Everything You Know About Fractionals

[thisisadiana]

Today I looked at the piece I was working on and noticed a coverage problem. I was stitching a woman's dress in two colours. It's mostly dark red with light red spots. The design calls for lots of half stitches where the two colours meet, but even after completing the dress I thought I could see too much of the fabric.

I looked up some stuff on fractionals and see I've been doing it wrong all these years. Apparently I'm supposed to have a three quarters stitch and a quarter stitch over each square? Is this right??? I've just been completing one leg in two colours (two quarter stitches over each square) all these years!

Now I'm a bit lost, as I'm not sure how to decide which colour should be the three quarters stitch and which should be the quarter stitch. I'm also not sure what to do about the fact that the pattern sometimes shows the quarter stitches going one way and sometimes the other. Won't that mean you have top legs going two different ways and the picture will look bad???I have so many questions!

1. Should I now always try to stitch the background first, so that the top leg ends up being the foreground colour?
2. Should I stitch quarter stitches first, before three quarters stitches? Does it matter which way round you stitch them?
3. How to you tackle a chart showing quarter stitches going two different ways?
3. Any other knowledge you have to share.

I'm confused as heck.

[flosaxby]

Yes you are "supposed" to do a 3/4 stitch and a 1/4 stitch and you are "supposed" to figure out which is the foreground and which is the background but I find that all too complicated.
I just do two 3/4 stitches. You end up with 2 bars going across the stitch but it saves worrying too much about which is the dominant colour!

[Rose]

It depends on the stitch. Some times I do what flosaxby does and makes both the stitches 3/4 and some times I make one 3/4 and one 1/4 you have to decide by each individual pattern.

I am not sure it really matters but when I am stitching I do the 3/4 first and then the 1/4 stitch.

Not sure what you are asking about the different directions??????

[Allyn]

It all depends on the design. I know that isn't helpful, but it's true.

I do two quarter-stitches if there's going to be backstitching separating the colors. That way the backstitch won't be bulk on top of the top leg of a three-quarters-stitch. If there is no backstitching -- as when the two colors are shading -- I'll do a quarter-stitch of the less dominant color and a three-quarters-stitch of the dominant color.

Don't have the top leg of the cross going the opposite way from the rest of the stitches. The top leg might need to be a quarter-stitch of one color and the last quarter-stitch of a three-quarters-stitch of the other color, but don't have the top leg going in the other direction.

[pattiebelle]

I've never worried about it. I've done exactly as you for just as many years!

Most times the backstitching covers up the exposed space.

If the design calls for 1/2 stitches, I just make them all the first leg of my crosses and even though they are going opposite direction to my final stitches, I figure they add overall texture to the piece.

Once it's all done, no one is going to compare it to the directions anyway

[thisisadiana]

Thank you all! I think I'll go back and do 3/4 stitches on the parts that don't look so great.

I don't think I have the patience to find all the fractionals in my piece.

[perftangel]

I do two quarter-stitches if there's going to be backstitching separating the colors. That way the backstitch won't be bulk on top of the top leg of a three-quarters-stitch. If there is no backstitching -- as when the two colors are shading -- I'll do a quarter-stitch of the less dominant color and a three-quarters-stitch of the dominant color.

I pretty much do it this way as well. It looks weird until the backstitching goes in though!

[carolanne]

It looks like you can really do what suits you. As Pattibell said, no one is going to be looking at the chart.

[ChicagoMay]

Yes you are "supposed" to do a 3/4 stitch and a 1/4 stitch and you are "supposed" to figure out which is the foreground and which is the background but I find that all too complicated.
I just do two 3/4 stitches. You end up with 2 bars going across the stitch but it saves worrying too much about which is the dominant colour!

I might be doing it wrong haha, but this is how I do it, the two 3/4 stitches. You can see examples in this picture I just edited for you So far this method hasn't made it too bulky.