What is the differnce between cross stich and hand embroidery?

Question:

What is the differnce between cross stich and hand embroidery?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Cross stitch is a specific type of embroidery stitch. Each stitch is composed of two lines on the surface of the fabric that cross in a figure of an "X." The thread X's can be done on fabric that is printed with X's to indicate where the thread stitches should go. That is usually referred to as cross stitch.

Cross stitch can also be done as Counted Cross Stitch. This is done on a specially woven fabric, called Aida cloth, that has no printing but rather has small holes in it. The placement of the X stitches is based on a design printed on paper, counting the previous stitches or holes in the fabric to determine the placement of the stitches.

Hand embroidery can utilize many different types of stitches -- straight stitch, lazy daisy stitch, french knots, blanket stitch, chain stitch, etc. There are hundreds of different stitches. The different embroidery stitches are utilized to create different textures on the surface of the embroidery fabric. Hand embroidery is usually done over printed fabric, like linen.

Here's a picture of a single cross stitch, over Aida cloth. You can see the holes in the fabric, which is what you count so you can place the stitches in their proper position on the fabric to make the design:
http://crossstitch.about.com/od/learnhow...

For different embroidery stitches:
http://inaminuteago.com/stitchindex.html...
http://www.craftown.com/instruction/embr...