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So I couldn't find a recent topic on it, forgive me if there was one!

Now I have a section of back-stitching in my project, and I guess I'm a little confused on what the pattern is telling me. Forgive the small picture of pattern, I kept it as small as I could.



The circled area, would you stitch that as one long stitch, or four small stitches? I guess I'm just unsure what patterns mean in relation to back stitching- are you supposed to make a stitch every time the thread crosses a hole, or do you make it one whole stitch?

It varies for me from project to project, but on this one I would likely make that area you have circled 2 stitches.

you could stitch along each square, or you could stitch every 2 squares. i like to stitch 2 squares. the line in the chart is just to tell you how far to do the back stitching.

Well, it's not just that area specifically, just a lot of little areas like that. I would take a bigger picture of the pattern, but that's not something you're really supposed to do x.x'

And I guess I just have to judge visually if it looks good or not. Which kind of sucks because I like clear-cut yes/no absolutes. Oh well.

And I'm really not liking back-stitching at the moment, outlining the hummingbird is kind of a pain the rear. I can't make the stitches nice and tight because they have to lay on top of the cross-stitches so it shows up >.>

Well this is what I ended up doing. I may do an extra half-stitch at the end of the beak that the pattern doesn't ask for. I don't really like that space there.

very nice backstitching, and I agree with you about the beak--I'd add a 1/2 stitch too

your backstitching looks perfect to me. I would probably have done 2 or 4 stitches in your circled pattern depending on how I felt at the particular time. I would also fill in that space with a smaller stitch also. with back stitching in general I follow the lines as best I can and sometimes if I don't think it will make any difference I ignore it. Not often, but sometimes it seems pointless.

Carole

Your back stitching is great. I usually do it every 2 or 3 stitches but no more as it is hard to keep it taut. Having said that when doing the rigging on a sailing ship for DS I did most of it in 1 go for each line - anything else looked bitty and untidy.
I agree the beaks needs just that little xtra and its ok to do that. I often stick the odd half or even 3/4 st into places like that.

Great work on a very pretty project.

Sally

With backstitching I think you have to judge what looks best for each piece - sometimes I do every stitch sometimes every 2 and other times I use long stitch! I know that with a lot of charts in magazines and some kit designs, they don't seem to like adding quarter and 3/4 stitches to the chart - which as Sally said you often need to do to make the design look right!

As others have said, I think it depends on pattern, fabric count and number of threads for me to decide if I'm going with single stitches or every 2 squares or even longer stitches.

I would almost wish they made a small circle in the lines for where they intend for you to go down into the fabric on back-stitching. Then at least, you can see what the pattern is intended to do.

I think it is just a personal choice what you do. Most designers put the instructions up saying to stitch over each stitch but sometimes that just won't do, it looks broken so I like to go over 2 unless it is something like whiskers for the animals.

Most things in this hobby are up to each individual stitcher.

I agree with what everyone else has said. For your chart I'd probably have done it in either one long stitch or two stitches. I agree an extra half stitch on the beak would look good. Unless it really is solely an outline job, with backstitch, I tend to look at the effect that the backstitch is trying to achieve and adjust my stitches accordingly for each part of the pattern. I rather like the degree of individuality that allows me in each pattern.

It's personal choice I think. The backstitching on the chart is only your guide.
The back stitching on my Cinderella I didn't put it where the chart told me as they were all to close.

How you do it is up to you.
If it was me I'd do a long stitch and see how it looked first, as there far easier to unpick

It's completely a personal choice.. for me I'd do it one long stitch because it looks like you have a few of that same thing going on and it would give a nice stroke effect...
Faith

That's what I ended up doing, just several long-stitches because there was a lot of them.

I started on the leaves in the design and found two boo-boos I made that I just can't be asked to go back and unpick stitches and cut more thread to fix. In both cases it's like one stitch in the wrong place... and you don't even notice.

I'm getting pretty excited though, it's probably little over halfway done!

Opinions on framing? I saw some backing material at JoAnne's, where you peel off something on a board and put the finished piece on, but I didn't look at it too closely to see if it was acid-free.