Where do you start to stitch?

[Lijnloos]

Since the epic pokemon I mostly start out bottom-right. But I do have a few projects where I started in the middle... I don't really care where I start to be honest

[monkeypeaches]

Since I cut my fabric to size so that I can hand paint it first, I always need to find the middle so the my pattern is centered properly. However, once I find the middle square, I count until I find a point in the top left corner of a particular color and start stitching to the right from there. For example, if the center point was right in the middle of a character's face, I would count away from there and start from the top left corner of the face instead. Long story short, finding the middle can be extremely helpful when you've only got so much fabric to work with, but it's all personal preference after that!

[MeiTow]

I've always started in the middle of projects unless they warranted starting from another spot (like a bookmark or some such). I usually go from the center square out to the right and either down or up depending on which way has more of the color I'm working with. I'm always worried when I do kits that I'll run out of their pre-packaged floss when I end up wasting some. LOL! Floss, in general, is pretty cheap so I'm not *as* concerned when it's bought floss. I also tend to hop around on colors because I get bored of doing just one color till it's done (specially a big color). What I usually do is measure out some from the skein and stitch up all 6 pieces wherever they are needed in the area I'm working in and then switch colors to something else around the same area.

[Kareesh]

I usually start in the middle, or somewhere close to it, and if it's multiple pages, I'll try to do a page at a time, although I'm breaking that mold with my charity quilt chart, since I didn't have all the colors to start with. I'm always worried that I'll miscount and have to rip out a ton of stitches.

[Knittenkitten]

For me, it always depends on whether or not I'm doing a kit or a pattern that I had made. If I'm doing a kit then I'll start from the middle point and work my way out in one direction before going into a different direction. If it's a pattern that I made I'll start with the very first pafe in the top left corner. Lately I've been highlighting the stitches that I've done so that I don't get messed up and have to tear everything out like I've done with the Big Buck three times already.

[DuckyBelkins]

For big projects I start in the middle and for small projects I start in the top left corner. I like doing as much color as possible but often I'll just do whatever color needs to be done next regardless of size.

[Ensign Eddie]

I use separate strands of Easy-Count Guideline starting from the center in order to find the horizontal and vertical extents of the pattern. Then, using these extents, I use more Guideline to mark around the border. This centers the pattern on the cloth. From there, I will grid up an area I want to work using the markers on the border around the pattern (but I rarely grid the whole pattern at at once). I usually start in the upper left, but this scheme lets me find any area to work relatively easily.

One other note, I bought a pack of Easy-Count Guideline off of Amazon and it works really well (although I don't exactly use it they way their instructions state to use it). However, I'm pretty sure you could get the same result using very lightweight nylon fishing line.