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UPRIGHT CROSS STITCH

The upright cross stitch makes a nice, small, all over texture on canvas. In this example, it is stitched over two canvas threads in height and two in width.

As with counted cross stitch, it is important to cross consistently (to always have the same thread on top; in our example the upright vertical stitch is done first with the horizontal stitch done second). This is what an area of upright cross stitch looks like (only full cross stitches are shown, with no compensating stitches):

In the next example, compensating stitches have been added around the edge:

A common mistake people make is to "over-compensate" this stitch and add stitches as shown in the following diagram (for purposes of illustration, these extra stitches are shown in aqua). These stitches end up looking messy and just too much:

There is no one right way to stitch the upright cross stitch. It can be done in horizontal or vertical rows, but for me it is easiest to do this stitch in diagonal rows, as follows:

Diagrams and text copyright 2005, Denise Davis, Threadneedle Street