To grid or not to grid ...

[pamelam]

I don't grid the fabric either. I just mark off on my chart, and I've never made a major mistake in counting. Usually just little mistakes that I catch pretty soon, and can fix easily.

[Vega]

I've never made a grid either, but its something I've been becoming interested in.

My current piece is off center by a good 5-10 blocks. I don't know HOW it got that off center as I'm normal insane about finding the center and counting out from both sides...
Anywho, I've been giving gridding much more thought now for my larger pieces.

[MaggieM1750]

I find my center lines and long stitch to the edge of my fabric with a few XX to anchor my thread. Then stitch grid the middle bits of fabric, maybe the center 30-40 boxes but don't grid the whole fabric. I figure if I get the middle started properly, the rest should be lined up correctly.
I do have a fabric pen but don't use it very often even though I know it would be much much quicker to draw a line than to stitch one. I learned to stitch my center lines and I guess old habits are hard to break.
I ran into trouble a few little projects back with drawing a grid onto my fabric for a knotwork bookmark design. I used hand dyed threads which were not colorfast. When I went to wash out my markings, my thread bled. I tried washing and washing, never did get all the dye out of the fabric and ended up throwing it away and starting over.

[Capricious]

I absolutely have to grid, otherwise I would lose my mind. I'm the kind of person that second guesses herself a lot.

[stitchingmae]

well i grid..for the most part i guess...i tried it once and am now doing my first big project....but...it takes me a while to grid...i find the center first...and then count the spaces from the middle to the first 10 gridline....that way i'm still sort of using the center method..but i'm using the grid as well.

[talenaya]

I have a big project coming up that I've started griding. It's taking me forever so I'm just griding the first two pages.

[stitchingmae]

see i'm ocd once i start gridding i finish the gridding.

[Becca]

I don't grid. My HAED I just measured and started in the top left corner, and I've just counted all the stitches and not made any mistakes yet. Other smaller designs I fold to find the centre and just start from there.

[penn]

I have to grid. I do it for two reasons. The first is to make sure that I didn't accidentally cut my fabric too short...I have ran into that problem once and had to cut the bottom two rows of my pattern to make it fit. The second is so I can travel all over the page. I grid horizontal lines ten down from the one above and ten over. After I have those lines gridded I go in with a different color to grid out the pages. Is is weird that the pens scare me? I grid with sulky metallic thread so it pulls out nicely when I have finished a project. I am in awe of those of you that are able to do larger projects without a grid, even for the John Clayton flowers that I am doing I grid just for the two pages that makes up the entire picture.

[stitchingmae]

I use the pens. I always test before I use....they have never left a mark...i would like to try the thread but i'm afraid i would rip out the stitches instead when i went to take out the gridding. i guess if i used the fishing line stuff you could just cut that but it makes me nervous. its neat how different things make different people feel comfortable. But I grid...even on small projects if there are a lot of spaces....between stitches because i'm afraid that i'll miss count.

[~threadbear~]

I've never gridded but I really wanted to try. I decided my first HAED would be the ideal one to try it out on. I am doing it on 28ct fabric and bought two fabric pens, a medium and a fine.
Both 'bleed' into the fabric and I can't tell which is the true line of the grid, so I have painstakingly just used a red thread and gridded half the fabric with it . Whether I'll do the other half depends on how helpful I find the grid.
I'm going to try the pens again at some point, but probably on a lower ct fabric.

[BluKat]

I have only just started gridding and can't beleive the difference it makes. So much quicker.

[twitchii]

i don't think i would have the patience to grid out each 10x10 square. i just started a rather large HAED project and i have found that following the colors on the page and highlighting does the trick for me. it may be slower than blasting through each square at a time, but i don't like to think of doing all those color changes at once

[Capricious]

i don't think i would have the patience to grid out each 10x10 square. i just started a rather large HAED project and i have found that following the colors on the page and highlighting does the trick for me. it may be slower than blasting through each square at a time, but i don't like to think of doing all those color changes at once

I'm really glad I gridded my HAED (a quick stitch). It helps me keep my place on the chart quite effectively. It only takes a day to grid the fabric (about 2 hours for a quick stitch, likely triple that for a full sized HAED). Considering HAEDs take several months to complete, I think it is a very important and necessary investment of time.

[skitzzzzz]

i never used to grid but i do now
for my last super HAED it took about an hour to grid
which in the long run saves me a lot of time counting
and i found for the 25 count my sewline pencil is FANTASTIC yayyyyy
doesnt bleed rubs out and can get different coloured leds so say iam using black fabric i can buy and use white leds

[traci]

I don't grid, the few projects that I have done where every color is so close, I use a pencil to mark off on the chart what I have finished. this works best for me as I'm sure gridding works best for others.

[LauraUK]

I've never gridded so far. I just do the middle vertical and horizontal lines to find the centre and always start working from the centre outwards. Gridding sounds like a good idea, but I can't see me trying it anytime soon.Might try it out on a smaller piece first and see if I like it or not.

[zelda1123]

I don't grid, and I'd never even heard of gridding before I joined this board. It sounds useful, and I may give it a try for a larger project. I'd just worry though that I'd mess up the grids somehow!

[Cytrix]

I don't have the patience to fully grid a work up...so I tend to do just a horizontal and vertical middle line grid and work with that. So far it's worked well, and means far less threads to pull out!

[Zeb]

I don't grid because I'm super lazy... and umm... I am not too sure how.

How do you guys work out how to grid something? Do you start with your center vertical and horizontal lines then work out?