Cross Stitch starters for a newbie

[bingohandjob]

My friend has very kindly sent me a beautiful Emily Peacock starter kit emilypeacock.squarespace.com/shop/think-happy and I've just opened it and feel utterly baffled. I've had a look at some YouTube tutorials, done the practice square and am excited to get started but the instructions are minimal. Can anyone advise? Is it best to start at a corner edge? For the border which is one colour all the way around, do I just keep going from one end to another or do it in the 10x10 squares? There's no guidance on starting or finishing the thread. I feel so stupid that this is a 'basic starter kit'' and I'm already lost. Thanks in advance!

You can start however you like! I personally like tk start in the top left corner on a smaller pattern and work my way over but I'm currently doing a pattern with lettering in the middle and leopard prints around it so I started with the lettering.

If it's a fairly large piece you might want to look up gridding your fabric to make it easier to count. Looking at it(and it's gorgeous, lucky you)!) I'd probably start with the border until I got bored with that colour and fancied doing a different bit!

When it comes to starting and ending thread when I start I leave a tail and I trap it under the first few stitches. With the end of a thread you can feed it under a few stitches and then trim it.

There's lots of resources out there - I'd Google for you but I'm going to bed now! Actually juat checked the date and you might be away with it already!

Enjoy!

Thank you so much for replying...I actually haven't started because I was so worried about buggering it up but I'm going to get going now!

Oh no worries!

Dive in! You can always unpick it, that's the beauty of it

Hope you enjoy it!

I think I'd start with the lettering, but you can start where you like - just make sure you're on the right bit of fabric so you leave enough space for the design.

I usually do a column or row of stitches at a time depending on how big the design is. E.g. from top to bottom of a letter, or from the left to right of it.

To finish a thread just turn the work over and thread the needle underneath a few of the closest stitches. Try to keep the back neat as well.

The design will look best if each stitch has the same diagonal over the top.

Have fun, that looks a nice design to get started with.

I always start I'm the middle of the design to ensure the boarder is the same all around the design, otherwise I would start too close to the edge and end up fraying my design, or start too far from the edge and run out of space at the other side.

I work in blocks of one colour, do all those bits before moving onto the next colour (I'm usually working on complex designs).

I hope you enjoy it when you get started.

If I were working that design I would do the outline of the letter closest to the centre, fill it in and then move on to the next letter. I would do the boarder last.
But everyone works a but differently.

Another one who starts in the middle It took me a while to learn to start a row without knotting but honestly it's a piece of piss once you get the hand of it - I'm cack handed.

Hang of it