| If you know someone that likes tigers then what better | | | | today are a recent development, deriving from shaded |
| gift could you give them than tiger cross stitch kits or | | | | colours of Berlin wool work of the mid-nineteenth |
| animal cross stitch kits. Cross stitch is a popular form | | | | century. Traditionally, cross stitch where used to |
| of counted-thread embroidery in which X shaped | | | | decorate items like dishcloths and household linens. |
| stitches are used to form a picture. Cross stitch is | | | | Although there are many cross stitchers who still |
| usually done on fabric called aida. The stitcher counts | | | | employ it in this fashion, it is now increasingly popular to |
| the threads in each direction so that the stitches are of | | | | simply embroider pieces of fabric and hang them on |
| uniform size and appearance. | | | | the wall for decoration. |
| Cross stitch is one of the oldest forms of embroidery | | | | Today cotton thread is the most common embroidery |
| and can be found all over the world. Many folk | | | | thread. It is a thread made of mercerized cotton, |
| museums show examples of clothing decorated with | | | | composed of six strands that are only loosely twisted |
| cross stitch, especially from continental Europe and | | | | together and easily separable. Other materials used |
| Asia. Two colour cross stitch in floral and geometric | | | | are pearl cotton, Danish flower thread, silk and Rayon. |
| patterns, usually worked in black and red cotton | | | | Sometimes different wool threads, metallic threads or |
| threads on linen, is characteristic of folk embroidery in | | | | other speciality threads are used, sometimes for the |
| Eastern and Central Europe. | | | | whole work, sometimes for accents and |
| Multicoloured, painting like patterns as we know them | | | | embellishments. |