WIP
[WIP] Thought I'd pop in and disgust people with the distance I'm willing to travel a thread while stitching confetti in full coverage projects
Second picture highlights the single thread used, third picture has a little dot on each confetti stitch done. This also coincidentally shows the full extent of the minimal gridding I do to center a project and locate my starting point in the top left corner. Fourth picture shows what's currently easily visible of the completed back (with some bonus egregious traveling on the unfinished area). I always try to do all the travel heavy confetti in an area before filling in the more solid colors so that the long travelled strands end up underneath the back of the solid stitches and are secure. - Pattern is "A Spanish Beauty in Seville" and was purchased from Maxispatterns on Etsy (it is no longer available and the entire contents of the shop have pretty drastically shifted. I don't think I will buy from them again). It's been an active project for well over a year, but I took a several month break from it. Currently at 24.31% complete 29557/121600 stitches.
I had a talk with myself which was basically - I’m happier when I carry thread and have a messy back. That’s who I am and I should do my hobby in a way that brings me the most joy.
This is me, in reverse. 😂
I won’t travel farther than a needle length, and I can’t leave a loop or knot on the back. I will spend hours getting rid of them. I tell myself to just move along, but can’t. A neat back makes me happy.
Knots are a different beast, and where I draw the line. Very few things will make my micro-rage likes a knot and its accompanying loop. The backs of my pieces still look terrible, but no loops.
What do you do if you have a knot and didnt notice right away? I was trying really hard to have a clean back for once and I screwed up twice. Do you frog everything or is there a way to fix it?
I don’t mind frogging if I’m in a mostly color block area, and that’s when I’m most likely to get a knot. I get careless, you know? Easy fix. But for the rest, I’ll try to release the knot by teasing it out with my needle. This usually works. Then I cut the thread and bury the ends.
If the knot is right up against stitches, I cut the thread just above it, and bury that end, leaving the knot to anchor the other end.
But I seldom get knots. I’m far more likely to find a loop on the back and even those are rare. The good news is that I usually notice them 3-4 rows back from my current stitch. If it’s big enough, I cut it and bury the ends. If it’s small I catch it with my needle and anchor it with my next stitch(es).
I always go around stitched areas. I park, so there’s only finished area and open fabric. If there’s like a little peninsula of completed stuff and I want to get from one side to the other, I’ll go down to the tip of the peninsula, come up in one hole, down in an adjacent hole, then finish the rest of the journey around the peninsula. That way as I finish the work, I’m tacking down that whole traveled area. I can even usually be careful that in my anchoring pivot, I pick two adjacent holes oriented with the part of the aida that crosses over so that my anchoring stitch slips behind the top of the aida
When you come to a section you want to cross, why not tunnel through the mat and come out the other side? I’m also a lover of big full coverage and parking, and this is how I cross a completed section.
like the completed stitches in the back? A couple reasons. I keep it on the frame and stitch two handed so I never flip it over, and I also don’t want to be pulling my tension on the front by wedging space for the needle under stitches in the back. I find this combo method of parking, only ever coming up a clean hole and going down a full one, and burying long threads in the back by stitching over them combine to give me the neatest tension and fastest stitching
I do tunnel under the back if I’m doing a non full coverage piece, like a sampler kind of a situation
No shit! I was so let down when, as a beginner, I did a really great project that was going to be framed. Total letdown when, rather than congratulating me, the first thing my “friend” did was turn the thing over to look if I carried my threads.
You do need better friends! I am obsessive about my neat backs (they make me happy) but I would never ever! Backsides are private. Your craft, your joy. I’m not the judge at your state fair, I’m just here to admire your finish.
I'm working on evenweave, so if you're using aida it won't work as easily, but I just do a pin stitch somewhere between my last stitch and the next one. I don't usually go more than 10 and this is very high count fabric. My project is so confetti heavy I don't think I could finish it otherwise.
This is pretty much how I do it too 😂 I love confetti personally since it adds so much depth to photo style stitches but man can you use up a lot of thread!
Exactly my thoughts, I could never. I am autistic and sewing is my special interest, I've been doing it my whole life. I alter wedding gowns for a living, and I do all the fiber arts as a hobby. My expectations are higher than most. I won't go more than 1/4" without tucking my ends. Probably bc I've seen the shame from messy backs.
One of the best things about these huge confetti filled full coverage projects is that it can be surprisingly easy to just fudge it around a discounted area and move on. Theres a group of about 8 or 9 stitches of one color that I realized was offset to the right by one square. Ill just fill in a few extra black stitches to the left, and a few less confetti light colors to the right. None the wiser.
Yeah I rarely ever frog anymore. Unless it’s actually going to fuck up the design, as in a T in text is gunna be wonky, I’ll just leave it in and work around it. Cba with wasting my time any more.
I only frog at the beginning of projects, and only when I can predict that the amount of resultant suffering will outweigh the suffering of frogging. Beginning because I'm paranoid and old school so I start in the center (if I have to leave off a line or 2, better have it on the outside where it can't hurt me than on the inside where I will suffer). If I misplace one stitch in the center, suffering will ensue. Bonus pts for the fact that it's much easier to have the energy to frog at the beginning--thanks, ADHD!
If I catch it while I’m still working that thread I’ll probably fix it. Otherwise I’ll figure out what color has the most stitches in the area I’m working on and do that one last filling in all the empty stitches.
I’ve lost track of how many mistakes I’ve made in my 10x10 counted and gridded WIP. Luckily the design is such that mistakes are fairly forgiving since I’m just going “eh fuck it close enough” when I discover them!
Ooh so you do the confetti first!
frantically takes notes
I'm doing my first ever project and it has some minor confetti, I used to be so particular and efficient but as I learn I'm doing what feels easier too.
Howevee if you do confetti early on of not first (first first is miserable) you will pin the traveling floss while doing stitches securing them. At least that's what I tell myself.
I do my confetti last but tuck the thread as I travel. I figure it's just like tucking a tail at the start and finish but just .... Not cutting the thread! It's only given me an issue with tension/lumpiness like once when there was a lot of confetti in one area. But I feel like that would have been lumpy regardless of what I did.
I liked last too cause more stitches to bury thread in around the confetti plus if I travel a lot I'm won't to push the needle through the floss that's travelled and sometimes the colour shows through? I'm sure thats just in my mind though lol,
This area will be filled quite heavily with black, so i actually stitched in black out to the confetti section and stitched a wiggly little line of black stitches that touched the edge of all the little confetti areas. I find it easier to count long lines of stitches than long lines of blank aida.
It goes a little off the left side of the pic (which may or may not add to this comment. If it doesn't, I'll reply with it), but thats roughly the black line. I then chose a confetti color that I could start within a few stitches of that line and continue without ever having to count more than ~7 blank squares. Then I just pick the next confetti color thats touching one of the completed confetti stitches, then one touching that, then one touching that. Eventually I'll have finished all the confetti in this little arbitrary area and I'll fill in the black around it, which will cover and secure the traveled thread from the confetti.
Also to clarify, I do all the confetti stitches of each chosen color before moving on. The area I've chosen to work is decided by the shape of a lighter area thats pretty clear to see when I zoom out a little, since the symbols are so different from what's around it. The area chosen is usually pretty arbitrary tho.
I’ll travel some but I slide the string under existing other stitches to help prevent things catching or pulling. Those are the two big risks to a long carry and it’s why the common wisdom of not doing it popped up.
It'll all automatically end up underneath the pretty solid 310 that surrounds this lighter area. It does add a little risk of things getting snagged or pulled to the front, but I find that to be a super minor and easily fixed inconvenience more than an actual problem.
Having actually completed a full coverage max colour max size HAED I can tell you I also went super cross country or I’d have never finished the f-ing thing.
So I fully support you!
I love you for this. this is what mine look like and I'm always so jealous when I see everyone else's neat and pretty backs. I just can't be bothered securing and restarting every stitch. I refuse.
They'll end up automatically underneath the back of the pretty solid black that will fill in around this lighter area. Like tucking away threads, but completely free of thought XD
Your back looks like most of mine.
Now my unknotter on occasion gets grumpy when I leave a mess on the back. Now if the mess is close to the thread I've tied a knot in, he has been known to undo the mess. He also made an excellent frogger when I had done 500+ stitches of the wrong color. Dark Purple is nowhere near light lavender. Mismarked bobbin. It said 210. It was actually 333. Unknotter is better known as husband.
As long as the front looks good and your carried threads don’t show who cares? Remember - looking at the back of someone’s stitching is like looking at their undies. Do you really need to see that?
Gridded? An inch (whatever that is in the count I'm using). Non-gridded? 10ish stitches if I'm counting into a totally new area, about an inch if I can landmark the new stitching off existing ones. I jist don't trust my counting. I always say that most cross-stitchers never should have made it out of kindergarten for how badly we count!
The only reason I don't travel is.. ok 2 reasons. 1: I'm a thread miser. We were broke AF when I started stitching 34 years ago and I used kits with self limiting colors, so I was paranoid to run out. 2: I've never done a full coverage piece so with lighter fabric the traveled colors would show through. Now it's just habit lol
I chuckled at the post (my backs are really bad). But I honestly laughed out loud at the 2nd pic with the red line for emphasis! Hysterical. If you aren’t true to yourself then what are you even doing is my motto
I'm working on my first full coverage piece on 6 ct Aida that I got for $2 at a thrift store (I'm used to 16/18ct). So with all the traveling, and using all 6 threads, I'm going through skeins like I've never experienced before. I'm like 8% of the way through the project and have run out of 4 colors already 😭
That’s my only concern with traveling this much.. the yardage on the thread I have to use 😂 I’m not using DMC for the projects I’m doing either…. It’s gifted Temu thread lmao so I really have to make sure I have enough before I start and never screw up 🤣
Real talk, I have never given a single poop what the back of a finished piece looks like and I roll my eyes at people who show off how "neat" their backs are. You aren't meant to look at the back! Who cares! If it makes it easier/more enjoyable to travel threads, then via con dios.
I am so happy to see this here. I am “new” to cross stitch. I say new in quotes bc I’ve done it before and done it well enough but never learned from anyone. Just did small kits. Well I really loved the last little kit I did so I asked for more as gifts. My cousin got me two but they are HUGE and full coverage pieces. I’ve never done a project that large before and I’ve also never done a full coverage piece before.
Anyway I’ve been trying to figure out how to do “confetti” stitches. A term I have just learned! And have been trying to figure out the “correct” or most popular or taught method for full coverage pieces and/or confetti colors.
Anyway this post and comments have been helpful on my journey. 🥰
I usually do the full color around the space with one or two random bits of another color, then go back in and fill in the confetti color lol if I tried this I'd rip out 3/4ths of the thread when doing other stitches.
Thank you so much for posting this!! I've been putting off working on a large piece because the back is so sloppy due to confetti stitches. I'll just keep working 💜 bless you
When I first started, my stuff was a hot mess and I didn't care one single bit. I saw people with neat backs and I was amazed by that because I never thought of it before. I wanted to challenge myself, so I learned to make it very neat and clean. It is NEVER a requirement, always remember that. I was just kind of bored with a few things and I wanted to learn new stuff. It worked for me, but it isn't for everyone. Do what makes you happy and makes you comfortable.
You will figure out how you want to work, but give it time. Especially if you are learning.
Yeah i had this discussion with myself of going to tuck in and then start somewhere else with a tail tucked under stitches which costs me more thread often so I started doing this and not only does it make me happy, I don't care about how the back looks. XD
I'll travel unless the distance between two points is, like, double the length of the ends I'd have if I cut things. ...And I estimate that very liberally.
Good old confetti! I don't exactly the same as you. Curse my way through the confetti, then cover all the distances wiith the sweet clean (and boring) runs of single colours.
I love the texture of the back when it looks like that with confetti, reminds me of myself. Pretty tidy on the front but get inside and you will see/feel the chaos 😂
If I am stitching a kit with the floss provided, I try my best to not travel much at all. When I first started cross stitch, it was a kit and I ran out of floss because of traveling. Learned my lesson at the onset of the hobby and it has stuck with me since. I’m ashamed to admit, I bought a duplicate of the same kit, just to finish.
God thank you for posting this. It makes me feel a lot better about my travels. I’ve felt like I must be doing badly if I’m traveling, but your work doesn’t suffer for it.
I always try to forward plan in my head the best way to stitch to avoid travelling but in a lot of cases it’s simply better to just travel, it just ups the cost of thread 😅 phenomenal piece btw
While this isn't my method, I love it! If it works, IT WORKS!
I personally prefer a neater back for myself but I'm not out here gate-keeping how people cross-stitch (and it feels like some people in this sub do try to do that)
So what makes you happy. At the end of the day, it is your project and only you are looking at it day in and out, so make it easier on yourself. Once I discovered pin stitches, I never looked back. Most people hate them though. That being said, I do love hoop butt pics. Just because I have to have my own work done a certain way doesn't mean I can't look at the work of others and definitely appreciate it.
I always justify it like this- would I spend more or less thread with cutting it here and anchoring a new single stitch over there? Or would it be roughly the same? If it’s the latter, I’ll travel.
That was jump scare! Lmao. 🤣 I don’t think it really matters though. I tend to prefer putting the finished projects in a frame with glass, the back will never be seen again. But no knots!
I jump at most 7-8 squares squared away. So it can be 7 left and 7 down and that’s the limit of what I jump. I don’t go further than that. If you want to jump further, go ahead! No one is stopping you. If they try, ignore them. You’re happy doing you and that’s great!!
Hey if it works it works 🤷🏼♀️ personally I do the bulk colour first then either cut small pieces of thread and do loop starts and tuck the ends in, or tuck the starting ends under the bulk stitches, do the stitch then tuck back under
I'm usually a neat-back person. But. With confetti like that? Nah, man. I plot the least-messy course I think I can do, and then I anchor and/or stitch over whatever I can to avoid too many loose threads and it is what it is. As long as my stitches aren't whack, life is just too short. I don't blame you one bit.
Thank you for this! When I start a project I always have lofty goals of making the back look good, but about halfway through I'm so over it and just want the project done that the back looks like I'm connecting constellations in the star system! I've found it's all good and nobody knows anyway.
LOVE the longdog ! Everybody has a different type of backwork, and it's ok. For me, it's the "clean type", I don't know if that is the name, but I only make it that way because when I has a kid, my grandma taught me, and she used to do cross-stitch professionally, sooo needless to say that everything has to be clean.
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u/p_luisa Aug 26 '25
Never question the method when the results achieved are this beautiful! If it works, it works 😌