Hi kahlathrop,
Thanks for your patience. I had to go find QS Little Fairy design, look at the information you gave me.
Here is what I found and should help with your questions:
1) First, almost all of HAED designs are done on 25-count
fabric. I put your measurements into a calculator
telling it I wanted to do this 175 Wide x 213 High Stitch
count on 25- count fabric ‘over one’ square and the
stitched area comes out to 7 inches wide x 8 1/2 High,
like
You said previously. Now the question is number of
strands of floss to use; HAED usually recommends
Doing ‘one over one’ ( 1 strand of floss over 1 square)
On 25-count fabric.
BUT you want to use 18-count fabric so:
On 18-count fabric, stitching ‘over one’ square your
Completed stitched area (NOT including extra fabric needed for matting and framing)will be 9 3/4 inches wide x 11 3/4 inches high; and the calculator I used suggested to use 2 strands of floss.
May I suggest something to you?
On the edge of your 18-count fabric you are going to use
For the project, take about ten minutes and stitch a row of 5-8 cross stitches using ONLY ONE strand of floss, THEN
Beneath that row, stitch 5-8 cross stitches using TWO strands of floss, then stop and compare the two rows as to how well the coverage of the fabric is. Which one do
YOU like? Many stitchers do this because, as they say, ‘ ‘there is NO ‘cross stitch Police that will come knocking at your door’ because you decided to use two strands of floss or one strand of floss or even three strands of floss. :) You the Stitcher decide how many strands of floss you want to get the look and fabric coverage you want.
Hope this helps!! :)
Oh, by the way, if you use 18-count fabric and go ‘over TWO’ Squares of fabric your completed design would be 19 1/2 inches wide x 23 3/4 inches high and they recommend 4 strands of floss.
I want to add that when calculating for size of fabric you need, add a MINIMUM of 2-inches for EACH SIDE of fabric.
I personally add 3 inches extra fabric to each side of my project to give a framer room for matting and framing.
Example: your completed stitched area is 10 inches wide x 10 inches tall, I would add minimum of 4 inches to the width( 2” per Side = 4 inches) and 4 inches to the Height
(2” at the top and 2” to the bottom = 4 inches) so I would need a piece of fabric that is 14” Wide by 14” tall. :)

Thank you Bermuda you helped a lot. Kathleen

Your welcome! 😃