What is it with cross-stitchers and charts? We are drawn to them like magpies to shiny coins; we collect them like squirrels gathering nuts for the winter. We know- we really do- that we will never, ever be able to stitch them all, but does that stop us? Never! I truly believe that a cross-stitcher’s first love- above beautiful fabric, vibrant thread and sparkly beads- will always be charts.

Charts represent possibilities. All you have to do is tick off those little symbols, one after the other, over and over again, and eventually you too will have a work of art like the one on the cover of the chart. Alas, life is too short to stitch them all so we must, regrettably, become very strict with ourselves and choose our absolute favourites to stitch; that, my friends, is easier said than done!

So, what exactly is a cross-stitch chart? Well, simply put, a cross-stitch chart is an instruction manual. It tells us how to take our fabric and our threads and make something spectacular. How do we follow a cross-stitch chart? We’ll come to that part a little later on in this series. First, we need to take care of the fun- but not always easy- part of proceedings: deciding what we’re going to stitch.

Types of Cross-Stitch Designs

Though the types of art available to stitch are endless, I have here listed some popular categories of designs which you may like to familiarise yourself with

Samplers

Samplers have been stitched for centuries, and the history of samplers is really quite fascinating (though perhaps a topic for another day!). Though samplers were originally intended to demonstrate examples of different types of stitches or showcase a stitcher’s abilities, the definition of what a cross-stitch sampler is has become a little vague over time and the term is now mostly used to describe a piece which contains lots of small motifs sharing a common theme and often surrounded by a decorative boarder. Have you ever seen a piece of cross-stitch with an alphabet or list of numbers? What you were looking at there was probably a sampler of some sort. Samplers are incredibly popular and the list of companies designing them- and even reproducing older one- is endless.

Some popular sampler designers include:

·         The Historical Sampler Company

·         Crocette A Gogo

·         Little Dove Design

Fancy Ladies

Another incredibly popular type of cross-stitch design (and a personal favourite of mine) is the rather dubiously named, Fancy Lady. These patterns usually depict a woman- or occasionally a man- of the human, angel, fairy or mermaid variety. The fancy lady is usually stitched without a background- so fabric choice is very important here- and are often embellished with metallic thread, beads and sometimes even other small embellishments. These designs are often very time-consuming to stitch but the finished products are absolutely breath-taking.

Some popular designers of fancy ladies are:

·         Lavender & Lace

·         Mirabilia Designs

·         Bella Filipina

Full-Coverage

This one is quite self-explanatory. Full coverage designs are those which completely cover the piece of fabric on which they are stitched. Have you ever seen what looked to be a painting, only to discover on closer inspection that it was, in fact, cross-stitch? Well, there you had yourself a full-coverage design. These pieces are extremely time consuming- often taking years or even decades to complete- and not for everyone, but full-coverage designs are often seen as the most impressive type of cross-stitch pieces once they are finished. Full coverage designs often start out life as paintings or other artwork which have been converted into cross-stitch pieces by specialist charting companies. It is important, therefore, to always choose a reputable charting company when purchasing a full-coverage design so that you can be sure the artist of the original piece is being properly compensated.  

Some such companies are:

·         Heaven and Earth Designs (HAED)

·         Paine Free Crafts

·         Charting Creations

Châtelaine Designs

A Châtelaine is not a type of cross-stitch design but the name of a brand, founded by the incomprehensibly talented Martina Rosenberg. Though Martina is sadly no longer with us, Châtelaine lives on under the guidance of Martina’s daughter, Ela, and Martina’s beautiful designs continue to enrapture stitchers around the world. These pieces truly have to be seen to be believed and I would strongly encourage you to take a moment to look up images of completed Châtelaines. You will not be disappointed. A word of caution: in order to complete a Châtelaines, one requires a variety of materials that are often a little pricey and sometimes quite hard to get hold of. The designs also often include specialty stitchers which can take time to master. Therefore, I would advise against undertaking a Châtelaine has your first cross-stitch project. Perhaps wait a little while until you have built your confidence and then you can go into your first Châtelaine confident in the knowledge that you are on your way to producing something truly magnificent.

Kits

Though most cross-stitch charts require you to go and source your own materials, you might also sometimes find that your chart, fabric, threads and even needles, have been neatly packaged up together for you in one convenient kit. Kits are very popular and can make great gifts for other stitchers. Many cross-stitch designers specialise in kits, and it may not be possible to buy the chart alone. Other companies- particularly those charting full-coverage pieces- offer the option of buying the chart alone or having a kit made up with your preferred fabric count.

Popular kit companies include:

·         Bothy Threads

·         Merejka

·         Dimensions

It is very possible that your chosen chart will not fit into any of the above categories and that is absolutely fine. Cross-stitch designs come in all sizes and levels of difficulty and there really is something to suit everyone’s ability and taste. Whether you want to spend five years stitching an enormous full-coverage design or a few hours stitching a small ornament for your Christmas tree, it really is all available. The most important thing is that you find the design that speaks to you and which you think you will truly enjoy working on and displaying in your home for years to come.

Types of Charts

Not all cross-stitch companies/designers produce and deliver their charts in the same way. The three most popular forms in which you will find cross-stitch charts are as follows:

Paper Charts

The original- and in many people’s opinion, the best- way in which cross-stitch charts are produced is in paper form. Paper charts will often come folded inside a plastic pocket with a cover image of what the finished piece will look like. Often the chart will be printed on one large sheet of paper which can be slightly cumbersome to work with. It may be possible to photocopy the chart onto separate sheets of paper and work from these, provided you follow copyright restrictions (we’ll talk about copyright later on in this post). Paper charts can be bought from physical shops, online retailers or, sometimes, fromt the designer's website.

Magazines and Books

Though sadly not as popular as they once were, cross-stitch magazines and books remain a fantastic way to discover new designs and learn more about the craft. Magazines also contain interesting articles, helpful tips and sometimes even come with a small gift! Magazines can be bought in your local newsagent or supermarket and are usually also available as postal subscriptions or even as digital downloads. You may sometimes find that charts in magazines are released at a later date by the designer themselves, often in PDF form.

A note about thread lists in magazines: Most cross-stitch magazines available in the UK and Ireland will list three options for which threads you can use. These are DMC, Anchor and Madeira. While DMC stranded cotton is the most popular thread used in the cross-stitch world (and the thread for which most designs are charted), please do not think that Anchor or Madeira are in any way inferior. They are of equally high quality and have long and respectable histories. 

PDF Charts

Everything has gone online now, hasn’t it? That also goes for cross-stitch charts. Many designers and charting companies now offer their charts online for immediate digital download. This does mean that if you want a hard copy to work form you will have to print it off yourself, though. A major benefit of PDF charts is that many of them can be downloaded to your mobile phone or tablet and used with an app so wonderful that in my opinion it really is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Please allow me to introduce you now to one of the greatest developments in cross-stitch we have seen this century: Pattern Keeper. 

Pattern Keeper

Launched by Swedish app developer Åsa Falkenjack in the autumn of 2019, Pattern Keeper toko the cross-stitch world by storm and became an overnight sensation. I cannot overstate how revolutionary this app was, especially for full-coverage stitchers and those working on enormous projects with hundreds of thousands of stitches. Pattern Keeper made stitching large full-coverage projects so much easier (and enjoyable) that many stitchers went out and bought an Android tablet specifically to use the app. Though PK (as it is known) really shines with full-coverage designs, it can also be sued form other PDF charts too, though if you have backstitch, beading or speciality stitches on your chart you may have to refer back to the original.

As we will be using a paper chart for our Guide to Cross-Stitch piece, we won’t be using Pattern Keeper, but I hope to be able to demonstrate it in another blog post in the future but in the meantime, please do check it out for yourself!

Note: At time of writing Pattern Keper is only available on Android devices, but I believe efforts are being made by the designer to release it on IOS for Apple users. 

Copyright

Designers and charting companies work extremely hard to produce the charts we love and they deserve to be financially compensated for this work. It’s as simple as that, in my opinion. So how do we make sure this happens? We obey the copyright laws that apply to these charts. And what are those laws, you ask? Well, unfortunately, that’s where it all becomes a little bit tricky. I am no legal expert, but I will do my very best to give a general overview of cross-stitch copyright below. If I have made any error, please do let me know in the comments.

PDF Charts

PDF charts (the digital charts you buy on the internet and then download to your computer or tablet) are for your personal use only. You can print them off or upload them onto an app like Pattern Keeper, but they are strictly only for you to stitch from. You cannot sell them, give them away or even lend them to a friend. Let’s say you have a friend- we’ll call her Mary- sees a beautiful WIP (work-in-progress) that you are stitching from a PDF chart and says that she’d quite like to stitch the same design. Can you hop on over to your computer and print her off a copy of her own? No, you jolly well can’t! You can, however, direct Mary to the site from which you bought your chart, and she can buy her own. To really hammer home this point, many PDF charts now come with your name printed somewhere on the chart or even as a watermark (like you might see on top-secret movie or television scripts!)

Paper Charts/Books/Magazines

This is where the waters become a little murkier in regard to copyright. The general consensus with physical charts is that they can be moved on- sold, loaned, given away, etc.- like you might do with any other physical object. However, the matter becomes complicated when you take into account photocopies. Many stitchers don’t want to mark their charts with pen or highlighter and so they will make a ‘working copy’- a photocopy of the chart which they can mark to their heart’s content and then dispose of when the piece is finished. This is generally seen to be an acceptable practice provided you not give these photocopies to anyone else.

So, what if your friend Mary arrives over to your house and admires a piece you are stitching from a paper chart. Surely can photocopy the original again, give this new copy to Mary and you can both work on the chart at the same time? No- absolutely not! Well, what about if you keep your photocopy and give the original chart to Mary so she can work of it? Again, the answer is no. Only the person who holds the original chart may work from that chart. Even if you are working from a photocopy, you MUST have the original chart in your possession at all times. Okay, so what if Mary is unable, for whatever reason, to buy her own original chart and asks if she can have yours when you are finished stitching the piece. That’s alright, isn’t it? Yes, that is generally considered to be alright, but do not take my word for it. Please always check the copyright notice on each individual chart for the exact rules.

As stitchers, we want our designers and charters to be able to make a living from their work. We want them to have the means and the time to be able to design and release new designs for us to stitch!

My Choice

The piece which I have chosen to stitch for our Guide to Cross-Stitch series is Angel of Christmas from Lavender and Lace. I chose this design as it will allow me to showcase a wide variety of threads and beads as well as a few more specialised stitching techniques. The Lavender and Lace pieces, though exceptionally beautiful, are not always the easiest to stitch and may not be the best choice for a complete beginner, but the techniques we discuss over the coming weeks will be helpful for you no matter what you choose to stitch.

This was a long post with a lot of information and if you have made it this far, I thank you for your perserverence and patience. We're now ready to take a closer look at our chart and start gathering the materials we will need.