Counting cross: embroidery technique, calculation features, recommendations and schemes

There are many kinds of embroidery. It is divided mainly into two varieties - embroidery and embroidery cross stitch. Although there is still embroidery with ribbons for example. Counting cross is one of the types of embroidery on the cells.

Embroidery embroidery strife

Counting cross is the oldest of all kinds of embroidery, in which the main element is the crosshair of threads. Today, needlewomen can also talk about printed embroidery with a cross or uncountable. This kind of needlework was born as a result of the desire to help needlewomen - why bother with the bill, if you can just work on the canvas with a pattern applied to it. Change the time in time to a different shade - and do not constantly recalculate the elements on the diagram, and then check them for the work done. But a true countable cross is a real pride for the result. And it's expensive. And for those who are really passionate about embroidery, it is the counting cross - real creativity, but embroidery on the printed pattern on the canvas - just pampering.

Where to begin? From theory

The cross-stitch embroidery is based on the absolute accuracy of the embroiderer: one incorrectly sewn cross-and the work can go awry if the error is not found on time and corrected. This, of course, will cause great losses in time. Therefore, an important element of embroidery in the technique of countable cross - circuits. The drawing that causes the desire to work is transferred to the diagram - colored boxes indicating pieces of crosses of a certain color. Such schemes are abundantly developed by embroiderers both independently and with the help of special computer programs.

Cross Stitch Technique

Embroidery with a countable cross, the schemes of which can be the simplest, monochrome, and can contain many color shades, assumes work with only one technical element - a cross. Most often a simple cross is used, although there are several techniques for performing such an element. A simple cross is the most convenient account in the work. It is done this way:

• Base - square;
• The first stitch is laid from one corner of the square to the opposite diagonal angle;
• The second stitch grabs the next pair of diagonal corners, returning the needle to the start side of the work.

To ensure that the result is qualitative and looked as neat as possible, all the crosses must be performed equally. For example, first the diagonals from the upper left corner are sewn into the lower right corner, and then the diagonals from the right upper corner to the lower left corner. Each embroiderer decides for herself how it is more convenient for her to work - from right to left and from top to bottom or vice versa, it does not matter. It is important that all crosses look the same.

How to fill in the picture field?

Embroidery in the technique of counting cross allows you to fill the body of the picture with one color in the required sections without breaking the thread.

This is convenient for those who are very attentive to the account of stitches and knows how to navigate in the color change on an empty pattern field. But it is much easier, according to many, who have already mastered this kind of needlework, to use the so-called line method. What is its essence? A thread of one color is sewn completely crosses of one row, that is, both in the forward and reverse directions, according to the count. The thread changes to the next color, and the same row is sewn on the account by the required number of crosses of a different color. If the distance between two separate sections of a row of the same color is small, then the thread can not be torn off, and after counting the number of cells of another color, proceed with the color of the thread that started the row. So, sewing a series behind a number, an embroidery cross cross is executed. The technique of embroidering a cross in a row method is more convenient and simpler, it allows you to make fewer mistakes than if you first filled sections of the same color in the entire field, then another, then the third, and so on.

So that the thread does not slip out

Any work with threads requires their fixing, so that the thread does not slip out during operation or operation of the product. Nodules are made for this purpose. But in this kind of needlework, like embroidery, knots are not made. But how to embroider a counting cross? Description of the beginning of work for those who are only acquainted with this kind of needlework, will begin with the rules of fastening the working thread. There are two of them:

• No nodules;
• No "tails".

This, it seems, is absolutely impossible to fulfill. But in fact, everything is very simple. Working thread is held precisely by its "tail", but it must be hidden. And you can hide the tail of a working thread either from the inside of the work or from the front side. On the "face" the tip of the thread is convenient to hide, when the embroidery for the embroidery is thick enough, then the tail is displayed on the front side already from the first stitch and during work is put under several subsequent stitches until completely behind them. On the wrong side, things are exactly the same, but the tail of the thread is hiding under the stitch-transitions. The back side as the place for fixing the working thread fits most when the paper is not too thick in relation to the size of the canvas cell, on the front side it will be visible through the stitches. But even a thick paper will give an excessive volume to the stitches, so the wrong side for fixing the thread in this way is still preferable to the front one. Some embroiderers fasten the tip of the thread by tightening the eyelet on a string of canvas. What method is more convenient and practical to fasten the worker "tail" - the embroideress decides.

Working material

Any work, including creative, requires material. In embroidery, the counting cross is:

• Canva . It can serve as the basis for the work, its canvas. Such a canvas has a dense texture, a weave elastic, sufficiently rigid, the threads do not diverge, but keep the shape of the cells. But there is another canvas - as an aid. This canvas is applied to the fabric-basis for the uniformity of the crosses, and after the end of the embroidery, they are pulled out of the picture.
• Threads for embroidery cross. They use different threads - silk, mulina, polyester. The most important thing is that they do not shed, they are slippery, but not twisted into knots in work. Usually embroiderers give preference to mulina, as it meets all the requirements of this kind of needlework, as it is created for it.
• Needles . Yes, there can be several identical needles in the work, so as not to pull out the thread every time a transition to a different color occurs. Needles should be high-quality - strong and straight, not too long, with a good, but not wide eye.
• Embroidery hoops - special hoops, between which stretches (stagnates) the fabric. Depending on the size of the embroidery, the embroidery frame is selected with a suitable diameter. After work, the substrate is treated and used for its intended purpose. Although there is a hoop that is suitable as a frame for embroidered pictures. They are textured, with a special lock with a patina - under the old days. In them, small works look very impressive.
• Scissors - one with thin blades for threads, other conventional tailors - for working with a canvas.

Basis of the basics

As an artist uses a canvas or a piece of paper, the embroiderer uses the fabric. And that it was convenient to work on, it is damped in the hoop. How to do this, so that the cross-stitch embroidery was organized correctly? The principle of cross stitching is the uniformity of all elements, which is achieved by means of the canvas. Therefore, the base must be stretched smoothly:

• A smaller hoop ring should be placed on a flat surface;
• Cloth to unfold on top of the ring, straighten it;
• Cover with a second ring and fasten the clamp so that the rings are held tight enough, but the fabric can be pulled;
• Supporting the ends of the fabric, align its interlacing in such a way that it has the correct geometric shape, and all the cells were square;
• Clamp the rings to the end so that the fabric does not bend or slide.

You can embroider.

Final touches

Counting cross involves working with only one basic element - a cross. But other elements help to help give work more grace. So, in simple pictures you can use the embroidery seam "back needle", which goes through the contours of the depicted objects and their parts. Small detail that you want to highlight, for example, bud buds or buds of flowers, raisins on the cake embroider with nodules, giving the work a certain amount. Embroidery with a cross is not too democratic, it infrequently allows you to supplement the work with other techniques to make the result amazing. Most often, contour add-ons are used to give greater clarity.

How beautiful!

Anyone who evaluates the work done, sees only the result. And it will consist not only of a plot, but also painstaking accuracy. If the work is done carelessly, no matter how beautiful the scheme is, no one will praise it. Therefore, the accuracy in the technique of embroidering a cross is the basis for a qualitative result. And that the work brought satisfaction, you need to know how to embroider a counting cross according to the scheme, observing several rules:

• Choose quality materials. If the threads in the process of work will be shaggy, cling to the nodules, and then also shed, then all the work will go wrong. Needles should also be good - straight, so they are comfortable to work with a narrow eye, so as not to break the structure of the fabric.
• The fabric should be braked evenly in the embroidery frame, avoiding any distortion.
• Nodules in embroidery are not made! The tail of the thread neatly hides during operation.
• The most important is to accurately calculate the number of crosses in one area of the same color, the figure depends on it.
• Absolutely all crosses should "look" in one direction. This is due not only to the rules of the counting cross, but also to the play of light on the finished work.
• Ready-made embroidery should be moistened and allowed to dry. Steam the embroidery from the wrong side with steam, without pressing on the iron.

Embroidery with a countable cross allows you to make as small pictures, single objects or simple patterns, but it can also become the basis for a large-scale canvas - a whole plot picture. Schemes for such works, of course, are very different. If a finished circuit is used, then the threads must be selected in accordance with the specified ruler. If it is developed independently, the colors are taken at will, a sense of harmony. For greater realism of the plot picture, one should not forget about half-tones, because it is the shades that give the liveliness and naturalness to the finished work.

Embroidery in the technique of the counting cross is an exciting creativity accessible to people of different ages. She develops and maintains mindfulness, the ability to see the perspective of her work, the fine motor skills of her hands, which is also useful for brain activity. Well, the result of labor can not be said - quality embroidery will be a source of pride. Good luck!