From: jill@super.org (Amelia J. Scott-Piner)
Subject: Re: Making an x-stitch pattern
Organization: Supercomputing Research Center (Bowie, MD)
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 17:00:23 GMT

>The biggest problem is the letters kind of slant
to the right.  When i was using regular 14 ct. cloth it was too far apart
to get a nice crisp slant, so I switched to the 22 ct. and that's better. 
Except it's so hard to count.  Does anyone have ideas for a simpler method?

Thanks,
Ann Bailey
ab5y@virginia.edu

Hi Ann!
       I'm not very good at drawing on the e-mail files, but I'll
give it a try.  It sounds like you are relying on whole X X X
stitches to form your name.  That way is going to look blocky
and smooth flowing lines are going to be impossible.  To get a 
nice slant on the lines, the best thing to do is to use a 
combination of half-stitches and backstitching.  
        I'll try to show you an example


                /\/\/\/
               /\/\/\/
              /\/\/\/
             /\/\/\/  this uses half-stitches

                                \/\/\/\/
                                /\/\/\/\
                              \/\/\/\/
                              /\/\/\/\
                                        this one doesn't

Outlining in backstitching also brings out a clean edge.  I've found that
even solid areas of black x-stitches need backstitching to keep them from
looking like they have fuzzy edges.  Letters can be done solely in a
backstitch also.  Do you know what I mean by backstitching?  On most counts
of cloth, two strands of floss are used to stitch the whole, 1/2, and 1/4
stitches.  Backstitch is used to outline a stitched area.  It's done with 
less floss than the original stitched area, mostly, in this case 1 strand.
It's also usually done in a darker color to emphasize the outline slightly.

Boy, it's hard to explain this without demonstrating on a piece of stitchery.
You can use backstitch to create letters and figures, or to add little 
flourishes onto a cross-stitched letter (Loops and curls, etc.).

        - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
         | | | | | |/|\|/|\| | | | 
        - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
         | | | | | |\| | |/| | | |
        - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
         | | | | | | |\|/| | | | |    Can you see the backstitched heart in
        - - - - - - - - - - - - - -   this piece?  Each square here is 
                                      equivalent to a square on the cloth.  

Many graphs have rudimentary directions on the basic cross-stitch, half-stitches
(some people call what I am calling a half-stitch a 3/4 stitch because it covers
3 out of 4 legs of the X.), and 1/4 stitches, as well as backstitching.  

                / / /                                \  \  \ 
               /\/\/\  1/2 stitches (3/4 stitches)   /\ /\ /\ 

                     \ \ \
                \ \ \        1/4 stitches

                \/ \/ \/  
                /\ /\ /\  full cross-stitch.

Look at your graph paper and think of the squares on it as squares on the fabric.
Each corner of the square is a point where the needle can enter the fabric.  The 
trick is not to limit yourself to block designs based just on full x-stitches.
Graph it out on the paper before grabbing your needle or marking on the fabric.
From experience I can tell you that it's cheaper in the long run :).  Hope this 
helps....
         jill@super.org
         Jill Scott-Piner