I regularly attend events on embroidery, and with that comes questions. Most are simple to answer, some can be more challenging, but as soon as people hear I cross stitch, there’s only one question they can think of:

Have you heard of 5D cross stitch? What is it?

Is it cross stitch?

No. It’s not.

But there are simularities. You see, much like diamond painting, 5D cross stitch uses an adhesive back where small things are stuck on. However, unlike diamond painting, they use a special fabric, very similar to aida, with 14 ‘beads’ per inch.

So is it diamond painting?

Well, its closer to diamond painting than anything else, but still no.

Diamond painting is kinda of taken itself a bit quickly, so no one really knows the original type, but diamond painting uses a diamond grid, not squares like cross stitch. It also uses round ‘diamonds’, a hard backing, a randomised count (which is similar to 16 count).

So where does that leave us?

In short, 5D cross stitch is a half way house between cross stitch, and diamond painting.

It has all the hallmarks of diamond painting, but features 14 count flexible fabric backing, and small squares instead of round pegs.