What's It Got Got For YOU?

Membership Fees

Good sites offer one-month trials so that you can sample the website and the patterns before you commit to a year's membership. There will be a small charge for the month but for this charge you will be granted access to the members only areas and you will be allowed to download or print out up to three of their patterns.

There is often a message board or forum so that you can converse with other cross stitchers and ask any questions you might need answering.

At the end of the month's trial you usually have the option to take out either a quarterly or full year membership. This should allow you to download a large number of patterns per year and there should be new patterns added on a regular basis.

Patterns

The patterns that a good membership site offers should be varied in both style and skill level required. Obviously when you first start out you are going to want basic patterns that don't take weeks to finish but as you progress and become more adept at cross stitch you will need more challenging projects.

Check the entire range before you sign up as you don't want to commit to a site that only has the one skill level, especially if you want to go on to more difficult works. You should also check that there are plenty of patterns that you like and would be happy cross stitching.

Websites that offer a range of styles such as:

• animals
• flowers
• classics
• people
• fantasy, and so on...

...are a lot better than those that concentrate on a single subject, unless of course that subject is a passion of yours. You never know what you will be in the mood to cross stitch next or what special occasion you will want to cross stitch a piece for and so a range of possible patterns is a must.

Tools

You will often need to top up your supply of fabric and threads, and being able to do this for a discounted rate on your membership website is a great bonus.

Special Offers

There should be the occasional sale where you can buy three threads for the price of two or even three patterns for the price of two. A good website will have a few monthly specials that will allow you to purchase an expensive design for a greatly discounted rate or else you can buy one pattern and choose a second one from a selected range for free.

These special offers are a fantastic perk of being a member, especially coming up to Christmas when you can buy beautiful festive patterns for a discount rate.

Advice and Tips

Advice from the professionals is a must when you are just starting out and so a website that offers this service is a definite possibility when it comes to finding one to join. Being able to contact other members is a great bonus whether it is for advice or just for a general chat about cross stitching.

Also, a website that has a 'tips' page can be a good choice for anyone interested in cross stitch. You can pick up some useful ideas from these pages and even post your own tips to help fellow stitchers.

It may be quite difficult to find a single website that has all of the features outlined above so decide what is most important to you and shop around until you find the site to suit your needs.

There is a large range of websites out there to choose from, which offer different incentives, but by taking on board the tips listed above you shouldn't have too many problems finding one to join.

Where you are right here, right now provides many of the above and much, much more. To see what we have for you, click here to browse our site, or join us right now!