Does gridding really pay off in the end?

[wwdiva]

Decided to grid my next WIP as I read so many of you do so and it is supposed to save time but boy, does it take forever. I've been gridding all afternoon and still nowhere near done. All I keep thinking is how much stitching I could have got done on a rare day off work.
I will persevere.
Cheers

[JazzeyBear]

I personally think gridding does pay off in the end. It's easier to see where your suppose to be at which happens to lessen the visits from Mr. I also agree that it takes forever to grid an entire work, so I now only grid page by page, and also only columns if I'm parking.

[LadyS]

Short answer? Yes. Long answer? Heck yeah!

[geekishly]

It does. I don't fuss with it on projects that I can finish in a week or two of stitching, but the big projects are totally worth the time it takes. It saves me so much time in reading/counting a pattern. If I have an entire 10x10 block of color, all I have to do is fill in the gridded block, no counting needed!

[venus]

I see less of the frogs with gridding.

[pattiebelle]

It depends on the project, but if I do choose to grid it, it is worth it...

I use the disappearing ink pen, so I only grid what I'm doing that session. That way I feel I've not spent too much time gridding, instead of stitching ...

Enjoy!!!

[Rose]

As you have said, look at all the time you are spending on gridding and not stitching. I can't see me ever gridding as I am more interested in seeing progress on my picture not wasting my time on gridding.

I understand that there are those that are more relaxed with the grid lines and find it great help but for me I can't see the waste of my stitching time.

You are the only one that can decide if it is worth the effort. If it works in the end then it was worth it.

[Mystonique]

Well I've seen a lady who didn't grid make a mistake ...

And I've seen ladies who did grid make a mistake.

The former spent 3 days trying to find and frog the mistake which turned out to be in a bit they stitched 2 weeks ago but threw everything since then out. It took 3 weeks to fix.

The latter made the mistake in the last 10 stitches and it was immediately obvious because the stitching didn't match the grid.

SO if I'm stitching anything over a page worth of pattern I grid. And I've regretted not gridding for smaller stuff when I've had to frog a bunch because of a little mistake way back that would have been immediately obvious if I had of gridded 8{

[rcperryls]

Well I've seen a lady who didn't grid make a mistake ...

And I've seen ladies who did grid make a mistake.

The former spent 3 days trying to find and frog the mistake which turned out to be in a bit they stitched 2 weeks ago but threw everything since then out. It took 3 weeks to fix.

The latter made the mistake in the last 10 stitches and it was immediately obvious because the stitching didn't match the grid.

SO if I'm stitching anything over a page worth of pattern I grid. And I've regretted not gridding for smaller stuff when I've had to frog a bunch because of a little mistake way back that would have been immediately obvious if I had of gridded 8{

That says it all. I grid about a page and 1 or 2 extra columns and 1 or 2 extra rows so it doesn't take that long to do the gridding. Wouldn't stitch anything but a really small design without it now.l

Carole

[Mrs Milkybar Kid]

I only ever grid for my HAEDs which are the only full coverage full cross designs I do and it is sooooooo worth it! I grid with thread and for my QSs I usually grid the whole design, the three I've completed I did vertical and horizontal gridlines on 18ct. Now I'm stitching Minis and BAPs on 28ct I just grid in the horizontal lines and I grid a row of pages at a time rather than the whole design. Even if I stitched a page a month - the afternoon it might take me to grid pales into insignificance compared to the over 6 months it might take me to cover that with stitches! As others have said it is a lot easier to find any mistakes with a grid - and you can continually check at a glance that you are stitching on track!

[Reta]

Iwould sooner spend a hour Gridding than

[LadyS]

Well I've seen a lady who didn't grid make a mistake ...

And I've seen ladies who did grid make a mistake.

The former spent 3 days trying to find and frog the mistake which turned out to be in a bit they stitched 2 weeks ago but threw everything since then out. It took 3 weeks to fix.

The latter made the mistake in the last 10 stitches and it was immediately obvious because the stitching didn't match the grid.

SO if I'm stitching anything over a page worth of pattern I grid. And I've regretted not gridding for smaller stuff when I've had to frog a bunch because of a little mistake way back that would have been immediately obvious if I had of gridded 8{

^This!

Plus, by gridding only the page (with a couple extra rows) I am working on I actually save time, 'cus the time I'd have spent counting would be longer than the time spent gridding.

[Heidi]

Gridding takes a long time, but I found that I make fewer mistakes.

I brough some of the Magic Grid fabric for my next large project to try to save some time. I will just see how it goes.

[BizzieLizzie]

For me: no.

I hate gridding. I don't have the patience for it and I get annoyed when the gridding thread gets in my way as I stitch close to it. I've tried several times to get the hang of it but gridding and I will never be friends.

The only gridding I do (reluctantly!) is across the whole width of the top of the pattern and down the left hand side. I park in 10 stitch wide columns, so gridding across the top and down the left side helps me to ensure I get the very left-hand column correct and the tops of the subsequent columns. After that, I use the existing stitches to guide me. Because I'm only doing 10-stitch rows I soon notice any mistakes and can immediately correct them. It's very rare that I have to frog, and even then it's only a tiny bit. But to be honest, I've only recently started gridding along the top and down the side - I never even used to do that and never had any problems. I only tried it to see what all the fuss was about!

[Serinde]

I grid HAED for all the reasons stated by everyone else.

I grid a vertical centre line -- and sometimes a horizontal one -- on complicated or big hardanger pieces. If kloster blocks don't line up, you're totally sunk. I also had vertical, horizontal centre lines PLUS outside edges when I did my first piece of drawn thread work. Would have been totally lost without it.

[Lessa54]

I don't grid at all, even on BAPs. Yes I have been visited by Mr but I've never had the experience of it taking me 3 days to find the mistake. On a BAP I start from the first 10x10 square at the top left of the first page and I work out from there. Everything is stitched by reference to the stitches already done, so if I do make a mistake, it's generally immediately spottable when I come to the next colour which then doesn't fit in the space it's supposed to and it takes me very little time to frog and re-do. It also means that I'm rarely ever counting more than 5 squares max from what I've already done. Also, for colours that aren't in neat 10x10 blocks or taking a whole page of stitching, I have to refer back to my pattern constantly to make sure I know how many stitches should be in any row and I can't see how gridding would make that really any much quicker.

I think if I ever was tempted to grid, I would only do it with a fabric pen for the page I was working on. I wouldn't want any other form of thread to get tangled in my work and I wouldn't want to spend the time that I could be stitching doing the gridding instead.

Really, do whatever you're comfortable with. You'll find stitchers like me, Rose and Lizzie who don't really grid at all and others who swear by gridding. The main thing is that you enjoy the stitching, however you do it.

[crafterglen]

Heidi you are gonna love your Magic Guide, I swear by it and yes gridding is best especially if it is done for you. Parking once you get it is the best way to go, don't worry about which thread is which if it is parked in the right hole it is the right thread

[Heidi]

Thanks. Now I feel a bit more confidant that I didn't get the wrong thing.

[wwdiva]

Checking in to say "thanks" for your input.
I didn't get the gridding finished yesterday. I put it down in favour of some stitching.
The reason I am trying gridding on this piece is not due to a complicated pattern, in fact, it is probably one of the easiest I have done in my stitchy life with only 3 colours but it is done on 30 count black. My middle age eyes are causing troubles more and more as I am a traveller,doing large sections of one colour at a time. I think it should help.
I am using the easy grid product for my first try so that I don't complicate things by splitting grid line when I stitch.
I'll hopefully wrap up the gridding this weekend and so i can get another WIP into the rotation.
Cheers

[crosstitcher1]

I'm not a gridder. Never have. Never will, as I take 2 weeks to prep my next years projects, the 2nd week in Dec., after framing and giving or sending off the latest projects, and that is to speed my stitching on the projects I have set for the next year.
I work in a circular motion, like a star burst, a ripple of water, or a coil, always working from center to the right, from center top to right, center to left and left to right at bottom, and working to the edge of the hoop to fill the 1st hoop, then changing and repeating process for 2nd and 3rd hoop, always starting from center to the direction needed in next hoop, till design is done.

HAPPY STITCHING IN STITCHING LAND.