Due to many requests over the past months, we have decided to offer these designs in chart form only as these designs have been available up to now, only as complete kits. Many of us have our own collections of floss and fabrics and prefer to use materials we may have on hand. As a designer I would often prefer to use a special fabric for a certain design but the companies who kit the designs may find a different fabric more desirable for the overall market. I therefore am "living it up" and suggesting preferred fabrics for all of the charts we offer. Please check your local needlework shop for these fabrics. All designs were originally worked with DMC floss.

Don't hesitate to choose a special colored fabric for any of these designs. Just because most are pictured stitched on white, off-white or a neutral, doesn't mean they wouldn't be extra special stitched on colored backgrounds. Also, you can choose other fabric thread counts such as 32 or 36 for smaller more "jewel-like" results. Be creative!

The Sizes listed with each design are for 14 or 28 Count fabric. We highly recommend using ZWEIGART fabrics for all designs. All designs can be worked on different thread count fabrics equally well. I prefer stitching on linen and regular evenweaves because of the natural "feel" of the fibers. Evenweaves also make the stitching of designs with many quarter stitches much easier.

Linens from ZWEIGART comes in three basic counts suggested for these designs:
28 Count Cashel Linen Art. No.3281.
32 Count Belfast Linen .Art. No.3609
36 Count Edinburgh Linen Art. No. 3217

All 3 linens above come in a very wide range of colors and are very evenly woven and have a wonderfully luxurious feel when stitching.

ZWEIGART also offers some beautiful cotton and synthetic blend fabrics that can be used. These fabrics work particularly well for bell pulls and stockings which will not be framed. They also, of course, work fine for framed designs.

28 Count Jubilee Art. No.3232 (100% Cotton) - "Solidly" woven cotton in a great range of colors.
28 Count Quaker Cloth Art. No.3993 - (55% Linen and 45% Cotton) Great range of colors.
32 Count Brittney/Lugana Art. No.3270 (52% Cotton and 45% Rayon) Wonderful for unframed projects such as stockings, bell pulls, ornaments, etc.
25 Count Lugana Art. No.3835 (52% Cotton 148% Rayon) - Use 3 Strands of Floss for stitching over 2 threads. This particular fabric is particularly well-suited for stitching one over one.

Some charts are designed to use special color fabrics. Listed below are suggested fabrics for these special designs.

V500 Fairies & Fantasies - Cashel Linen (28 Count) Antique White 101 or Misty Blue 594
S269 Tapestry Cats and Rabbits - Jubilee (28 Count) Black 720
051 Fish Bell Pull - Jubilee (28 Count) Black 720
080 Pinky and Blue Bear - Pinky: Jubilee (28 Count) Jubilee Blue Boy: Jubilee (28 Count) Ice Blue 550

218 The Holy Family - Zweigart 28 Count Brittney/Lugana Color No. 550 Ice Blue OR Zweigart 28 Count Cashel Linen Color No. 774 Light Blue OR Charles Craft 28 Count Monaco Light Blue.

229 Jousting Knights - Zweigart 28 Ct. Brittney/Lugana Ice Blue (550) or Zweigart 28 Ct. Cashel Linen Color No. 774 Lt. Blue

230 Musical Muses - Zweigart 28 Ct. Quaker Cloth (Art. No. 3993), Light Mauve, Color No. 403 or 30 Ct. Zweigart Murano (Art. No. 3984) Ash Rose, Color No. 403

234 Sweet Dreams Santa - Charles Craft 28 Count Monaco-Light Blue

125 Blue Morning Glory Angel - Cashel Linen (28 Count) Misty Blue 894
126 Purple Pansy Angel - Cashel Linen (28 Count) Lavender Mist 727
127 Rose Petal Angel - Cashel Linen (28 Count) Cameo Rose 484
V952 Daffodil Angel - Cashel Linen (28 Count) White 100

Fabrics for Historical Samplers

Because samplers tend to be quite large, using the smaller 32 and 36 count fabrics will make them more accurate in size to the original weaves used. You might also try tea-dying an off-white linen for a more authentic sampler look.

V901 First Mary Ann Gibson Sampler - Belfast Linen (32 Count) Clay 715
V902 Second Mary Ann Gibson Sampler - Belfast Linen (32 Count) Light Sand 224
V904 Garland Sampler - Belfast Linen (32 Count) Antique White 101
V903 Renaissance Sampler - Belfast Linen (32 Count) Willow Green 346
S234 Donna's Family Band Sampler - Belfast Linen (32 Count) Putty 345
S235 New England Sampler - Belfast Linen (32 Count) Willow Green 346

All the above samplers can also be stitched on Natural Linen (Unbleached) in the various counts.

Christmas Ornaments

All ornament sets can be stitched on 28, 32 or 36 count fabrics. They could also be arranged on one piece in a vertical format to create a mini-size bell pull or arranged in a rectangular design and framed as a picture.

Suggested Fabrics

Brittney/Lugana (28 Count) White 100
Jubilee (28 Count) White 100
Belfast Linen (28 Count) White 100
Edinburgh Linen (36 Count) White 100

Other Christmas Designs

142 Adoring Santa and 143 Whispering to Santa - Cashel Linen (28 Count) Raw Linen 53)

Black or Navy Background Fabrics

Many of our designs such as the Renaissance group and several Christmas designs use dark fabrics to achieve their rich look. A range of dark fabrics are suggested below:

Zweigart Aida (14 Count) Black 95 or Navy 589
Dublin Linen (25 Count) Black 95
Brittney/Lugana (28 Count) Black 720, Navy 589
Lugana (25 Count) Black 720, Navy 589
Jubliee (28 Count) Black 720

We hope these fabric suggestions have been helpful. Most needlework shops carry many of these fine Zweigart fabrics.