing a contrasting thread every 10 squares, it is a necessary pain in the neck....i've nver thought of using a marker! Game changer!
At 71, I agree w your preference of 14- count aida. I also xerox my Haed 150% on 11” x 27” paper at FedEx and the symbols chart. Seeing a whole enlarged page at a glance is much easier to find the symbols. Plus I’m not starring at a computer screen which cannot give me a whole enlarged page. Much easier on the eyes, don’t have to turn computer on and off, save electricity, and can’t accidentally erase my finished portion
I am hopeless at organizing my supplies. I seem to want to dive straight in and other than putting charts, pictures, instructions etc.in plastic envelopes everything else I don't sort out till I need it. Having said that I am a very good cross stitcher with many completed pieces. I am very neat on the front and on the back of my work. The reason I am saying this is that I love my stitching and want others who might be daunted by the complexity of the "advice", which often stems on the organizing of everything, may need some cheering from me. Just do it, have a go and learn as you go along, it's half the fun. Happy stitching.
Great video! I've done several large (full-coverage) projects but I'm getting ready to start my largest to date which is about 120K stitches. It is a fractal pattern from Cross Stitch Collectibles. I prefer a small hoop when working on these too. When I do large projects I always make sure to highlight my pattern as I go so that I can easily track what I've finished. I also determine where my top left corner is on my material and the stitch a TL way up in the corner. Often with large projects the corners are just background and it can be confusing to determine if that is the top or bottom of the project, so that is why I stitch a TL in the corner. The last thing I will mention is that usually on Black Friday week Joanne's has their DMC floss really cheap so I typically purchase all the floss that I will need for the entire year of stitiching (sure I add a few unplanned projects throughout the year, but this takes care of most). For example in 2018 I have 28 projects planned to start this year so I determined what DMC floss I needed (about 350 skiens) and purchase them all at once. Happy Stitching Jules!
Stitching Jules I'm sure I won't finish them all. 2017 has been the year from hell. It started with my wife having knee surgery, then a major house fire, then my sister passed, and lastly I broke my right arm in August and it still hasn't healed... So 2018 is the year of fresh starts in our house, hence all the new stitchy starts...
@@xoxo77778 Thanks Lacey. Things have been good. I'm doing things a bit different for 2019. I'm doing a new start on the first of each month and a new start every Sunday. So far it is working out well. I've already finished 9 projects for 2019 and I have 3 or 4 I will likely finish this month (March 2019). Some of my new starts are small and some are large. Besides the fractal that I continue to work on, the other really large project that I started on January 1 is Let Freedom Ring by Lila's Studio. I'm about 1/3 of the way finished with it.
Hi Jules. I love you videos. If you ever have time, would you show how you put a large large material on your hoop and what you do with excess material so it’s not bothering your stitching. Again I love all your videos. Thank you
I don’t know if your still stitching, but I wish I’d had discovered you before I started my stitch. I started one in 2013 then my wife passed away from CF. I put it on hold until today. It’s got over 60 colors and I’m just overwhelmed.
I stitch w pregridded fabric and use my blue marker to number the columns and mark the intersecting lines, not the entire line. Agree w so much of what you say.
:D I've stitched that frog one! My grandma bought me the kit when I first started out in cross stitching. My current 2 ongoing projects are both full coverage.
I've been cross stitching on and off since I was 8 and I'm thinking of finally doing a full coverage piece after my current project. I'm honestly very intimidated and I'm having a heck of a time trying to find the cloth big enough for it. The pattern is 35"x20" and I've never used grids before but they sound perfect for this! Thank you for your advice!
Great video! Thank you so much! I’ve been working on my large project for a year and a half now and I don’t know anyone else who does it so I was feeling very self conscious about how long it was taking me and some of my techniques and you make it seem so easy and casual
Thanks so much for this! New sub here, been stitching for 20+ years but I'm about to start my first big project. Well, big for me; 19" x 27". Thanks again, happy stitching!
Thanks so much for this video. I found it extremely helpful. I've done a lot of small cross-stitch projects and will be starting my first large project as soon as I get all the materials for it. Really found the grid method very helpful, because I really feel like that will help me out a whole lot. Thanks 😊
Thanks so much for sharing all your knowledge! I love your enthusiasm and open attitude. I'm hoping to tackle a full coverage soon and this really helps. Adele (watching from Yorkshire in the UK).
Thank you for the advice, I’m currently looking into doing a large project of the Galaxy and I thought I should look into whether there were any easier ways to do it. So far the biggest I’ve done is a touch larger than an A4 and I just printed the pages to my new project and it printed onto 20 pages. Thank you for the tips, defo going to give gridding a try, and I didn’t even know thread boxes exist so I’ll be purchasing that very soon.
Great video Jules! Love your videos. I’m glad you are getting ready to start the baseball pattern. I like it. Great point about the expense of large projects. The time it takes for them it ends up being a reasonable cost! Love the see your stuff bags! I have 3 of them that I use for my large full coverage projects.
Thanks Jules. Getting ready for my first big project and a bit intimidated. Like the project bag idea. I don't have lots a room and I always worry about misplacing something I really need.
Love the video, saved me time not having to figure everything for myself :) I just wanted to say that the building in the London cross stitch is Westminster Palace (Parliament building)
nice it was. i serched for base ball in cross stitch collectibles but did not see it. think of starting a big project to relieve myself daily after work
this was so helpful, you’re energy explaining everything was so motivating & gave me that extra encouragement to rlly start a project i’ve been too overwhelmed to begin because of the size. thank you!
This is my first video of you and I love it!! And the motivational notes you gave 🥺 It makes me feel more better that I should start a full coverage project. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for helping me. I appreciate it very much. It was very helpful. Now I can't wait to start on my project. I have had it for years. Lorraine.
So glad i found your video. I really thought i was a little crazy starting such a big project. Especially for my first one. But its like you said. I absolutely fell in love with the pattern and figure if i worked on one project that i really loved for a year or two It would mean more to me when its finally done. I have a 18 by 20 25 count disney piece. I started it towards the end of january but i love it so much. As far as organization goes, ij keep all my printed pattern sheets in a folder seperated by row. The floss was listed onto 5 different pages so i have put each one into a bigger floss bag with the corresponding floss to keep everything organized along with a extra pattern key for my folder for easier navigation. Then all of that goes into a craft box together. For me its working well and keeps me organized. Im using a hoop currently but i might try something else soon. I tried a scroll frame but it was too much for such a big project to me.
Just found your blog and YT sites. Thank you so much for doing these vids. I've been stitching for many many years and just a few years ago decided to tackle a crazybigGigantor project from HAED. I'm learning a lot from you. I love that you are in Denver as my extended family is in Steamboat. Glad to be getting to know ya!
This was so helpful. I've done large full coverage projects (or what I thought were large before I saw your example) but it's been years and I've forgotten a lot of the little details about how I kept things organized.
you are amazing..i love your videos...😍😍
I remember I was at the airport, this lady had a huge cross stitch she was doing, it was a good 5 ft tall probably 3 ft across. She said she'd been working on it for 20 years. She was almost done. It was beautiful. It was a medieval unicorn tapestry with a beautiful ornate border. She said she wanted to have it done to give to her son before she passed away.
What a beautiful history!
🎉@@fernandapauladasilva36
My son married a lovely Chinese woman while working in China. As one of their wedding gifts, I wanted to celebrate her heritage. I found an exquisite xstitch pattern of the Great Wall of China. It was more of a xstitch mural at 6’ wide and 24” tall. I knew that was too massive, there wasn’t a wall wide enough to accommodate it! I solved the issue by choosing a quarter of a panel. The panel was ~18” across and 2’ tall. I kept a diary while I worked. It took a little over 9 months of 4-5 hours a day to complete. I needed to have it finished by the time her spousal visa was approved. It became a daily routine.
I purchased longer wooden dowels to fit on my wooden floor mounted frame. I had a floor light/magnifier to help me with the stitches. Then I just began. The color instructions were a must. My panel had 16 full pages. I started at the center right top, then left top, then right bottom, then left bottom….
And just kept going one stitch, one section, one page at a time.
I began the fall of 2019 (COVID in China) and completed it in the late spring of 2020 (COVID in USA). COVID, embassies closings and the incredibly inefficient (legal) immigration system delayed their arrival till summer of 2021. The Wall was professionally framed and they both loved it!
Hope you enjoyed my own LARGE xstitch project story!!
Dianne NY
I store all my floss in numerical order in several of the plastic cases like yours. When I’m starting a new project, I use another plastic storage case that not only holds the floss bobbins, but has a long slot to hold my scissors. I go thru the other cases and pull out the colors I need. This way I can carry my scissors, needles and floss and whatever else I need in what I call my project case. When I’ve completed my project, I return the bobbins to the other cases and prepare to pull out the colors needed for the next project!
For my third-ever cross-stitching project I've decided to do a huge poster-size full-coverage pattern. Not sure if this is confidence or just hubris. Either way, this video was super helpful, and I'm very glad I watched it before buying my supplies! Thanks for the encouragement and great advice!!
Your large London piece is gorgeous!
I LOVE HAED!!! I have done several - I just wanted to share another way to set up the floss for a big project - or any project. I have a large lazy Susan I use and the little ziplock floss bags on a metal ring - I put them in numerical order and place on top of the lazy Susan - it’s so easy to find the threads I need when I’m switching them so much. If I knew how to post a pic I would show you!! Thank you so very much for this video!! God bless and happy stitching!!
I know I am several years late for this video, but I loved it. Especially about the cost savings of larger pieces. I am about to start my first large piece and it is mainly because I enjoy stitching, but I don't want to keep storing or finding places to put all the smaller/ couple of weeks projects. With a big one I can keep stitching and I won't have this build up of smaller pieces I don't know what to do with. 😊
I am glad that the point of choosing the pattern was discussed. I find it very hard to do embroidery on request and now stopped taking requests. I am about to embark on a major project which will take a couple of years to complete and can only do it because the image is that of my beloved doggie.. I came across this video because I am researching info in prep of it and I am very grateful to the author of it :)
You are so welcome! Good luck with your project!! :)
This video is so inspiring! I rotate between crafts and I have just circled back to cross stitch. Thank you for the wonderful tips 💖
This video is amazing. The naturalness with which you spoke made me feel like you're talking to me in real life. Your information was so so so good you really helped me understand so so much. This was very engaging. Thank you very very much for sharing this, it really helped💕
About to start a 30in. By 30in. Tapestry soon and wow. I need to grid, I’m so bad at counting and paying attention bc of my adhd and i think it will help me MASSIVELY! Thank you, this is a great video full of valuable information!
Thanks, Jules. I love this video. I am preparing to start my first “full coverage” project and needed your enthusiasm and hints to confidently move forward. It will be a Christmas present for my son and his fiancé that is a copy of a photo of their beloved puppy. One thing I wanted to mention is that I organized my floss into the little plastic bags with the name, number and symbol on them and then hooked them together with two large rings through the holes in the bags.
I have a tip that changed my life: I get a rectangular piece of styrofoam....I wrap it in plastic wrap...I use a sharpie to draw circles and label each color number and symbol on the wrapped styrofoam...I thread every color on the pattern, and stick the treaded needle in the circle on the styrofoam accordingly. When you change colors, you simply pull a threaded needle from your styrofoam pin cushion. I make several threaded needles for large color areas, like sky. I only do full cross stitch patterns. I also use a pencil to shade each 10 x 10 section as I go. My aunt actually cuts it out an tosses it. That’s extreme!
What a great and inexpensive idea!
Man...THANK YOU! . cross stitched for years but never wanted to tackle the REALLY big projects I had in my stash. The worry amd anxiety I.would get took all the fun away. So thank you so much for all of this knowledge amd for.sharing it with us. You really are helping people, seriously, you really helped me get over that crap and back into doing something that IS FUN AGAIN...NOT WORRYSOME. This and your other video, how to set up and start a cross stitch project, have absolutely been invaluable tools and helped me get back at it again...FINALLY!!!! Its been too long. Way way WAY too long!! So..I just wanted to say thank you. THANK YOU. THANK YOU! You have helped me overcome, and way WAY more than u could ever know. 🥰🥰😘😘Love ya lady! YOURE AWESOME.
Thanks for the video. I have a 320,000 stitch project I am eyeballing and this video helped.
I love this tutorial and will be checking out more of yours very soon. I too love large projects, with as much detail as possible, and I am so blessed to have a floor frame that my husband made for me years and years ago to use with scroll rods, which are absolutely awesome. I, too, have had repetitive strain injuries to my hands, wrists, elbows and neck, none of which were operable, so I have had to find a way to live with them and still enjoy my favourite hobby - needlework. Scroll rods on a floor frame are amazing, because I don't have to hold the fabric and/or hoop, and it saves me from aggravating my injuries. I will be 70 in 2 months time, and just can't live without my embroidery, especially since my husband passed away 12 months ago from lung cancer. I actually gave up embroidery for many years because of my husbands ill health, but after he passed, of course I still had all my supplies (and I'm a hoarder of the worst kind), and when I started to look at what was available online in the way of patterns, etc, I was flabbergasted. I am working on a Z'AnnaCrossStitch design which I found on Etsy, and have several more of her designs, which are HUGE. I have a Noah's Ark design that I want to do for myself which is 900 x 700 stitches using 240 colours, and I'm going to work it 1 strand of floss over 1 thread of 32 count fabric, and it will be close to 3 ft wide when it is finished. Looking forward to see some of your other work, and thank you so much for sharing your ideas, most of which are exactly the same as mine. HUGS!!!!
Absolutely love your personality. Thank you for helping me understand better, and yes, I'm crazy too! I'm old now, hahaha, and need to see better and this will really help. Stay safe.
This is my comfort cross stitch video. Thank you so much for explaining everything. ❤
Hi there Jules,
I started a large project this Christmas for the first time. Followed all your logic and organisation tips, but on top of all of them, I have a notebook in my project bag. I have a notebook because I bought myself a Stopwatch!
Every time I sit down for a sewing session, I click it on and at the end I click it to stop! Every time it crosses the 24 hours point, it restarts itself and I enter the date and the 24 hours on my book. It is amazing at the end to add up and see how many hours you have spent sewing your piece.
At a £ or a $ an hour for our labour, nobody could afford us! We have very valuable pieces of work.
Lorna
x x x x
What a wonderful idea. I'm going to run right out and get a stop watch as soon as possible.
Christine Chipman. Thanks Chris, it's fascinating to see how those sessions mount up. Good Luck Hun, have fun.
Lorna
x x x x x
I just LOVE that video. I have started cross stitch about two months ago. Sadly, I had to frog many times and I almost abandonned the idea of cross stitching. Then with U Tube, I have discoverd griding and on top of line crossing at each 10th line, I also mark the center of that square. It has greatly helped. I also am trying to work with parking threads. A bit hard for me, but I guess I'll get better with time. Q Snap have been a challenge with me since I have arthritis and could get my embroidery off the QSnap. Someone told me to insert a strong ribbon before snapping your fabric so it is easier to just pull on ribbon to get your stuff out. I am now a follower's of your channel.
I just recently got back into cross stitching from years of not doing it! I’m kicking myself... Past years I have started two large beautiful cross stitch projects and each time I ended up donating to good will! Now I wish I kept them... I thought I would never finish them since it took me years to just get them half done! Now I want to get another to prove to myself I can do it! 😄😂🤪
Love, love, love, your passion for what you do and the passion for teaching and encouraging us. I am feeling so well after this video. Yeah!!!❤️
I was doing this in school and got so addicted I would not stop until the bell rang
Great video am about to start my first full coverage cross stitch piece,great tips,Thankyou for sharing 🇳🇿❤️🪡
Thanks Jules. I don't tend to do the larger scale pieces, but I love your passion for them. It makes me contemplate the possibilities.
You and I do so many things the same..the whole time you were explaining I was nodding my head. Love your videos, I have subscribed and look forward to watching more to come. I have been stitching for almost 50 years, I started when I was 12 and just turned 60, but I feel your never to old to learn some tricks,tips others may have. I have done large pieces in the past and though finished swore never again!..lol hence my next project is 25 x 36! They say never say never..lol I'm still not sure if I want to tackle it in 18 or keep with the 14. I need magnifying glasses with 14 so 18 might be a stretch.? Thanks for the video.
As usual, great video, Jules! I hope you have given reluctant stitchers the confidence they need to work on larger, full coverage pieces, because there really is nothing that compares to the feeling of completing one. The only thing I might hazard to add is to try ALL the things! Try parking, and railroading, and all the different ways of storage, and different needles, hoops, fabrics, and threads. Try counting pins! (Ok, maybe my age is showing a bit with that one.) My point is there are so many ways to do any single thing, that it's not hard to find someone who already has a solution for you to take out and test drive - and you never know, you might be inspired to come up with something new that we all need to know about. Just enjoy it. If you're trying something and it's not fun, don't do it anymore. There are no CS police, and no judgments. Just hours of joy.
I feel a little better starting "Stary Night"...a little😱. Thank you sooooo much🤗
I must be crazy too. On any type of project I always go big or go home. Haha
You and me both 😂
I started cross stitching this past Christmas. I'm working on a Dimensions pattern, that's 14x11. I am gathering supplies to make my favorite album cover, which will be full coverage. I cant wait to start it.
Greetings from the uk, just found your RUclips channel and I have just learnt how to grid my fabric! Thank you.
Thank you this video. I am working on my first full coverage. I wish I had seen this before I started.
Okay - you just blew me away with the griding technique! I had never seen nor been taught that! How exciting! Love Love Love this video in 2021! :)
I am so happy I found you!!!! I myself am a self taught crosstitcher and I just learned today that the crosstitch I love to do is called full coverage crosstitch!! Yes I have alot to learn in terms of technical crosstitch words like frogging lol
This was super helpful! I am preparing to start my first HAED (God's Loving Touch)! Thank you for taking the time to make this video!!
Love your ideas. In order to keep cost down I use ziploc snack bags instead of the floss away bags. I clip the floss number off the skein of thread and tape it on the inside of the bag. Just finished a 15 year project. Bunch of lilacs by scarlet quince. The challenge of a lifetime. Love a lot of they patterns but not sure I want to tackle another. It did turn out beautiful!
Your work is exceptional, and you pretty much got me to start cross stitching! Thank you so much for all of the time you put into your love of cross stitch, it's so inspiring!
I love the time you take to explain the cost effectiveness of larger projects, definitely not something I considered! Also the encouragement, you are like the girls basketball coach of cross stitching!
That was the best video I've watched out FC cross stitch, many that I've watched have almost in a round-about way said that if you're not using a high count evenweave you're not really a cross stitcher. It's a little bit like knitters who say you're not really a knitter unless you knit continental style. So heart-warming to hear you use a lot of 14 count Aida. I probably wouldn't do a FC but maybe just a bigger size cross stitch than I normally would have done, at 68 my eyesight isn't that great either. Also that you use a smaller hoop and move it around! I'm in Australia floss here is $1.10 a skein at the moment and that's good, everything here costs more but then our wages are higher.
I stumbled across your video doing research on a very major project of mine. Long story short my mother in law is amazing, and her dog daisy was the best dog, she was her emotial support animal and sadly we had to put her down last month. I found a site to make a pattern from a picture. So I took a photo of daisy and made a pattern. I'm planning to cross stich that picture and frame it and give it to her as a gift. But I'm nervous because this would be the biggest cross stitch project I would attempt and I want it to be perfect. I'm I'm excited to start gathering the supplies and start working on it. I need to print out the pattern still to see just how big it would be but I'm just so excited to start this.
Thank you for this video. It was amazing and filled with useful tips.
My favorite part was 12:32 when you said: "☺️.....hi"
Really love your viendo you speak up and are very clear in your opinions and directions. First time watching you looking forward for more information. Thank you Sue
Holy mac & chz! You do the grid likes like that! That is amazing! I lose count and always get something wrong. I will be looking into doing this. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I know that cross-stitching isn't a big thing right now but I enjoy it and this video really helped me with a big pattern I was going to work on. thank you.
Thanks - especially the remarks about patterns - I agree it is so important to choose the correct one. Love your large project bag which I suspect is more easily available in the US.
One small correction which I am sure won't bother most of your watchers that was the Houses of Parliament (in the foreground) not Westminster Abbey which is the grey building in the background!
Think I'm in love with you Jules - just started a new large project and found your video very informative. All the best, James
Yes, this is how I am stitching & storing.....
Thanks
I started putting my current project in a book sleeve if it’s not too big with the floss in the little floss bags hooked onto a carabiner clip and a little case for the scissors and needles. It keeps it pretty safe when I travel with it.
Thank you so much for making this video. I am a newbie and learning how to cross-stitch from RUclips tutorials. This was a great tutorial. I feel very overwhelmed with cross-stitching especially with the large projects and the different cloths. After watching this I feel confident that I can take on a large project.
Thank you so much for the advice Jules, I am just waiting till I get all my threads for my project before I start it.
This is the 1st big project I am starting.
I have really learnt a lot from the videos Keep them coming
PLEASE XXXX
Thank you for making this video. I have not seen it before. I have just bought myself a heaven and earth design and, like most, I am hoping it will go well. This will be a first really large project for me. I'm glad that so far I have done everything on your suggested list. I think what I really like is motivation , or is it that that is being replaced by fear ( lots of money spent and fear of a horrible or abandoned end result). You know what they say about the road to hell...
thank you so much! I learnt to cross stitch when I was a child, about 7-8 years old, and didnt get back to it until this year, 29 years old and I was quick to pick it back up but was focusing on kits where everything just comes as is and no need to worry. But my latest project is a PDF pattern so it was a whole new world for me, not having a pattern printed onto the canvas, not having everything provided BUT its turning out beautifully and I'm very happy with it. It's a smaller piece (I'm using a 25cm hoop to give context, it all fits inside of that) so I dont feel too overwhelmed. But I've just found my next project and I'm excited but scared about it! It's a free PDF but doesn't give a whole lot of details about what to actually do, basically just the pattern and colours. All it says is 300x180 but now I'm looking at it and I have no idea what size that is, what count canvas I should use or how many strands 😱 I am thinking of doing 18 count because that is the most common I can find where I live, do I just do 300/18 and 180/18 to get the size canvas I need in inches? and 2 strands sounds about right for 18 count?
hI JULES , I FOUND YOUR STICING BASICS GOOD. I AM A BEGINNER AT THE HOBBY, AND WHEN I MEAN A BEGINNER, I MEAN I HAVEN'T EVEN BOUGHT ANYTHING IN THE WAY OF A PATTERN, AND / OR ANY OTHER ITEM , SUCH AS FLOSS, HOOP, ETC. I AM SOMEONE THAT REALLY NEEDS TO BE HELD BY THE HAND, SO TO SPEAK, IN ORDER TO FOLLOW , AND REALLY GRASP THE IDEA, TILL I GET THE HANG OF WHAT I WANT, AND NEED TO DO. SO I HOPE I CAN COUNT ON YOU FOR HELP. THANKS FOR THE INFO I ALREADY RECEIVED.
I love your video and personality! You truest love cross stitching and it’s fabulous! As a beginner, I found your video extremely helpful. I would love to know more about loading your Aida fabric on a hoop, making your fabric more manageable as when you first buy Aida, it is very stiff, and also watch you as you organize your threads on the bobbins i.e separating your threads, winding them, etc. You definitely have me as a subscriber and thank you for your video!
OMG! I've always marked the grid by sewing a contrasting thread every 10 squares, it is a necessary pain in the neck....i've nver thought of using a marker! Game changer!
At 71, I agree w your preference of 14- count aida. I also xerox my Haed 150% on 11” x 27” paper at FedEx and the symbols chart. Seeing a whole enlarged page at a glance is much easier to find the symbols. Plus I’m not starring at a computer screen which cannot give me a whole enlarged page. Much easier on the eyes, don’t have to turn computer on and off, save electricity, and can’t accidentally erase my finished portion
I am hopeless at organizing my supplies. I seem to want to dive straight in and other than putting charts, pictures, instructions etc.in plastic envelopes everything else I don't sort out till I need it. Having said that I am a very good cross stitcher with many completed pieces. I am very neat on the front and on the back of my work. The reason I am saying this is that I love my stitching and want others who might be daunted by the complexity of the "advice", which often stems on the organizing of everything, may need some cheering from me. Just do it, have a go and learn as you go along, it's half the fun. Happy stitching.
Great video! I've done several large (full-coverage) projects but I'm getting ready to start my largest to date which is about 120K stitches. It is a fractal pattern from Cross Stitch Collectibles. I prefer a small hoop when working on these too. When I do large projects I always make sure to highlight my pattern as I go so that I can easily track what I've finished. I also determine where my top left corner is on my material and the stitch a TL way up in the corner. Often with large projects the corners are just background and it can be confusing to determine if that is the top or bottom of the project, so that is why I stitch a TL in the corner. The last thing I will mention is that usually on Black Friday week Joanne's has their DMC floss really cheap so I typically purchase all the floss that I will need for the entire year of stitiching (sure I add a few unplanned projects throughout the year, but this takes care of most). For example in 2018 I have 28 projects planned to start this year so I determined what DMC floss I needed (about 350 skiens) and purchase them all at once. Happy Stitching Jules!
Stitching Jules I'm sure I won't finish them all. 2017 has been the year from hell. It started with my wife having knee surgery, then a major house fire, then my sister passed, and lastly I broke my right arm in August and it still hasn't healed... So 2018 is the year of fresh starts in our house, hence all the new stitchy starts...
@@xoxo77778 Thanks Lacey. Things have been good. I'm doing things a bit different for 2019. I'm doing a new start on the first of each month and a new start every Sunday. So far it is working out well. I've already finished 9 projects for 2019 and I have 3 or 4 I will likely finish this month (March 2019). Some of my new starts are small and some are large. Besides the fractal that I continue to work on, the other really large project that I started on January 1 is Let Freedom Ring by Lila's Studio. I'm about 1/3 of the way finished with it.
Hi Jules. I love you videos. If you ever have time, would you show how you put a large large material on your hoop and what you do with excess material so it’s not bothering your stitching. Again I love all your videos. Thank you
I don’t know if your still stitching, but I wish I’d had discovered you before I started my stitch. I started one in 2013 then my wife passed away from CF. I put it on hold until today. It’s got over 60 colors and I’m just overwhelmed.
@@StitchingJulesDesign
Ok I will search. Thank you for encouraging me.
I stitch w pregridded fabric and use my blue marker to number the columns and mark the intersecting lines, not the entire line. Agree w so much of what you say.
These tips are awesome, thank you! Starting my first large full-coverage project and this is all really helpful.
I absolutely love your videos and large projects. Fabulous teaching. Gone to Crossstitch Collectibles. Love it.
:D I've stitched that frog one! My grandma bought me the kit when I first started out in cross stitching. My current 2 ongoing projects are both full coverage.
I've been cross stitching on and off since I was 8 and I'm thinking of finally doing a full coverage piece after my current project. I'm honestly very intimidated and I'm having a heck of a time trying to find the cloth big enough for it. The pattern is 35"x20" and I've never used grids before but they sound perfect for this! Thank you for your advice!
Great video! Thank you so much! I’ve been working on my large project for a year and a half now and I don’t know anyone else who does it so I was feeling very self conscious about how long it was taking me and some of my techniques and you make it seem so easy and casual
Thanks so much for this! New sub here, been stitching for 20+ years but I'm about to start my first big project. Well, big for me; 19" x 27". Thanks again, happy stitching!
Thanks so much for this video. I found it extremely helpful. I've done a lot of small cross-stitch projects and will be starting my first large project as soon as I get all the materials for it. Really found the grid method very helpful, because I really feel like that will help me out a whole lot. Thanks 😊
Thanks so much for sharing all your knowledge! I love your enthusiasm and open attitude. I'm hoping to tackle a full coverage soon and this really helps. Adele (watching from Yorkshire in the UK).
Thank you!!! I just got a fully covered 8x10 and project and I was like 😳, what did I get myself into! 😊. You made me feel better about it.
Very interesting to see how you do it. Thank you and happy stitching ✖️✖️✖️
Thank you for the advice, I’m currently looking into doing a large project of the Galaxy and I thought I should look into whether there were any easier ways to do it. So far the biggest I’ve done is a touch larger than an A4 and I just printed the pages to my new project and it printed onto 20 pages. Thank you for the tips, defo going to give gridding a try, and I didn’t even know thread boxes exist so I’ll be purchasing that very soon.
Thanks Jules, it help so much, now I'm ready to go !!!
Thanks so much for your great video! Love your fresh approach and your encouragement in that I can do a large project!
I love your video's too. I also like when you have stitching sessions.
Glad i finally found your channel
Great video Jules! Love your videos. I’m glad you are getting ready to start the baseball pattern. I like it. Great point about the expense of large projects. The time it takes for them it ends up being a reasonable cost! Love the see your stuff bags! I have 3 of them that I use for my large full coverage projects.
I've never gridded, going to try that now!
I haven't even started watching the video and I clicked like.;)
Thanks Jules. Getting ready for my first big project and a bit intimidated. Like the project bag idea. I don't have lots a room and I always worry about misplacing something I really need.
Love the video, saved me time not having to figure everything for myself :) I just wanted to say that the building in the London cross stitch is Westminster Palace (Parliament building)
nice it was. i serched for base ball in cross stitch collectibles but did not see it. think of starting a big project to relieve myself daily after work
this was so helpful, you’re energy explaining everything was so motivating & gave me that extra encouragement to rlly start a project i’ve been too overwhelmed to begin because of the size. thank you!
Thank you for sharing tips on big projects. I'm just got HEAD this will definitely help
This is my first video of you and I love it!! And the motivational notes you gave 🥺 It makes me feel more better that I should start a full coverage project. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for helping me. I appreciate it very much. It was very helpful. Now I can't wait to start on my project. I have had it for years. Lorraine.
I am using the Frixion pens and they are so good! I recommend them!
So glad i found your video. I really thought i was a little crazy starting such a big project. Especially for my first one. But its like you said. I absolutely fell in love with the pattern and figure if i worked on one project that i really loved for a year or two It would mean more to me when its finally done. I have a 18 by 20 25 count disney piece. I started it towards the end of january but i love it so much. As far as organization goes, ij keep all my printed pattern sheets in a folder seperated by row. The floss was listed onto 5 different pages so i have put each one into a bigger floss bag with the corresponding floss to keep everything organized along with a extra pattern key for my folder for easier navigation. Then all of that goes into a craft box together. For me its working well and keeps me organized. Im using a hoop currently but i might try something else soon. I tried a scroll frame but it was too much for such a big project to me.
So many great ideas; thank you!
Thank you! I jumped into a project and I feel well organized and prepared all due to your recommendations. You are awesome!
HI Jules, I love your large peace it's amazing. Thank you for sharing it is very useful video, have a great stitching week.
Just found your blog and YT sites. Thank you so much for doing these vids. I've been stitching for many many years and just a few years ago decided to tackle a crazybigGigantor project from HAED. I'm learning a lot from you. I love that you are in Denver as my extended family is in Steamboat. Glad to be getting to know ya!
This was so helpful. I've done large full coverage projects (or what I thought were large before I saw your example) but it's been years and I've forgotten a lot of the little details about how I kept things organized.
I love Full Coverage!!!
Thank you for this video. You are extremely helpful. 🙂
Great video Jules. I use those plastic boxes for all of my projects. If its a small project
i use a small box. I get them at Walmart. Merry Christmas
Great video, no fuzz.. just to the point, very helpful!! thanks
This was an excellent video. Thank you for sharing all the great tips :)
Lots of great information! Thank you.