HAED Questions

[Vani]

The first I heard of Heaven and Earth Designs, was when I joined this forum. And I fell in love. I really want to do one, but was wondering if someone could clarify some questions I had. I was wondering what cloth is best for such a project, and if so is tent stitch the best way to go about it rather then a full cross stitch. And what is a tent stitch, forgive me for my naive questions, as I am an eagar but farely inexperienced cross stitcher.

Another question I had was about needles. So far I have been doing my projects on Aida, how do I know what needle size is best. For a HAED or an Aida cloth, cotton, or linen. As you can see, I am full of questions!

Any help would be welcome!
Thanks

[kerbear879]

I guarantee you will get a lot of different answers to this one! I, too, just am in love with HAED designs. I attempted once to do it on 22ct and found that it was way too small for my eyes so since then I have done all my HAED's on 18ct aida with 3 strands over 1 and full crosses. You can do a search for Chessie or Catch a Falling Star to see what mine look like...now if you want to see an example of a tent stitch on the higher count fabric then take a look at Sarah's Bubble Telescope or Louise's Queen of Hearts. The thing is, if you are gonna do a tent stitch (which is very similar to a half stitch), then you will likely need to do it on a high count fabric so you don't have fabric poking through. A lot of people will suggest you get some test fabrics with different counts and test out whether you want to do the tent stitch, full stitch, and with how many strands. In the end, it's all about what you prefer. I think HAED's look fantastic on any count!

Oh and as for needle, again that will depend on what count fabric and what you like to use. I use a 24 for my 18ct.

Hope that helps some!

[andrea42]

As for needle size I use whatever slides better for me but i think mine are anywhere from 24 to 26. Fabric, I am doing haeds as well and have 22 of them so i have some on 22 1x1 , 18 i do 2x1 and 28 1x1, 25 1x1 all are full cross stitches though. Tenting you would only do half a stitch //// like that sort of, if you go on the haed bb there is a whole section that will help but like kerbear said you really need to test to see what fabric, how many strands of floss and such works well for you. I didnt do that and i have started a few over more than one time.

[Sarah Gixxer]

I second what Kerry said - HAEDs are designed to be stitched on 25 count fabric, but if this is too small for you, or you're not fond of evenweave, use a lower count or use Aida - just remember the picture will be much bigger than HAED says. Whatever size you stitch on, they're going to look amazing.

I am stitching Bubble Telescope on the recommended 25 count Lugana evenweave, which is a smooth, heavy fabric and I'm finding it wonderful to work on. On a count this high, tent stitch is fine for coverage. Basically it's just half a cross, ie a row of these..

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

but then you don't do the top part of the cross. However, you carry the thread along the back to the next stitch by the longest route as the fabric can become a little distorted stitching this way instead of in crosses.

What I did before I started was to experiment. I got a small piece of the fabric and then made a few stitches in full crosses using 2 strands of floss, then tried crosses with 1 strand and then tried tent stitch with 2 strands. I settled on the last option as for me, this looked neatest and gave good coverage. It's a good idea to experiment yourself with the fabric and the type of stitches before you launch into a HAED so when you start, you'll be happy with the result from the beginning.

As for needle size - stitching on 25 count I'm using a size 28 needle.

[kimkat_tkl]

I second (third, fourth....) what other have said - these are big projects so you need to be stitching on something that you like/can cope with. My first HAED I did on 25ct 1 over 1 full stitches using a 26 needle. I had never used 25ct before that so what I did was found a couple of freebies online and stitched them first (that way I got a feel how different colours stitched on the count of fabric, and how changing colours felt etc). Some of the HAEDs I want to do won't fit on a fat quarter of 25ct but will on 28ct so I've also tried a few freebies on 28ct.

Another recommendation - a coloured piece of fabric may be a better choice than white/off white to hide any issues with lack of coverage.

[burgundyice]

I agree with what the others have said - do some test stitching on different fabrics first. As it turned out, my stitching tension is quite high so although I'm working on 28ct, with the very dark colours in tent stitch there is some white showing through. I think in future I'll use a coloured fabric that tones in more with the design.
I thoroughly recommend the tent stitch though, it's so much quicker and although there was a small amount of distortion with the first few pages, it seemed to even out once I'd stitched across the whole area. I use a size 28 needle, as anything bigger was pushing the stitches out of shape!
I'll also say that HAED charts are much clearer & easier to follow than some others I've done - quite logical in that dark colours have heavier, darker symbols, so it's quite easy to "read" the pattern as you're looking at it & spot any symbols of a particular colour you've missed.

Louise

[Vani]

Thank you all for your useful advise. I will take all this into account when I decide what to do. Most probably I will pick a design, then figure out what cloth I want to work with and get extra, so I may experiment. I'm unsure if I will use full cross stitch or tent stitch. As I understand either is ok, just depends on personal preference? At first I thought that the pattern called for one stitch or the other. As for tent stitch, when you say the long way around, Sarah, did you mean start your stitching on the left, move down the row to the right and when you do the next row rather than working right to left this time, start at the left again? I will probably have to read up on tent stitching, I get that its just basically a half stitch, but does 2 over 1 mean two holes over one hole up? so you are actually covering two "x" spots?

I had no idea it could get so detailed and complicated. Can't wait to get it all straight in my head, so i can just enjoy the stitching part!

As for the needle, I will probably will experiment a little with what you all have suggested! Thanks again!

[Busy_B]

I'll let the other HAED stitchers respond about the tent stitching (I have 2 patterns in my stash but haven't started them). As for the 2 over 1, it means 2 threads over 1 square/thread of your fabric.

[Vani]

Thank you Busy_B, that really cleared up some things in my mind, I think I just couldn't picture in my mind what was being explained. When talking about 2 over 1, I didn't understand that the thread that you are working with was being talked about as well as the cloth you are working with! I really need to go out and get some 25ct cloth and experiment!
Thanks!

[Sarah Gixxer]

Regarding tent stitching, I personally don't work horizontally, but vertically. If doing a vertical row I will pull the needle up through the bottom left corner of the square and then down through the top right, then for the next stitch, which will be below the one I have just done, I again go to the bottom left corner and then top right.

The second row I will work from bottom to top, so here I go up through the top right corner of the square and down through the bottom left corner. Then the next stitch, worked above the first one, will be again, up through top right and down through bottom left.

This gives even tension and stops the fabric distorting. I know there is a thread somewhere with a link to a guide on tent stitching, which probably shows stitching horizontally, but as all my friends tell me, I am weird and strange and have to do things differently from normal!

Also, of course, a lot of HAEDs have so many confetti stitches (the area of mine I'm working on is nearly all odd stitches) so all of the above goes out the window and you just jump from one stitch to the next and then change colours and jump around with that one too.

[Becca]

Do try more than one count fabric. I tried the recommended 25 count to start with and found fabric showed through when i used 1 strand, and using 2 strands was too bulky. So i got some 28 count instead and found that 1 strand over 1 with full crosses was perfect on that. I personally like the full crosses because it gives complete coverage.

[nikecam]

i must admit to being one of minority non-haed lovers on this board but i do love large, intricate designs.

i have one that i'm doing and i'm convinced that the continental tent stitch is the reason for the pretty noticable distortion of the piece. i don't think i will be doing tent stitching again. there is no doubt that is much faster though! i wasn't as clever as sarah when i started and had no idea about distortion and ways to beat it!

i love working on 28 count evenweave 1 over 1. i found that i don't much care for linen due to the sometimes strange fibers that appear and mess up the neat stitching.

i think my needles are 28. i use a parking method on my renoir so i have several needles nearby on a magnet.

i know the previous mentions of testing fabric/stitches is very wise....i'm waaaay to impatient (and have paid heavily for it). mostly, i wish i had spent more time on color selection on some pieces but that isn't the case for haed designs where the color is already determined.

you can see some white in the dark sections of my renoir but i don't think it's noticable when i stand back from it so i'm sure it won't be from across the room when it's finally finished and displayed. one day!

[kerbear879]

Yes I have to second nikecam on the fact that even if you have a little white fabric poking through, from a distance you really can't tell. Many of the pics I have posted on here had white poking through but on the picture you couldn't even tell at all. I am a stickler for fabric poking through which is why I use 3 strands on my 18ct fabric but even with that I still get a little white but from a distance you don't even notice it one bit. And personally, I think most if not all HAED's are charted so that when you stitch them up, they look like the absolute real picture when standing from a distance no matter the count of fabric or the type of stitch you decide to use.

[ohstitcher]

[ And personally, I think most if not all HAED's are charted so that when you stitch them up, they look like the absolute real picture when standing from a distance no matter the count of fabric or the type of stitch you decide to use.[/quote]

This is what I have experienced. I am currently working on 3 HAEDS and I am using different fabrics for all 3 ranging from18-28 count. When you look at these from a distance you can really see the picture.

[andrea42]

I have to say that I have to personally hold my stitching away to see the design. Sometimes I'll be stitching and look and think wow that doesnt look like anything, but then when I hold it at a distance it looks better.

kerbear I havn't used 3 strands on 18 ct I may have to try it I use only 2 that is what dragon soul is and the only time I can really see fab showing thru is when i use really dark colors so obviously when doing this chart as a b/w i can see alot of fab showing thru but when looking at my pics i cant tell to bad.

[Vani]

Thank you all for your insightful advice. I hope that I am not too impatient to start my projects, that I don't research properly. Although that is highly possible!
Becca, I also like full cross stitches. Not that I don't like projects done with tent stitches, in some instances it adds the right amount of depth. Also, sometimes doing tent stitch for the whole project looks quite nice as well.
Nikecam, I just may join you on being impatient, especially when I have a new project in front of me, I dont want to waste time when !
As Nikecam, rBear, ohStitcher, and Andrea have mentioned I too notice myself having to step away from my stitching to get a clearer picture. I think thats why I love cross stitching so much, All you are doing is putting some crosses in this cloth and all of a sudden you have this amazing piece!
I have to say also that I have thought one of the best things I did was join this forum. It is so nice to be with people who love of cross stitching as much as I do. Now my husband doesn't have to hear me go on and on!
Thank you all.