Crossstitchforum - A FREE forum for Cross Stitchers

One of my HAED's contains 87 colours and because I've never stitched a design with this many colours before I'm a bit concerned. How does everyone stay so organised? Also, for the people who have stitched HAED's before, would it be best if I marked blocks onto my fabric before stitching? I'm not starting it yet, I'm just wanting to build up a bit of knowledge beforehand. Thanks! x

I have not done a HAED but I am currently working on a large project that is comparable in scope - 60,000 stitches and 150 colors.

I would suggest gridding your fabric into 10 x 10 blocks before you begin, that has made it much easier for me. You can grid with either a water soluble fabric pen or using thread or fishing line.

To organize my threads, I have 2 separate project boxes just for this piece. As I begin each page, I pull out the colors I will need for that page and keep them on a ring in numerical order.

I have two WIPs, one is a HAED, one not... Both with a lot of colors. I have a separate box for each of their colors and soon a third one. I decided not to worry about being duplicate colors at this point because my stash of thread is *very* limited so I don't mind building up a collection. I have each color on a bobbin and then the extra skeins are stores in the box too. If you check out the links in my signature, you can take a look at pictures.

As for stitching, it might help if you make a copy of the page you are going to work on and then cut it into even smaller sections (mine are cut into 6 sections) to work on at a time. If you jump around a lot, gridding would be helpful.

Good luck

I am working on several HAEDs with around 90 colours. I put all of the colours on bobbins and store them in number order in plastic storage boxes.

I don't grid the fabric. I start stitching on the first page of the chart in the top left corner and work slowly outwards from that point, working as many stitches of one colour as I can and then changing to the next. I find it no different to any other project, it's just enormous and with smaller stitches.

I work in the same way as Sarah. I have several projects on the go and each has its own box for floss which are in numerical order. However one of the designs is a dimensions kit and my threads for that are on a Tanto thread stand.

Hi, I'm kitting up a HAED at the moment, mine has 88 colours in it. I'm using DMC stitch bows and folder inserts, when i've put the stitchbow in the folder insert i put a sticker on it with the symbol for that colour so i can find it easily

Just to add to what everyone has said, I find that using a pako needle organiser helps enormously. I check a few rows or blocks ahead and make sure my next lot of needles are loaded. Also I find that parking, row by row in 10 stitch columns, is easier for me but everyone has their own preference. If I hadn't learned to park I think I would have abandoned my HAEDs long ago.

I don't grid, but do block by block.

Also, using 2 pako thread organizers to keep my threads on. I cut a few lenghts, put them on there, use them, and when there is still one left, I cut a new one. Is there a new color in it, I add the symbol to it and some threads.

I block using a water-soluble pen. I switched from using thread because it was much more troublesome.

I store my bobbins on Binder Rings - actually, shower curtains rings from Wal-Mart

Thank you so much for all your replies! You are all so helpful on here Thanks, I really appreciate it x