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hi does everyone have the same problem as me?? the back of my cross stitch looks real scruffy and untidy!!! any tips would be great to make it look tidier.

I try to work along a row of a block of colour and not 'skip' over too many aida blocks. This leaves you with a row on the back looking a bit like l l l l l l l l this then alows you to run your end of thread through it to finish off. When starting I leave a small tail on the back and catch it underneath this row on the back as I go. I tend to work my stitches from top right to bottom left (working from right to left in a row) and on the way back my top stitches lie from top left to bottom right! If that helps Single stitches are more of a problem and tend to contribute to the mess on the back off a piece, as you have to weave your thread into the back of stitches to start off and finish off. This gives a lot of thread at the back for just one stitch - but hey ho these are the joys! Hope this is of some use to you.

I try to keep the backs of my projects looking tidy- but by the end they are a mess. Especially when there are lots of color changes in small areas. I don't worry much about it, nobody will ever see the backs once I frame them and get them on the wall.

I tend to stitch like the poster above me. On the front side, the under stitch all run ////// then cross with \\\\\\ so on the back it generally looks ||||| When I am done with a color I run my needle under the last 3 or 4 to anchor my threads. So the back ends up looking like ++++ (Of course, it only looks like that when stitching a long straight line and how often do you get that?!)

I do try and cut the tails of my threads close to the anchor stitches- just make sure you don't cut your stitch.

I always try to remember my grandmothers teaching from oh so long ago, do not carry your thread for any distance ( half an inch I think it was). This was in the days of embroidery which i have interpreted to be don't go over more than 3 squares on 16 cnt 2 on 14 cnt before hooking your thread under a previous stitch.

I tend to do most of my stitches as a full cross each time. I agree that when you are working on a piece with a lot of 1 or 2 stitches in different colours it is hard to keep it as neat as you would like, but hey ho thats the joys of stitching.

Squirrel

The back of mine usually look really neat with a lot of l l l ....but on Wrath the back looks horrific in some spots because I had 45 color changes..I am not really sure how I could get it to look much better since there was just so many different threads I was using in a small area!

I have said before as long as the back is not bunched up so that framing would be difficult I don't worry about how it looks. The back is not the focus of the stitching. I try as best as I can to make it nice but it is what it is. I don't run thread more then a few stitches when jumping areas but that some times can make a mess starting and stopping so much. The back is not meant to be as nice as the front so I don't worry over it.