#GRIDDED AIDA CLOTH PLUS#

You may or may not happen to have a line of thread on the front of your fabric connecting the two points, but the basting line is a mental reference line to keep you oriented correctly on your pattern.Įach of the red lines on the fabric make up actual basting lines any line between the anchor points of the basting stitches (connecting the end points of red lines either vertically or horizontally) is also a basting line. I define a basting line as any line that connects two anchor points.

So, Point A is an example of an anchor point. The basting threads are shown in red.Įach intersection point on the pattern's 5 by 5 grid becomes a known point on your ground fabric once you have done your grid basting.

#GRIDDED AIDA CLOTH PLUS#

Note that this graphic shows a sample pattern on graph paper, plus vertical lines representing the basted grid (on your fabric) as if it were on Aida cloth, with holes every 5 stitches, not 10 by 10 threads like linen (above). The purpose of the grid is to make it easy to correlate your ground fabric with your pattern printed on a graph:Įach point where the thread enters and exits your fabric corresponds to a point on the 5 by 5 graph on your pattern: It doesn't even matter if you prefer to lay out your grid horizontally or vertically. It can be done with a small needle (so as not to poke larger holes where you might not necessarily need them) with thin thread of any type (since the grid threads will be clipped and removed as they become unnecessary).

Making Your Gridīut, if the design that you are actually working with is shown on a graph, with noticible dividing lines every five stitches (makes it much easier to count if you're working on a long row), it seemed to me that it would be helpful to actually prepare my base fabric with a grid laid out in five by five groups of stitches. Yes, there were pattern books, but they were simply outlines or cartoons, not done on a graph. But, just be aware that this wasn't the way that our great ancestors used to do it! Working with designs on a grid was something that was not figured out until the 1800's. Whether I'm doing cross stitch or black work, I prefer having reliability, to be able to count my stitches. Lines that would be followed onto the linen ground.įor us modern needle workers, however, we have become used to working with patterns worked out precisely onto graph paper. The people who embroidered the silk onto the linen were not necessarily the same people who drew the YouĬould count the people who collected the flax and made the linen, the weavers, the people who took the When producing a finished piece, then, the process was done by many hands. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, designs for black work were not done on graph paper.

Gridded aida cloth