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Those cut-thru designs are fantastic, but the backstitching...!!

I backstitch stitch by stitch as a rule, although a design will occasionally call for a more diagonal stitch of something like that. The idea is that the backstitch focuses the rest of the stitching, delineating areas and so forth. If it's too obvious, then it gets in the way visually. Back stitch really does bring designs to life. (And the Bothy Threads designs must look like nothing on earth until they are back stitched!)

TW (Teresa Wentzler) designs have tons of backstitching while HAED's have none. I think Stoney Creek designs also use alot of backstitching. I am doing a TW piece right now called "The Guardian" and the border is in celtic knots and there is a ton of backstitching. My advice is: Backstitch as you go. By the end of a peice the last thing I want to do is do all the backstitching at once. It's not so unwieldy if you backstitch as you go. HTH. Sorry for the late reply to your post I'm sure by now you have already completed the pattern in question!