~ Crash Course ~

Hello!

here is a mini quick **CRASH COURSE

in how I do the freehand cross stitch that I've been talking about...

Step # 1 

Gather your supplies ~

I use my hand dyed cupboard cloth (osnaburg)

a #26 needle 

DMC thread (1 strand) 

beeswax (to wax your thread)

and a pencil

Step # 2
Draw out a simple heart shape onto your cloth using your pencil.

Step # 3
make a small cross stitch at the bottom 'point' of your heart...

Step # 4
continue making small stitches in a straight line,
first do all of the horizontal stitches to the right ~
keeping them in a row (don't worry if they're not even)

...then come back and cross over the stitches
to form and 'x'.

In the photo below,
you can see I've penciled in some guidelines to keep my rows on track.
these lines are not intended to keep my stitches even, just to keep the rows semi-straight...
you can also see a space between my rows where the pencil is pointing~
I'll go back and fill that in with teeny little x stitches.

Here is the back of my work.
yes, it is a mess
an abomination

...and is probably sending
all of the needlewomen out there over the edge.
(sorry, but I don't stress over the backs of my projects!)

Step # 5
finish making your freehand cross stitches,
following the rows you've penciled in,
 until it is filled in completely...
if you need to go back and fill in, do so, like I show here:

...So that's it.
a crash course.
no throwing tomatoes at me...
and no poking fun at my un-manicured, farm-wife hands...
((they work really hard.))

this is supposed to be fun and worry-free ~
...so no trying to get anything perfect, you hear me???

it is intended to help you be creative, and simply love the action of cross stitching.
it is definitely not for 'everyone',
but for those of us that want a more relaxed look to our needlework, this fits the bill!

I personally love this free-spirited look.

**my patterns that are available for this technique include more detailed instructions to help you**


* Blessed be *

 Lori