Cross stitchers comparing themselves to others

I belong to a number of cross stitch groups on social media, and I keep seeing the same questions over and over again.  I don’t answer some of the questions because I know that every cross stitcher is different, so why are we trying to compare ourselves to another stitcher?

Questions that I see so often in various cross stitch groups

1. How many stitches do you do a day?

I think it depends on how long you stitch each day and the project that you are working on. If I am working on a monochrome piece, I can get a lot more stitches in compared to a project that has a lot of colour changes. So, I don’t have a good answer for this question. I stitch when I can and enjoy seeing what I have been able to get done in the day. I normally look at my progress for a week instead of a day. Not only that, but I take pictures of the projects that I worked on in that week so that I can see the change.

2. It took me almost 2 hours to stitch 100 stitches of confetti, why am I so slow?

If you are working on a heavy confetti section, it can take a long time to get through that little section. Each time you must change a colour it takes time away from the adding a stitch to the project.

3. How can I stitch faster?

Cross stitch isn’t a race, and you should enjoy the time you have to do a project. I will not compare my stitching time to anyone else, because everyone has their way of stitching. You will notice that you seem to stitch faster when you don’t have a complicated pattern or when you are using one colour in a large area.

4. I can see the background fabric when I finished stitching, what can I do to improve this?

This is one of the comments I can a lot, and what I always say it to look at the project from a minimum of 3 feet away. When we are stitching the piece, it is close to our face, but when it is finished and displayed, we aren’t looking at it as close.

5. The pattern calls for 25 count fabric, but I don’t want to use that fabric, can I change it?

The simple answer to this question is yes, you can change the fabric that you are going to stitch on. One time that changing the fabric size isn’t the best is if your pattern is using beads and the specific beads need to fix into a certain area. Another time when changing the fabric size might not be a good idea is if the project is to fit into a specific item for finishing.

These are only a few of the questions that I regularly see in the different cross stitch groups. The biggest thing I can say is that cross stitch is a hobby that we should be enjoying doing and if we are comparing ourselves to someone else that can be taking away the joy of the craft.

The one thing that I have done that has helped me be a lot happier with my stitching is not comparing the number of finishes that I have each year with someone else. I know that I like stitching larger projects, so I am not going to get as many finishes as something that likes to stitch very small projects. My cross stitch is one of my hobbies, and it helps me de-stress and stitch my mind back together, so that makes me happy.