Three-quarter stitches -- long or short bit on top?

Mabel Figworthy · Post by **Mabel Figworthy** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 1:53 pm

Like the half cross stitch question, I suppose this is as much a matter of taste as anything, but in what order do you stitch three-quarter stitches?

I tend to do the quarter stitch first, then the half cross stitch on top of that, but I have seen it done the other way around, with the quarter stitch as it were 'anchoring' the half cross stitch.

The former I think looks smoother (I used it in the peacock in my gallery, where the three-quarte stitches were in effect part of the backstitch outline), but the second is a bit less bulky, and you can in that way get two 3/4 stitches in one cross, which you can't really with the other method.

Which do you prefer and why? And is there a generally recommended method?

lacemaker2004 · Post by **lacemaker2004** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:06 pm

I tend to keep the over one going the same direction as all other stitches if the blank is on the upper right hand side the long leg would be on top. If the blank is on the upper left hand side then the short leg would anchor the long one.

Mabel Figworthy · Post by **Mabel Figworthy** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 3:06 pm

That's a good idea, lacemaker -- that must makes it look very neat and tidy. Thanks!

lacemaker2004 · Post by **lacemaker2004** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 3:40 pm

You do have to be careful to not pull the short anchoring leg too tight or it dimples the long leg.

Rose · Post by **Rose** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 4:45 pm

Again this is such a personal thing I don't think we can say right or wrong.

I personally have always used the short (1/4) stitch to anchor the longer (1/2). I have seen it demonstrated that way and I think it looks best but that is only my opinion.

We are artist we can do it however we like. I have found the following to be true.

There is only 1 Rule in stitching
Needle and thread go through the fabric. Anything else is not important.

~threadbear~ · Post by **~threadbear~** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:19 pm

i love that philosophy Rose, it sounds good to me!

I always tend to do it this way, 1/4 stitch anchors the 1/2 stitch, so the little stitch on top.

tragedyackt · Post by **tragedyackt** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:19 am

I've done it all three ways... When I first started cross stitching, I did the short stitch over the long every time. After a bit, I decided it looked messy, especially when there were a lot of them in a small area. And so, I switched, long stitch over short. This looked neater in large quantities. But, in complicated designs like where 3/4 stitches are on the border between colors, if that makes the stitch "backward" it doesn't look right.

So, I think the best move is to just make all the stitches go the same way, and do them however that suggests. It just ends up neater. I wish I had a good enough camera to take a picture of the differences, because of done the same design all three different ways (as an experiment) and the effect is actually surprisingly different in the different methods.

Also, it is possible to do 2 3/4 stitches either way but rarely necessary. If a design calls for such a thing, usually one 3/4 and one 1/4 looks better....

Mabel Figworthy · Post by **Mabel Figworthy** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:54 am

tragedyackt wrote:I wish I had a good enough camera to take a picture of the differences, because of done the same design all three different ways (as an experiment) and the effect is actually surprisingly different in the different methods.

That sounds really interesting -- perhaps you could borrow a camera from someone? It would certainly be a great help to see what the different effects are. (And I'm glad to hear other people occasionally stitch multiple versions of something just as an experiemtn

)