Effing cross stitch sampler - help needed pls!

[mum2Bomg]

So I'm 39 weeks pregnant and BORED! I've washed the baby's things, cooked, organised the million packets of wet wipes we have, put up a shelf and been for lunches etc... I've found 'crafty' things help me to avoid watching shite telly all day and to think about every twinge.

Popped merrily off to Hobby Craft and bought a cross stitch sampler but I've got it all out of the box and don't know where to start. I (naively) thought the pattern would be drawn on to the cloth but it isn't. Do I have to count each loop to check I'm starting in the right place?! Almost wishing I hadn't bothered.

I know it's not an AIBU but this board is funny, gets traffic and I like the weirder comments...

I've made three - I can show you all of them if you're really bored?!

OMG...you disobey the colour chart?! You are more than a maverick, you're a loose cannon!

Show us!!!!

Colour chart Pah! I laugh in the face of the chart. I have also been known to use off white fabric when the chart has specified white. Like I say, I am totally hardcore.

I wanna see the frames too!

Ah, the 39 weeks pg and I'm bored cross stitch! I did that. I finished it when DD was about 11 I think!

THIS will give you an indication of how truly bored I am and how low my tolerance for watching any more Loose Women is...

With your use of buttons I believe you too are a maverick mum2Bong! Join me over on the dark side. We can do colouring too - maybe colour in pictures of animals but use the wrong colours (I did a green and purple owl once). Come on you know you want to....

You need to knit! Baby clothes galore :-)

EvenFlo2 - shall we go outside the lines or have I taken it too far?

Man...a green AND purple owl..... *sighs win the wonder

*with

I am doing a Scandinavian "art cross stitch" kit my mother gave me. It contains five shades of grey and three shades of "grey-beige" all of which are indistinguishable from each other on the tiny, tiny squares. My eyesight is deteriorating with every stitch.

But I'm enjoying it really.

My family think I've entirely lost the plot.

Hmmm colouring outside the lines, I think that's Level 2 craft rebellion. Do we dare?!

I'm a rebel too! (I buy different fabric if it means the finished product will fit in a standard-size frame)
I hate hoops, so I roll up the fabric and stitch a 1"-2" 'stripe' of the pattern before moving on.
A really neat way to start is to fold one thread (if your pattern needs two) and thread the two ends through your needle, then you can just pass your needle through the loop at the back on your first stitch to anchor the thread. Hope that made sense!
Also, if you've got multiple rows to stitch, I find it easier to pass the needle through from the back in an empty hole, and push it back where it meets the previous row, so you can see what you're doing!
Apologies if this is all obvious but I figured it out through trial and error 😁

ShimmeringIce the folding thread thing is genius! My current project has so many changes of colour it looks like a real dogs dinner on the back. That would be so much neater.

The DMC site has useful tips too.

I wish I'd known shimmeringice loop tip last week

I like your picture frames, but I have a button fetish

My fave part is sorting out the DMC threads at the start of my XS projects and arranging them onto a punched card and drawing the symbols against each thread so I don't make a mistake by picking the wrong colour and having to frog it (unpick). A bit anal but comes from years of bad experience!

Make sure it doesn't become a UFO (unfinished object.). Show us a photo when you've finished it and we can do a HD (happy dance) for you.

blogging XS saddo here

I do a huge amount of cross stitch and I never use a hoop - I hate them! I do always start in the middle and I jump from colour to colour depending on which bit I fancy stitching next. I did have a friend who used to count from the middle to the outside then start stitching from the top down, but that always sounded like hard work to me. I have just finished doing some Christmas cards, but find small projects boring. I'm about to embark upon Christmas stocking production, having discovered it isn't as difficult to make up the finished item as I had first feared.

Lovely button frames!

Chicken I need to see this greige masterpiece! I'm currently stitching a Japanese picture. I also started my years of deteriorating eye sight cross stitching whilst pregnant.

mum2bomg I'm very impressed with your dedicated levels of crafting!

Highlighters are your friend. Colour in the stitches you have ready sewn on your paper pattern. Otherwise many hours of frustrating counting will be yours!

*already