Stitiching a mandala

[aksteph64]

I've stitched many, many cross stitch patterns, but am about to start my first mandala. My question is ... is there a top and bottom like my usual patterns, or do I turn 90 degrees for each side? I can't tell by looking at the pattern or the picture. The speciality stitches seem to be flipped for each side. Thanks for your help.

[mig-3]

Yes; there is almost always a top and bottom, especially for charts with non-uniform specialty stitches. Does your chart come as a whole example or is it made as a 1/2 chart with a 1/4 chart detail? Regardless, you need to determine your top and bottom. (I stitch a block of thread at the very top right corner edge to keep myself oriented when I pick up the piece.) Do NOT turn your piece 90 degrees at a time. That will cause your stitches to turn in different directions. You can turn the chart &/or work piece 180 degrees any time and your stitches will stay the same direction.

That's probably as clear as mud..............

[nachosmiley]

Hi Steph, welcome to the board

I too am stitching my first mandala and I would say that they most definately have a top and bottom. My advice would be to choose which way up you want the mandala and mark the top on your chart and mark the top on your fabby too. That way if you rotate projects you always know which way up your stitching is! All the cross stitches should end the same way either / or \ so I don't rotate the fabby at all whilst stitching those. As for the speciality stitches SOMETIMES I DO rotate my fabric 90 degrees and work them all using the same method, it depends on the stitch. I don't know if I have done the right thing by doing that but I think they look fine!

Here's mine so far (clickable pic)

For the shells and the eyelets I rotated the fabby 90 degrees, for the dense rhodes I didn't rotate at all......my take on it is.....think about the overall look of each speciality stitch and figure out if it will look odd if the top strands of the stitches are all lying slightly different or not and then decide what to do. I hope that helps and hasn't confused you even more!!

[Mrs Milkybar Kid]

When I stitched my first BAP Chatelaine Mandala I had a design where it was very easy to tell which way was up - there was a temple in the middle (Chinese Garden Mandala) so fairly obvious! Also I stitch on scroll frames so my fabric stayed on the rods until the design was finished. With Q-Snaps if the design was fully symmetrical and you moved your snaps around a lot it would be easy to get confused! I often stitched my Mandala "upside down", by rotating it 180 degrees as this made some parts easier and more logical to stitch! As long as you rotate your fabric by 180 degrees when cross stitching (not just 90) your crosses will go the same way. For the speciality stitches I rotated the stitch (not the fabric) by 90 degrees, as to me that looked best.

This has probably confused you further - but if you wanted to look at some examples just click on one of my albums in my sig, there are lots of close-ups there! As Jarvis said one of the best things to do is either sew (button etc) or stitch something at the top of your fabric so you always know which way up your mandala is!