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Counted cross-stitching is reproducing a design from a chart by stitching it (in X shaped stitches) onto a piece of evenweave fabric. A design chart comprises a grid containing symbols that identify where stitches should be stitched on the fabric. Each different symbol represents a different color thread to be used, as detailed in the chart’s key.

Needlepoint as it is known today can be said to have originated in the 17th century, when the fashion for furniture upholstered with embroidered fabrics prompted the development of a more durable material, canvas, to serve as the foundation for the embroidery.

Cross Stitch Patterns Fast Facts

Many of the stitches now used in cross stitch can be identified on pieces of work which were put together over 2000 years ago and which still survive in good condition today. Cross-stitch is a stitch in the form of a cross and you make anything from several dozen to many thousands of these stitches to create a picture or pattern on your fabric.

Sewing and stitching was first used so that people could make better clothes. They used stitches to join animal skins together. This developed into ways of strengthening, decorating and repairing their clothes. Cross stitch is one of the oldest embroidery stitches and beautiful examples can be found throughout the world.

The most common form of cross stitch to most people is the sampler. The sampler is a very traditional art form dating back at least 500 years. Create your own heirloom of the future.

As its name implies, cross-stitch is a double stitch diagonally crossing intersections of the horizontal and vertical threads of the fabric.

The basic techniques of embroidery include crewel work, needlepoint, cross-stitch embroidery, and quilting, as well as quillwork and featherwork.

There are more than 150 canvas embroidery stitches, most of which are a variation or combination of the long stitch, covering more than one mesh, or intersection of threads, and the tent stitch, which covers only one.

The earliest surviving embroideries are Scythian, dated to between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC.