Crossstitchforum - A FREE forum for Cross Stitchers

Tomorrow, this thread should go back to the Storyteller! Er... I mean today! I'm off to bed!

Um. Well. I meant to do cross-stitching today. But...

Well, I've been thinking.

See, when I first came in here and saw people talking about 'gridding' and saw pictures of it, I was horrified. Me, I don't even bind the edges of my fabric 'cos I want to get straight into the stitching of the design - I'm not only lazy, I'm far too impatient to be bothered with all that stuff! And I'd never even heard of gridding, let alone considered doing it! So I dismissed it out of hand.
But I kept on reading how helpful it was, and how it cut down on unpicking - sorry, frogging (another term I'd never heard before).
And then I got the 24ct black fabric for my special dragon. And I looked at it. And I thought.
So I decided, "Ok, I'll grid that before I start the stitching."
And then I started thinking about this design. And the amout of frogging I'd already done - or decided to ignore! - already.
Therefore, instead of stitching the design, my free time today has been spent griddiing the unstitched area of The Storyteller. It's not finished yet, but I should have all the gridding completed tomorrow, then I'll be able to get back to the fun part.

But I was right about gridding. It's deadly. Boring, but requiring great concentration and making my neck ache!

It's worth the effort and boredom, trust me! I would never be able to grid the entire fabric for my willow tree (just the thought of it is actually terrifying) but gridding a few squares at a time as I go along has made an immense difference with the amount of frogging I've had to do. And, once the tedious bit is done, you can back to creating this beautiful dragon and it'll be that much easier and quicker because you won't have to go back and redo anything!

Blissful thought! Thanks for the encouragement, KK!

I'm still wondering about gridding as well, so I'l be interested to know whether you decide it was worth it once you get stitching again.

I'm just grateful that none of my projects are big enough to need gridding !

Yeah... this one isn't all that big, but...

I haven't finished gridding yet, but done enough real stitching to find out I'm not that comfortable with it... I mean... well... the gridding thread shows through in places even in just the bit of stitching I did today, and I'm thinking it won't be that easy to take out afterwards, either. I think I may have to get a water soluble pen or something, and then do something else I've never had to do before - wash the completed project.


Anyway, here is the latest installment. Dragon has yellow eyebrows, lol!

It is really looking great.

It's such a lovely project, love the eyebrows

See, I use pencil to do my gridding - the whole damn thing is stitched after all, there's no background fabric showing through anywhere, so I don't have to worry so much about washing it off - and it helps me out. The eyebrows look wonderful

You mean golden eyebrows -- this is one classy dragon, after all

Hope you'll find the method of gridding that works for you!

Yeah... good idea, KK. I've just ordered a pack of 3 soluble pencils from Sew and So; and while I was at it I ordered the rest of my threads for the 'fljotsdale' dragon. Well, I've had an offer from my younger daughter to buy 'em for me for christmas, so...I can just tell her how much they cost, can't I?

Mabel Figworthy wrote:You mean golden eyebrows -- this is one classy dragon, after all

Hope you'll find the method of gridding that works for you!

LOL! Yeah, ok - golden!

I'm going to take the gridding out when I get the pencils from Sew and So, and draw the lines instead. I reckon it will be quicker to do and easier to stitch over, even if it does mean washing it afterwards. Besides, I'll only have to mark the corners of the gridded squares. AND I won't have to worry about damaging the project trying to remove gridding threads!

In fact, I will probably remove most of the grid threads before I get the pencils. I do NOT recommend gridding with thread!

Actually it looks like he's got golden elbows as well??

Hmmm gridding, I've never done it...I prefer to work in logical "patches" of colour rather than 10x10 blocks (ever since I got fooled by a "10x10" at the edge of a page that turned out to be 8x10!!!! Now I use my eyes rather than relying on fickle blocks lol) Plus I can imagine myself making a horrible mess of it when trying to remove the gridding stitches so... I steer well clear

Louise

burgundyice wrote: Actually it looks like he's got golden elbows as well??

Yeah, and beard! It's sort of feathery stuff - not at all what you'd expect on a dragon, but TW does it a lot on hers.

burgundyice wrote:Hmmm gridding, I've never done it...I prefer to work in logical "patches" of colour rather than 10x10 blocks (ever since I got fooled by a "10x10" at the edge of a page that turned out to be 8x10!!!! Now I use my eyes rather than relying on fickle blocks lol) Plus I can imagine myself making a horrible mess of it when trying to remove the gridding stitches so... I steer well clear

Louise

I agree with you. I only tried it because so many people here seem to use the method. But I don't like it either, and I'm certainly never going to stitch gridding again! I've already started to take out the grids I put in over the last couple of days - carefully!

i've never gridded myself. but i did cheat and buy pre-gridded fabric for my HAED

Yes, that stuff might be a good idea - how are you getting on with it?

I'm still waiting for it to come but im loving it already lol

Update. Not done a lot, but felt like doing something a bit easier, so I moved to the border:

Lovely progress!
You can really see it coming together can't you.