How to start on corners instead of the middle?

[aian11]

Hi everyone!

I'm just wondering how do you guys start on a corner instead of the middle? I have tried starting on corners before but I've always ran out of space on the other side, thus wasting thread and painstakingly removing the thread.

I've also seen images if WIPs that has grids drawn on the aida. How do you guys do it?
Please teach me how!

Thank you!

Dianne

[Ainjel333]

I would like some tips on this also. I just ordered my first HAED

and I've never started anywhere but the middle...and I'm terrified of starting in the corner as I am afraid of exactly that: running out of fabric.
And I've never done a project with pages...only kit charts which are 2 pages at most.

[aian11]

I would like some tips on this also. I just ordered my first HAED

and I've never started anywhere but the middle...and I'm terrified of starting in the corner as I am afraid of exactly that: running out of fabric.
And I've never done a project with pages...only kit charts which are 2 pages at most.

Congratulations on your first HAED order. I haven't ordered from them yet. Looking forward on ordering one of these days!

[JazzeyBear]

What I do to start in the corner with big projects is find the middle like you would if you were starting in the middle. I than grid ten by ten squares to the edges. And go from there.

[Ladymyste65]

Well I've never started from the middle, I always start from the upper left corner. I find the middle of the fabric and pattern, count up and over and there I start. It seems to work well for me.

[Offe]

Lets say that you want to start in the top left corner. Find out how many stitches your design has.

Divide the width in stitches with the count. That will give you the width in inches. Divide by two. That is how far to the left you need to go from the center. In inches.

Do the same for the heigth. (Don't forget to divide by two.) That is how far up you need to go.

Find the middle of the fabric and measure from there.

[gparr]

I always start in the upper left. I first find the middle and tie a piece of thread at that point. Then I divide the number of stitches in the height of the piece in half and count up that number of stitches from the center and tie another piece of thread at that location. Then I check that top center position about five times to be sure. Then I count to the left half of the total number of stitches in the width of the piece. That spot is the top left corner. Again, a piece of thread is tied at that location. I now have three pieces of thread, center, top center, top left, and am able to eyeball the positions and check the positions several times to be sure I have it right.
Gary

[amyb]

What I do is figure the size of the stitched piece for the count of fabric I'm using. So, say, on my stitching the standard, the stitch dimensions are 180x405. I'm using 18 ct Aida, so the actual size of the stitched piece will be 10x22.5 inches. I needed margins around the stitching to allow for framing, so I added 3 inches on each side, making the required piece of fabric 16x29 inches.

When I started stitching, I simply measured in and down 3 inches from the upper left corner and marked the starting stitch.

[stitchnsew]

I also do the counting method, find middle, and count over and down. (I start in the lower left). Then I know that is exactly where the corner should go. The counting method is more tedious than the measuring method, but I'm leery of just measuring because I'm always worried that my measurements were calculated wrong or that the fabric gets stretched and it gets inaccurate; but mostly because I've bought material that was supposed to be 18ct and it really measured out at 17ct. Not a real big deal, but with a large piece of fabric it could put you off significantly.

[aian11]

Thank you all for sharing how you measure and how you start from the corner. I'll give all of these a try! You are all helpful

Thanks!

Dianne

[Mystonique]

If I'm gridding I'll find the middle and grid outwards every 10 squares.

If I'm not gridding I calculate my fabric size and at 3 inches all around and the start 3 in and 3 down.

[aian11]

If I'm gridding I'll find the middle and grid outwards every 10 squares.

If I'm not gridding I calculate my fabric size and at 3 inches all around and the start 3 in and 3 down.

I was thinking about that method too though I didn't knew how much should I measure in and down. Thank you very much!

Dianne

[Ainjel333]

Thank you all for all of your suggestions, I think I am going to try gridding for my HAED. I will feel more comfortable doing that I think. I've never gridded before, but from what I have read here and seeing a few diagrams of it, I think I can get it right.

[KarinvdB]

There's a number of online fabric calculators for cross stitch where you can take the number of stitches (width & height) and the fabric count to calculate the stitched design size (I like this one because it gives the size in inches and cm), they also allow you to set how much space you want around the design for finishing/framing. If you cut your fabric to that size and you calculated it with, say, 3 inches of space around, the corner would be 3 down and 3 across on that piece of fabric. That way you shouldn't run out of fabric. That's what I planned on doing for my first HAED, though I'm now tempted to count from the middle to see if it works out that way too.

I've been reading a lot about how to grid and I'm not sure if it's for me, I think I'd be struggling around the grid lines. I'm planning on doing the design by parking and working in 10x10 squares so that it should work out that way without really having to grid, but I might grid around the page to make sure I can double check things more easily.

[BizzieLizzie]

I find the middle of the fabric and mark it with a pin.

Then I divide the stitch count by two (as the others have suggested) and count the holes upwards, marking every 10th hole with a pin of a particular colour up to 50. I have glass head pins with coloured bobbles on the end that I use to keep count. I mark the 50th hole with a pin of a different colour, then take out the previous pins and use them again every 10th hole up to 100.

I repeat the process until I get to where the top of the pattern will be, and then use the same method to count across to the left. Using the pins really helps if I lose count or am interrupted.

[Lessa54]

For a full coverage piece, I simply measure my fabric and work out how much edge clearance I have on the design. I then measure in from the top and side edge and start stitching in the top left. Never had a problem yet on running out of fabric.

For non-full coverage or things like Mabel's SAL which I'm doing on an afghan and I need to count from the centre, I work out where the centre is and stick a pin in. I then count in blocks of 10 and stick pins in at every 10th hole till I get to where I need to be. Like Lizzie I've got the glass headed pins with heads of different colours, so they're easy to see.

[Lulu22]

I always work bottom to top starting in the left hand corner I use a calculator to work out how big a piece of fabric I need, if I was using 18 count for example and I bought a design that had 200 stitches width and 300 stitches length you divide 200 by 18 that will give you the width in inches and do the same for length I generally add at least 3 inches on for the edge. Good luck!

[rcperryls]

For a full coverage piece, I simply measure my fabric and work out how much edge clearance I have on the design. I then measure in from the top and side edge and start stitching in the top left. Never had a problem yet on running out of fabric.

For non-full coverage or things like Mabel's SAL which I'm doing on an afghan and I need to count from the centre, I work out where the centre is and stick a pin in. I then count in blocks of 10 and stick pins in at every 10th hole till I get to where I need to be. Like Lizzie I've got the glass headed pins with heads of different colours, so they're easy to see.

I do the same thing for full coverage pieces. For the non-full coverage pieces,though I use thread instead of pins or start stitching from the middle (like I was first taught) and end up working my way up towards the left hand corner even though it isn't intentional, it's habit.

Carole