When you come to the end of your floss secure the end of the thread by pulling the needle under the stitches either horizontally or vertically on the back of the fabric. Cut off any excess floss even with the back of your cloth.

Do not have any of your X stiches larger than 2 squares of the Aida fabric or 4 threads of a linen fabric, it will show on the front of your design.  It would be better to end the thread at that point and re-start again in the new area of your design.

It is necessary to keep your cloth clean while working with it, you will want to soak your design 15 minutes in cold water.  Soaking your design will allow the fabric to shrink slightly and helps the stitches "stand up."  If you should need to wash the fabric, use a mild soap, not a detergent and then rinse thoroughly.  After laundering your fabric, lay it on a terry cloth towel and press with your fingers gently to remove any excess water.  Now you are ready to lay your fabric face down on a towel on an ironing board, cover your  fabric with a cotton handkerchief or thin pillow case and iron it dry with a medium, hot, dry iron.

There are 4 basic stitches used in cross stitching.  The first of which is the Full X stitch.  With the X stitch you will want all of your stitches to lay in the same direction.  This means that the first part of your X lays from the bottom left corner of a square to the top right corner of the square ( / ).  Make all of the bottom stitches in the row going from left to right.  When you reach the end of the row, then you will make the top part of the X stitch to lay from the bottom right corner of the square to the top left corner of the square ( \ ) working from the right to the left, completing the first row in the cross stitch design.  For even more instructions, continue to page 3 of how to cross stitch.