Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: Cross stitch

This topic has 5 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 11 years ago by Sue.

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

Author
Posts
April 26, 2014 at 1:40 am
Carla
Participant
My 5 year old loves to watch me cross stitch and has expressed an interest in learning how. She does not have the dexterity to do traditionally sized cross stitch so I’m wondering if anyone knows of large squared beginners cross stitch.
Thanks!
April 26, 2014 at 2:02 am
kerby
Participant
What size do you use? I believe there is an 11-count Aida cloth.
Another option would be to use plastic canvas. I think I’ve also seen some other types of sheets that could be plastic that have holes in them similar to what you would use.

April 26, 2014 at 2:41 am
nerakr
Participant
I agree with Kerby. 7-count plastic canvas would be a good starting point. And it comes in various shapes, too, not just rectangular sheets.
April 26, 2014 at 1:28 pm
Sue
Participant
Actually, we first taught our Keepers’ group to do counted cross stitch on plastic canvas, but only long enough to get the hang of the stitching techniques. Most of them found the fabric in a 4- or 5-inch hoop was easier to handle. Also, we made sure the younger girls used a bigger, thicker needle. (Easier to thread, too.) Then they just used 14-count or 11-count Aida cloth.
One thing we did was to use a larger piece of cloth in a hoop, even though we were making smaller, skinny bookmarks. It was easier to handle a 4- or 5-inch hoop than a smaller one. The fabric scraps we cut off after they were finished were just a part of the price of learning a new skill.
April 26, 2014 at 6:33 pm
Carla
Participant
Thanks for the suggestions! We do have plastic canvas and have done some work with that. Perhaps we’ll work on a small project with plastic canvas to get back into practice and move to 11 count Aida Cloth. I think the 14 count (what I’m using) is too small currently.
April 27, 2014 at 4:27 am
Sue
Participant
Carla,
I found one of the webpages I looked at back when we were teaching our Keepers group counted cross stitch. We had ages ranging from 6 to 15, and most had never done it before. I forgot that you can get 8-count Aida cloth, as is mentioned on the webpage. There is other helpful information about teaching young stitchers, and there are patterns as well. We used the winter pattern (snowflake) to make bookmarks.
Here is the link:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/crossstitch.htm
HTH,
Sue