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I'm in sort of a similar situation. I found something I wanted to stitch that I could either photo convert and stitch it huge or work from scratch and end up with a lot of fractional stitches. It's a school crest with a border on it (sort of shield shaped) so you can imagine how many fractional stitches there are. I remember there was a tutorial about how to stop quarter stitches from disappearing behind fabric threads but I can't seem to find it. Any tips? Also, does anyone know what looks better, quarter stitches or those tiny (petite point?) ones?

A quarter stitch on evenweave and a petit point stitch are pretty much the same thing, you tend to call it a quarter stitch if they come singly and most of the other stitches are full crosses over two, and petit point if you use them to cover an area (this may be within a piece stitched over two, e.g. a face or hands stitched in pp for extra detail).

How you keep them from slipping is determined not by the quarter stitch itself, but by how you move to the next stitch. Generally you can think of anything diagonal as being OK for not slipping. But when you move to your next stitch and that next stitch is right next to the previous one, you make a little straight stitch on the back of the fabric, and that can slip underneath the fabric thread. Make sure that it lies parallel to the top thread of the fabric and you should be OK.

I love this topic!! It's been extremely helpful. I was trying to decide which type of fabric to do a huge project on and I think I'll go 1 over 1 on evenweave so it doesn't end up being 3' wide!

Mabel Figworthy wrote:A quarter stitch on evenweave and a petit point stitch are pretty much the same thing, you tend to call it a quarter stitch if they come singly and most of the other stitches are full crosses over two, and petit point if you use them to cover an area (this may be within a piece stitched over two, e.g. a face or hands stitched in pp for extra detail).

How you keep them from slipping is determined not by the quarter stitch itself, but by how you move to the next stitch. Generally you can think of anything diagonal as being OK for not slipping. But when you move to your next stitch and that next stitch is right next to the previous one, you make a little straight stitch on the back of the fabric, and that can slip underneath the fabric thread. Make sure that it lies parallel to the top thread of the fabric and you should be OK.

Wait, a quarter stitch is the same as a petite point always or JUST on evenweave? On aida a quarter stitch is just one little quarter of the "box" but I thought the detail work (face and hands) work on evenweave were whole cross stitches just over one thread in a situation where most of the project was over two threads... Those seem really different to me. Was I wrong?

Ok, I think I see what you mean about the back of the stitches. You basically use the back of the stitch to lock the front into place. That makes sense in my head. Now I just have to wait for my husband to get back from his deployment so I can pick up some evenweave to fiddle around with and see if "makes sense to my head" translates smoothly to "makes sense to my hands".

Yes, I was thinking of evenweave, but only because I don't think I've ever seen areas covered in petit point on aida. The designs I've seen with extra detail in the faces had them in petit point, but there's no reason why you shouldn't use full cross stitch over one, as they take up the same amount of space

kell wrote:1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

Where each number represents a hole in the fabric, a cross from 1 to 5, then 2 to 4 would be over 1, but a cross from 1 to 9, then from 3 to 7 would be over 2.

im new and about to start a HAED this really helped me get it so just to verify my HAED on 25ct evenweave says quote " is recommended to to be stitched over 1 but may use any count that im comfortable with" so i do a cross from 1 to 5 then 2 to 4 yay or nay?

sam3006 wrote:

kell wrote:1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

Where each number represents a hole in the fabric, a cross from 1 to 5, then 2 to 4 would be over 1, but a cross from 1 to 9, then from 3 to 7 would be over 2.

im new and about to start a HAED this really helped me get it so just to verify my HAED on 25ct evenweave says quote " is recommended to to be stitched over 1 but may use any count that im comfortable with" so i do a cross from 1 to 5 then 2 to 4 yay or nay?

That is correct
Good luck on your project!