Thea Gouverneur St. Petersburg

By very carefully counting your starting point. It's not something you want to re-do when you get half-done and find yourself falling off the edge of the fabric.

Yes, scrolls come that long. I have a pair of 36s and a pair of 48s in the corner.

You can also get side pieces up to 18". You may want to invest in two of the cheap floor stands, so you can support your behemoth at both ends to make it less wobbly.Other than that, you do one stitch at a time, just like every other stitching project.

Katherine H wrote:

First, I would recommend stitching the piece OVER ONE if there aren't any partial stitches. I've never seen the chart so I have no idea if this is a viable option. You'd end up with a design only about

15" x 9" and a piece of even weave for that would be much easier to deal with. If that's not an option, then I would like to add to to Karen's suggestions by saying you can stitch the full size .piece SIDEWAYS! I know this goes against the grain but I have done it on several model stitching pieces that were very long and narrow. The only real problem is that you have to stitch the crosses lower right to upper left for the first leg and then lower left to upper right for the top leg which is "backwards" from what most of us stitch. If you do it this way, you also have to work from right to left!! Of course, you can always just do the crosses the ordinary way and when the piece is finished, you won't really be able to tell the difference. ***IF*** you stitch the piece "sideways" you could get 30" scroll rods which are available OR get 28" scroll rods and cut a bit off of the top and bottom -- the long sides -- of the fabric. From the looks of it, the piece of fabric provided gives you a whoppingly generous FIVE INCHES of extra fabric top and bottom. I'm sure having just 4" top and bottom would be quite adequate!!! Working with Q-Snaps or hoops won't leave any marks if you remove them after you are finished with each session of stitching. I know it can be a total P.I.T.A. and I wouldn't want to leave them on linen even weave so you would have to be careful. Then again, you could always stitch the piece "in hand" which is NOT something I would look forward too. If you don't already have a bit of carpal tunnel, you'd likely end up with it once you got this project finished!!!! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

You honestly don't notice. I have no natural cross. Which means either way feels correct to me. I usually follow the directions if there is any when I start, then once some crosses are in place, it's easy enough to follow with the rest. I have pieces crossed both ways; complete piece crossed one way. I will cross additional pieces the same way if they are part of a set (personal preference).

Lovely choice, BTW, I can see why you chose it.

a wide design, it's very vertical. You would have no problemstitching it sideways, as TM suggested. Tara

Yes you can stitch the piece sideways, but you don't have to modify your stitching technique. As long as all stitches are crossed in the same manner, it doesn't matter which leg is done first or in which direction. Go straight to Tia Mary's closing sentence of the paragraph unless you are planning to enter the piece in competition and know the judge is persnickety about stitch direction. Life is much easier that way!

You could always make your own scroll rods. I made some 34" ones a couple of weeks ago from 2 5/8" dowels and 4 hanger bolts. I just predrilled the holes and screwed in the bolts. Total cost was under $5.

Well, that's assuming you're not anal like MOI -- LOL! I have only done one piece for myself that had to be stitched sideways. The others were model stitching and the crosses HAD to be the standard lower left/upper right for the bottom and then lower right/upper left for the top leg. I'm here to tell you it took me about an hour of non-stop stitching before I got into the groove and didn't have to keep checking my work -- LOLOL! I'm not sure but I *think* I did the one for myself the regular way so that the stitches were "backwards" when placed in the top up position. But like you said, if the piece isn't going to be judged, it doesn't really matter. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Katherine, I did mine on 32-count Lugana and used QSnaps without trouble. There was plenty of floss in virtually every color, although 1 or two had no leftovers to speak of (I think only one had none at all), and I never touched my DMC stash. I did opt to change the gold "metallic" to Rainbow Gallery's Petite Treasure Braid PB03. It's a bit over 31" wide, but of course much larger than that framed, since we left quite a bit of "air space" between the stitching and the first mat. You can see mine in my PictureTrail Gallery, in the album named "Cross Stitch 1." Darla, who took a first in the category at the Orange County (California) Fair this year with St Pete

Can't be done. There are no fractionals in the cross stitching, but there are back/long stitches that go on the "halfway" point. Trust me.

Darla

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I haven't figured out yet what I'm going to do. I do have a lap frame and maybe if I can get bars (or make them) wide enough I'll do that. I am thinking of making it smaller though using a higher count fabric, but not sure I want to have to stitch it with magnification.

It's a beautiful piece so I'm looking forward to starting it.

Katherine H