There is a circle of Hades

Um. What are you doing stitching on Aida?

Donna in Virginia who will confess to using Aida on a project last year just because it was hanging around in the stash

Hades doesn't have circles, hell does. Hades has sections, divided by rivers.

Elizabeth (who wouldn't be caught dead stitching on Aida anyway)

Why blame the designers? So far as I am aware, any counted cross stitch design can be stitched on an evenweave instead of aide. Jim.

Maureen uses nothing but aida - what are the alternatives? Bruce

Linen, for one.

Lots of other even weave fabrics, linen blends, cottons, most of which have proprietary names like jobelan, lugana, etc. Here's a brief explanation:

Anyone with Aida going begging can send it my way! My little group of ladies have just discovered the joys of hardanger and incidentally, cross stitch. They are mostly older (pensioners), and have eyesight problems. I have only 18ct aida in navy, left over from the Nativity, and completely useless to them. They're so captivated by their new accomplishments that they don't know which to do, but we have hardanger fabric and threads (thanks, Melissa!) and some 14ct white aida one of the ladies has from long ago.

I used up what little aida I had on my grandchildren, and my evenweave and linen make them marvel that anyone can work on them! I'm so thrilled to have people to whom to pass on my love of stitching that I'd like to give them every opportunity to expand their horisons!

Joyce > > Reserved for designers who use fractional stitches on Aida

F.James Cripwell wrote:

OOOO -- don't I WISH!! Well, it can be done but not always easily. Not sure if you remember but I am doing this lovely series of seasonal bell pulls from Calico Crossroads. They are done on very pretty

*finished* aida banding meaning that the fancy parts along the edges are part of the woven fabric and NOT sewn on. SO -- I *could* have gone to the trouble of purchasing sufficient even weave (either yardage that I cut in proper width or woven banding) and then looked for enough yardage (EIGHT yards total!) of an appropriate edging and then sewn the stuff to the edges of the even weave, etc., etc., etc.! Instead, I opted for the recommended banding which my Stitchin' Buddy Janet got for me as part of my Christmas pressie last year. If it wasn't such pretty stuff, I might have thought about it more because the ENTIRE design of the letters for the FOUR bell pulls is for satin stitch where each and every block of the clustered aida squares is pierced and stitched through *($*(^@#&*@%$@*&^ to say the very least. Then there is an appropriate seasonal flower type design in one of the letters of each chart and about HALF of those stitches are partials. I am NOT a happy camper but I really like the finished pieces done on the recommended banding so I will do all of those *($*$#&^ partial stitches! Another thing I prefer about the aida banding is that -- from a SEWING point of view -- is that I feel it is more stable and certainly more firmly woven than even weave needlework fabric. It's just easier to sew on and that does make up for some of the frustration of all those partial stitches. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

You CAN get linen banding with finished edges, Tia Mary. It might not have had the same edging, but it can be found.

Elizabeth

Pat

I know and Janet tried to talk me into some. She and I both looked everywhere for some finished white (or almost so) banding in the proper width. The width was the determining factor. Neither of us could find anything the right size! Everything was either too wide by at least an inch or too narrow and wayyyy more $$$/yard than the aida. Besides, none of the ones I saw had edging that was quite as pretty as the aida banding. Add to that the fact that Janet INSISTED she was going to buy EVERYTHING for me (FOUR yards of banding PLUS FOUR sets of top & bottom hardware!!) and the added expense of even weave banding was something I just didn't want to contemplate. Anyway -- it gives me something relatively legitimate to kvetch about and I can REALLY tease Janet about it too. Although just *why* I do that I'll never admit to :-))). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Ahhhh, well, far be it from me to interfere with someone's kvetch. 8-b

Elizabeth

A TinkerBelle bookmark for a friend of DD's. Next time I do a kit like that, I'm subbing a different piece of aida because this one is BARELY big enough

It's kit that DD's BBF wanted done - it's bookmark and it's driving me nuts...

C

Sputter!

I too have gone searching for a "linen" banding and could not find the right size.

C

I should hope not!! We all know how refreshing a good old fashioned kvetch can be -- LOL. At least I am on the last letter -- FINALLY -- of the Winter bell pull and it's only spring :-). At least I don't have to change out all the colors of the Spring & Summer designs! The Winter was a baby blue -- IAYP -- carnation. Besides despising baby blue, I don't remember ever seeing a carnation in that particular shade so I changed it to a red carnation. Seeing as how I was doing the letters in Caron's HOLIDAY (r/w/g) over dye, a red carnation seemed much preferable! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Somehow I knew this involved a kit. At least it's small, right?

Donna in Virginia

Someone has already answered the question, but I'll chime in.

I started stitching on linen shortly after I started on Aida back in the 1980s. I had a copy of Ginnie Thompson's book "Linen Stitches" and I used that to teach myself. Twenty plus years later, I stitch mainly on linen, Glenshee being my absolute favorite. Now there are many companies who make gorgeous hand dyed linens. Not cheap, but difficult to resist.

The Silkweaver website has a great downloadable PDF that explains all about the different fabric types.

in Virginia

Thank goodness yes - it'a bookmark. The fabric was supposed to be wide enough to close up the back - no way - at least 10-15 blocks off. So I'll fringe the top, find ribbon I can iron on the back (or what ever else works) and go from there.

She better love it!

C

Donna wrote:

First off -- Donna I am not directing this post at you, I'm just using your post as a jumping off point, OK? Please, please, please -- let's not intimidate the newbies to needlework and those who much prefer stitching on aida, by bad mouthing it! There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with stitching on aida and if that's what you prefer then THAT is what you should use! Personally, if I am working a relatively easy design with no partial stitches then I will quite likely use aida, especially if it is something I am doing because I just want something to be stitching on. If it's a special project or a gift for someone then I will likely use an even weave simply because I like the look of it. In Cheryl's case, she has this kit with aida fabric that is toooo small AND the design has partial stitches! This is NOT a good kit but it's something someone really likes so Cheryl is going to make do as best she can. I want to remind the aida aficionados that many of us have been stitching for so long that we have gone on to stitching on even weave fabrics which are a bit more of a challenge at first. More importantly, even weave is much nicer to stitch on when doing anything with partial stitches. Even weave is pretty much a necessity if you are stitching just about any sort of specialty stitch -- meaning most anything beyond a standard cross stitch. Any sort of pulled thread or drawn thread stitching needs to be done on even weave although with a bit of work, you can manage a sort of pulled eyelet stitch on some nice soft aida fabrics. Then again, Hardanger fabric -- especially the kind you get in Europe -- is basically a 22 ct. aida type of fabric. I know because I have a meter of lovely lilac Hardanger fabric in my stash from when I went to Amsterdam. Almost all of the aida in kits is stiff, nasty stuff but there is some very nice aida around. My favourite is damask aida but it is quite difficult to find. Then again, there are some god awful even weaves out there because I have worked on them too! Personally, I stitch on just about anything and do quite often do stuff in kits. I use the fabrics and fibers that come in the kits, too -- assuming I like the colors of the fiber of course. I stitch simply to stitch because I love it and it is therapy for MOI. Even when I am doing something that makes me kvetch I still love it. I also love to work on stuff that I have kitted up myself. These seasonal bell pulls that I am working on are that sort of thing. Even tho' I am using the recommended aida banding, I have changed out all of the fibers and I am using all silks. Janet has turned me into a sort of mini silk snob -- LOL! I certainly don't mind using cotton and do tons of my stitching with it. But I do love the feel of the silk fibers so, whenever I can justify using them, I do. Anyway, I hope the folks who prefer or need to stitch on aida don't get offended by all the talk of how nasty it is. We often forget what a HUGE readership this group has. Those of us who prefer even weave are the most vocal so we begin to forget that there are a LOT of very skilled needelworkers out there who don't like to stitch on even weave! Aida doesn't take quite as much skill to work on but so what? PLEASE -- let's not be even weave snobs and offend the aida people, OK? CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at