For a long time I have wanted to do a cross stitch motif and now was the time to give it a try. I had this odd- shaped patch and didn't want to take the time to search for a pattern to fit it. So I traced the patch and then sketched a daffodil to fit. Then I drew 1" lines on the tracing and used that to transfer it to graph paper. There are a lot of sites where you can print off graph paper....
The next step was to square off all the edges on the graph paper and then I filled it in with colored pencils.
Then I just needed to baste the waste canvas to the patch and begin... I'm using #14 waste canvas which is 14 stitches to 1" so they are
very small stitches. After I was going a while I wished I had moved it up about 3/8" but this is not something moved easily... As you can see below it is progressing nicely. I thought I was going to complete this in one evening but it is going to take three. The real test comes when I try to pull out all the threads of the waste canvas.
Kerry has a fabulous tutorial on her site
http://tinyurl.com/y9zevyc and I recommend it highly. There are programs for sale where you can scan in your own pictures or designs and it will transfer it to graph paper and even supply color numbers for threads to use. There were some free ones to download but, having been hurt once with a virus, I am cautious of using of free shareware... But it would be fun to play with.
I finished the daffodil cross stitch today and am so pleased with it. There were several tense moments and tense words when I started to pull out the waste canvas.... I figured it was going to be there forever. I finally got the hang of it and it all came out. I found that if I flexed the needlework with my left hand while I pulled on the canvas with my right hand that it came out much easier. I probably won't do it again though...at least not with #14 waste canvas.. It was very difficult to see... 
.jpg)
