Cross Stitch: Home Sweet Home

After ages of wanting to learn how to cross stitch this weekend I finally found the time to hit up Michaels for supplies, and then head to YouTube for some trusty tips. I'd been seeing a ton of fun patterns on etsy, but considering I am brand new to cross stitch I thought it'd be best to start off small and simple.  On Pinterest I saw a cute "home sweet home" cross stitch and I thought it looked easy enough to recreate, but the problem was there was no pattern associated with the pin.

I thought to myself that there must be an easy enough way to figure out the pattern on my own.  The first thing I reached for was graph paper as the tiny squares on the paper are perfect for making a pattern.  To start I google searched free heart patterns; and copied down a small heart that was fitting for what I wanted.

 

 

Now that I had a portion of my pattern I decided it was time to prep my materials and try out cross stitch.

Materials Checklist:

14 Count Aida Fabric

Tapestry Needle

Wooden Hoop

Embroidery thread

 

Here's what I did:

1. I placed the hoop over/under the Aida fabric and tightened the tension

2. threaded the tapestry needle with 3 strands of embroidery thread (note: the thread comes in 6 strands)

3. Found the center of my fabric and pattern

4. Began sewing following the pattern (note: when threading the needle in for the first stitch make sure you leave a tail, do NOT make any knots)

 

 Now, for the second portion of the pattern I needed to create letters.  For this I was actually able to copy down the pattern by just looking at the picture I had for inspiration; to save you the work, the pattern is below:

 

 

Then, the only thing I had left to do was frame it! I cut the fabric to the size of the frame and that was it!